New York Classical Review

Familiar music is like comfort food: the predictability of it, knowing what it will sound like, is an essential part of its satisfactions. The problem with this is that a concert of familiar music is measured against meals that have come before, many from recordings that keep the pleasures preserved. So a program with only standard works has to be something special to stand out from the well-known performances of the past.

Wednesday night’s Carnegie Hall concert from the Cleveland Orchestra, conducted by music director Franz Welser-Möst, was familiar and it was special. The orchestra played two pieces, Stravinsky’s Pétrouchka, in its 1947 retouching, and after intermission Symphony No. 5 by Tchaikovsky. 

What made the evening special was the fabulous playing. There was very little out of the ordinary in terms of the approach—though Pétrouchka had one important idiosyncrasy—but the orchestra’s sound and musicianship made each work as fine as one has heard. And in terms of just hearing a large ensemble making music together, it made a bid for the finest example one has ever heard.

The tempo in Pétrouchka was unusually slow but it didn’t drag. That made for an unexpectedly relaxed feeling, but not a lazy nor sluggish one. Welser-Möst modeled this in his technique. His beat was simpler than one has ever seen in this piece, mellow and assured. Complex stretches that most conductors subdivide sharply he encapsulated with a single beat, his baton bouncing and holding in the air while the rhythm moved to the next downbeat.

Rather than tempo, this meant the performance was organized around pulse, the height of ensemble playing. There was no emphasis on the surface tension of speed and attack, rather an accumulation of atmosphere and color. With less force, there was actually more tension, like in the transition from the opening fair scene to Pétrouchka’s room.

Balances were perfect. One heard the baseline in the opening fanfare for what might have been the first time, and colors and blends in the winds and brass, and phrases that passed between and across these sections, were scintillating. The piano and harp rang through without ever feeling like concertante elements. The sure pulse gave the musicians room for a great range and depth of feeling and instrumental expression. The final bars were brilliant yet considered, with careful and precise placement of the few spare notes, a very quiet but impressive last moment.

The orchestra’s sound in the soft fanfare that begins Symphony No. 5 was extraordinarily beautiful and meaningful, with a sublime, dusky quality that sounded like velvet pouring off a shellac 78 and through a victrola horn. It was enthralling to hear this modern, virtuosic orchestra make a sound that carried the complex aesthetics of listening to the past.

This was a straightforward reading of the score, just done at an incredible level. Welser-Möst shaped each movement beautifully, with the climaxes—and especially each return of the opening fanfare—expanding so organically that one often found oneself soaring on an exalted moment and dazzled by how it snuck up. There was really no emphasis except for a fundamental sense of breathing and stretching, of smooth and inevitable movement. Playing this exceptional meant that the feelings in the music were as clear and weighty as one has heard, and since there was no exaggeration, they felt more sincere and more powerful

An irony of this was that it put the weakness of the final movement on full display. There are long stretches of note-spinning between meaningful moments, and without pushing pathos even the beauty of the orchestral sound couldn’t wring much out of what is often a rote structure. But for everything else, this was a tremendous evening.

Pianist Mitsuko Uchida and the Mahler Chamber Orchestra play Mozart and Janáček, 8 p.m., Saturday, March 29. carnegiehall.org