CUYAHOGA FALLS, Ohio – Variation was the name of the winning game for the Cleveland Orchestra Saturday night at Blossom Music Center.
Playing under a conductor who himself represented a kind of variation, the orchestra thrived in two works rooted in a separate original, leaving a deep impression on its last classical program of the summer.
The first switch-up was in personnel. At some point last week, associate conductor Vinay Parameswaran stepped in for Elim Chan, the originally scheduled guest, who was unable to travel.
There’s no telling what Chan, chief conductor of Belgium’s Antwerp Symphony, would have made of the evening. All one can say is that Parameswaran was no runner-up. To everything he touched he brought palpable insight and spark.
Elgar’s “Enigma” Variations were as rich in personality as can be. The theme received a lush reading and all 14 fresh takes under Parameswaran evinced both independence and a clear connection to the original that transcended the genius of Elgar.
The famous “Nimrod” variation worked its magic anew under Parameswaran, bringing a lump to the throat, but any number of other movements rivaled it in terms of lyricism, emotion, and tonal luster. Cello and clarinet principals Mark Kosower and Afendi Yusuf, respectively, supplied radiance in spades, and the strings seized every expressive opportunity, leaving no doubt about the majesty of this “Enigma.”
Beethoven’s “Coriolan” Overture enjoyed similar treatment. In Parameswaran’s hands, the night’s first offering was a brisk wake-up call, a vigorous attention grab with an uncommonly dark flip side.
The high point of variation, though, came in the middle of the program, in Caroline Shaw’s “Watermark,” a concerto-like work for piano and orchestra penned in 2019 for the pianist who performed it again Saturday, Jonathan Biss.
Shaw is renowned for her ability to make bracingly new music out of older sources. Witness her Pulitzer Prize-winning “Partita for 8 Voices,” which references a wide variety of singing through the ages and the work of visual artist Sol LeWitt.
In this case, Shaw’s springboard is Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 3. Fragments of the original appear like visions, almost humorously, only to fade away or peel off on some unpredictable, radically different tangent. What’s doubly amazing is that Shaw, in a single movement, manages to preserve the sense of a three-movement concerto and re-conjure many of the older work’s most dramatic moments. Simply put, it’s fascinating.
No one could have asked for more from Biss, either. As he would have been in pure Beethoven, the pianist Saturday was a model of articulation and nuanced, meaningful expression. He also shared the foreground, communicating readily with an orchestra on its toes and lending “Watermark” the intimacy of a chamber score, albeit a large and rather wild one.
Indeed, part of the point of “Watermark” was to showcase Biss and the nature of his artistry. On that front, and on many others, one can only admit it succeeded.
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August 30, 2021 at 10:59PM
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Variations prove the spice of a lively night for Cleveland Orchestra at Blossom - cleveland.com
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