United States Blossom Pageant 2024 [3] – Mendelssohn, Berlioz, Beethoven: Véronique Gens (soprano), Cleveland Orchestra / Antonello Manacorda (conductor). Blossom Music Middle, Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, 20.7.2024. (MSJ)

Mendelssohn – Overture to A Midsummer Night time’s Dream, Op.21
Berlioz – Les nuits d’été, Op.7
Beethoven – Symphony No.7 in A significant, Op.92

The Blossom Music Pageant is the Cleveland Orchestra’s conventional testing floor for skills which they haven’t had an opportunity to come across earlier than. Some guests go via with out making a lot of an impression, however often one makes the listener sit up and take discover. Antonello Manacorda, a German-based Italian conductor, was the latter. Whereas he might not but be well-known stateside, the standard of his work suggests he can be price realizing.

Maybe the surge on the ultimate introductory woodwind chord of Felix Mendelssohn’s quicksilver overture for Shakespeare’s mischievous comedy A Midsummer Night time’s Dream was a bit of aggressively formed, nevertheless it was discover that this might not be a generic run-through. Fortunately, Manacorda achieved his factors with out additional exaggerations, however moderately by deftly seeking out internal particulars with out shedding the principle line of exercise. He by no means let the woodwinds get misplaced, as a substitute terracing dynamics in order that teeming particulars surfaced momentarily, then slipped again into the mix. Tempos have been vigorous, which might generally be an issue within the reverberant acoustic of the Blossom pavilion, however Manacorda made certain the bass traces have been firmly anchored within the tuba (changing Mendelssohn’s unique antiquated instrument, the serpent). He picked good factors to make particulars come out, and let busy figurations blur radiantly in different spots. The orchestra was alert, and the conductor’s factors have been made with out a whole lot of grandstanding.

For some years, my favourite recording of the Hector Berlioz tune cycle Les nuits d’été has been the one recorded over 20 years in the past by Véronique Gens. What a delight, then, to come across her on this music so a few years later, in her debut with the Cleveland Orchestra. If her voice is older, it’s remarkably nonetheless very a lot the gorgeous instrument it had been, and right this moment she sings these moody songs with even better knowledge and subtlety. The depth of her emotion within the second and third songs, ‘Les spectre de la rose’ and ‘Sur les lagunes’, was electrifying. Contributing to that sense was Manacorda’s attentive and responsive wrapping of the orchestral components round Gens’s voice. Hardly ever do conductors appear as concerned in soloists’ items as right here, and it made for a deeply satisfying conclusion to the primary half.

Typically a live performance that begins nice goes awry within the second half, however that didn’t occur. If something, Manacorda was much more in his ingredient for Beethoven’s Seventh, standing on the rostrum with exceptional assurance. Observing him on the massive video screens to the perimeters of the seating space, I used to be struck that Manacorda was so caught up within the second of making this music and too fortunately concerned in his work to do not forget that most conductors undergo terribly from fright when first confronting this formidable ensemble. As a substitute, Manacorda lived the music, joyfully exchanging smiles with orchestra members, giving deft management via transitions, and getting out of the way in which and letting the orchestra run just like the thoroughbreds they’re in lots of passages.

The primary motion was alert, the introduction for as soon as feeling prefer it was going someplace. Significantly efficient was the way in which Manacorda tightened the sprung rhythms on the very finish of the intro, main seamlessly into the principle Allegro vivace. The second motion balanced somber lyricism with regular however unhurried momentum. The scherzo – likened by Sir Thomas Beecham to ‘a whole lot of yaks leaping about’ – is a motion that may put on out its welcome, however Manacorda stored tempos vigorous and lithe, with orchestral textures so recent and aerated that, for as soon as, it didn’t really feel too lengthy. The finale was shrewdly began just below tempo, so {that a} tightening of tempo may step by step happen.

As soon as he confirmed the way in which he appreciated to terrace dynamics to carry out particulars, he didn’t need to hold flogging it with heavy-handed beats. The orchestra did it. That sort of synchronization between conductor and gamers merely doesn’t occur that usually. At one spot, he didn’t type the textures the way in which I often favor, letting the French horns’ concord cowl the melodic line. However within the subsequent phrase, he revealed element within the winds I’ve by no means heard in any efficiency, so I can solely welcome this type of considerate exploration of element. The orchestra was in star kind, with enticing solos from the woodwinds.

I’ve heard Beethoven’s Seventh on 4 earlier events in Cleveland, carried out by Jahja Ling, Christoph von Dohnányi, Herbert Blomstedt and Franz Welser-Möst, the present music director. This was by a ways the perfect efficiency of all of them. It will be very fascinating to have Manacorda return and present what he can do in music from different time intervals.

Mark Sebastian Jordan