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Critics abroad praise unity of director, musicians
By Elaine Guregian
Beacon Journal arts and culture writer
POSTED: 11:52 a.m. EDT, Aug 20, 2008
The Cleveland Orchestra makes a fabulous pit orchestra, according to European critics. Here are excerpts from their comments about the orchestra's playing for the Salzburg Festival's first production of Dvorak's opera Rusalka. In total, the orchestra will play five sold-out performances of the opera, in addition to giving three concerts at the festival as part of its current European tour.
• ''Under Franz Welser-Moest's meticulous and moving direction, the Cleveland Orchestra, playing in the same pit that the Vienna Philharmonic had occupied a week earlier for Don Giovanni, proved just how much better it could sound than its Austrian counterpart. Perhaps comparison is unfair. . . . Still, it made a pleasant change to hear musicians who cared so much about every note, and could create a sound so homogeneous and lovingly crafted. This was the Cleveland Orchestra's first opera production in 20 years. They should not wait two decades until the next.'' — Shirley Apthorp, Financial Times, Tuesday
• ''If this last opera premiere finally gave this year's season in Salzburg's Haus fuer Mozart a festival-worthy production, that is due to the wonderfully precise, transparent and excellent players of the Cleveland Orchestra under Franz Welser-Moest. From the very first note it unfolded into an electric, never-diminishing performance in its dramatic intensity. Wonderfully silky and supernatural sounded the homogeneous string playing, whilst the woodwinds were beautifully differentiated.'' — Julia Spinola, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Tuesday
• ''One has rarely experienced Welser-Moest in Austria so romantically and emotionally charged. The unity with the Cleveland Orchestra, which was already demonstrated in a concert performance in June, is perfect.'' — Gert Korentschnig, Kurier, Tuesday
• ''Here rules a luxurious blooming, brilliant, and above all refined structural color, in which the solo voices themselves in full tutti remain audible. And for the dramatic 'give and take' this top orchestra from the USA shows their increasing potential to such an extent that the performance could also have worked in the larger Festspielhaus. Yet Welser-Moest holds back on the fortissimo passages with strict control and allows for the delicate soft passages to grow so that, with absorbing dramatical flow, the lyrical elements take center place.'' — Marianne Zelger-Vogt, Neue Zuercher Zeitung, Tuesday
Review translations were provided by the Cleveland Orchestra.
Writing in the International Herald Tribune, George Loomis covered the orchestra's Music and the Brain conference, presented in Salzburg with the Cleveland Clinic and an international panel of doctors, along with the orchestra's performance of Rusalka. To read Loomis' article, visit http://www.iht.com/.
Videos of the orchestra are available at http://www.youtube.com/user/clevelandorchestra. For more information on the tour, visit http://www.clevelandorchestra.com.
Elaine Guregian can be reached at 330-996-3574 or eguregian@thebeaconjournal.com
The Cleveland Orchestra makes a fabulous pit orchestra, according to European critics. Here are excerpts from their comments about the orchestra's playing for the Salzburg Festival's first production of Dvorak's opera Rusalka. In total, the orchestra will play five sold-out performances of the opera, in addition to giving three concerts at the festival as part of its current European tour.
• ''Under Franz Welser-Moest's meticulous and moving direction, the Cleveland Orchestra, playing in the same pit that the Vienna Philharmonic had occupied a week earlier for Don Giovanni, proved just how much better it could sound than its Austrian counterpart. Perhaps comparison is unfair. . . . Still, it made a pleasant change to hear musicians who cared so much about every note, and could create a sound so homogeneous and lovingly crafted. This was the Cleveland Orchestra's first opera production in 20 years. They should not wait two decades until the next.'' — Shirley Apthorp, Financial Times, Tuesday
• ''If this last opera premiere finally gave this year's season in Salzburg's Haus fuer Mozart a festival-worthy production, that is due to the wonderfully precise, transparent and excellent players of the Cleveland Orchestra under Franz Welser-Moest. From the very first note it unfolded into an electric, never-diminishing performance in its dramatic intensity. Wonderfully silky and supernatural sounded the homogeneous string playing, whilst the woodwinds were beautifully differentiated.'' — Julia Spinola, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Tuesday
• ''One has rarely experienced Welser-Moest in Austria so romantically and emotionally charged. The unity with the Cleveland Orchestra, which was already demonstrated in a concert performance in June, is perfect.'' — Gert Korentschnig, Kurier, Tuesday
• ''Here rules a luxurious blooming, brilliant, and above all refined structural color, in which the solo voices themselves in full tutti remain audible. And for the dramatic 'give and take' this top orchestra from the USA shows their increasing potential to such an extent that the performance could also have worked in the larger Festspielhaus. Yet Welser-Moest holds back on the fortissimo passages with strict control and allows for the delicate soft passages to grow so that, with absorbing dramatical flow, the lyrical elements take center place.'' — Marianne Zelger-Vogt, Neue Zuercher Zeitung, Tuesday
Review translations were provided by the Cleveland Orchestra.
Writing in the International Herald Tribune, George Loomis covered the orchestra's Music and the Brain conference, presented in Salzburg with the Cleveland Clinic and an international panel of doctors, along with the orchestra's performance of Rusalka. To read Loomis' article, visit http://www.iht.com/.
Videos of the orchestra are available at http://www.youtube.com/user/clevelandorchestra. For more information on the tour, visit http://www.clevelandorchestra.com.
Elaine Guregian can be reached at 330-996-3574 or eguregian@thebeaconjournal.com
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