Hector Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique is billed as the star attraction in the Cleveland Orchestra’s program this week. But at last night’s performance, it was oboist Frank Rosenwein who stole the show with a wonderfully fluid, almost breezy rendition of Richard Strauss’s Oboe Concerto in D major.
The evening opened with just 12 musicians onstage for Paul Hindemith’s Kammermusik No. 1, a tasty sampling of the changes underway in post-World War I Europe, when classicism was giving way to the dissonance of the 20th century. Hindemith captured both the spirit and the sound of that era in this short, playful mix of scampering strings, floating woodwinds, and lively percussion.
After a sharp opening blast, Conductor Franz Welser-Möst modulated the piece nicely, balancing precision strings with cascading piano lines and knocks and jabs from the vibes and drums. Most impressive was the organic sound he created in a work that seems on the verge of flying off in different directions at any moment. At times, his approach was perhaps a bit too restrained. But overall it was an intelligent and tasteful treatment, with an ear attuned to the occasional flashes of humor, particularly the percussive flourish in the final bars.
This article appears in Sep 26 – Oct 2, 2012.