United States Ravel, Tchaikovsky: Seong-Jin Cho (piano), Cleveland Orchestra / Franz Welser-Möst (conductor). Mandel Concert Hall at Severance Music Center, Cleveland, 6.3.2025. (MSJ)
Ravel – Rapsodie espagnole; Piano Concerto in G major
Tchaikovsky – Symphony No.4 in F minor, Op.36
On paper, Ravel and Tchaikovsky might seem an odd pairing, the French composer known for his fastidious precision and the Russian composer known for his passion. But this shrewd program brought together poise and nervous energy to show that the two composers fit together quite effectively on a deeper level.
The concert began with a patient and shapely exploration of Maurice Ravel’s Rapsodie espagnole, its range of colors savored without any attempt to overhype the piece. It served as a fitting analog to the Tchaikovsky symphony to come, with its throwback in the final movement to the very opening of the piece, a shrewd bit of programming. Conductor Franz Welser-Möst gave careful attention to balancing Ravel’s piquant blending of instrumental colors, achieving precision without sacrificing sensuality. It was vintage Cleveland Orchestra, precise yet emotionally intimate.
In the Ravel Piano Concerto, soloist Seong-Jin Cho balanced the natural poise of Ravel with a vital nervous energy, playing the work’s formidable figurations with stunning virtuosity and, even more importantly, with a keen sense of which of those thousands of notes were the important ones. The South Korean pianist’s interplay with the orchestra in the witty and bluesy first movement was superb, but the collaboration entered a whole new level in the slow movement, which starts with a long, spellbinding piano solo before the orchestra gently joins in. Cho’s manner with the solo was exquisite, and Welser-Möst and the orchestra continued that mood instead of spoiling it, which happens in too many performances. Cho’s duet with Robert Walters on the English horn was moving, proving just how much emotion is hidden under Ravel’s gleaming surfaces. The finale bustled with kinetic energy, commanding an enthusiastic ovation, drawing an elegant encore that signaled the shift to Russian music to come: Ravel’s ‘À la manière de Borodin’.
Energy and poise also animated Welser-Möst’s account of Tchaikovsky’s Fourth Symphony. Tchaikovsky’s open emotion used to often lead to very exaggerated performances, but Welser-Möst advocates a classical approach to the Russian composer’s balletic symphonies. This approach demonstrates effectively that the music packs a considerable wallop without any cheap theatrics. The conductor had large-scale tempo relationships in mind as he chose his speeds, avoiding any awkward gear shifting. This meant that the first movement’s opening ‘fate’ motif pressed forward urgently, while the following bulk of the movement was paced moderately, with one eye on its epic breadth. The second theme, which sounds for all the world like a loping waltz for ghosts, was kept moving along (though flexibly so, with tenderly alert dynamics) so that it could lead right back into every reprise of the fate motif.
The surfaces were kept elegantly poised, though there was heft and urgency throughout. The opening movement in particular served to demonstrate that Tchaikovsky was a far more skilled composer than what he is often credited for, the climax of the development section turning out to actually be the beginning of the recap. And where would Shostakovich have been without Tchaikovsky’s example of how to build a truly epic first movement?
After the furious close of the opening movement’s snarling coda, the quiet solitude of the Andantino was consoling, though its carefully observed accents brought real intensity, too. The plucked Scherzo was played very moderately, allowing time for the ear to sort out the delicious dissonances of Tchaikovsky’s constantly mutating harmony. It is not the only way to handle the movement, but its charm was undeniable, not to mention the fact that such a pace gives the woodwind soloists in the trio of the Scherzo a humane tempo for their cascades of notes. The Finale launched at a swift pace and never let up, even the return of the fate motif coming fast and furious. In the festive and frenetic race to the closing bars, Welser-Möst finally unleashed the full force of the brass and percussion, giving the ending an impact beyond anything heard earlier. It is an interpretation that stands alongside Welser-Möst’s equally focused Tchaikovsky Fifth, which will be making its return in a few weeks. The orchestra was in fine form, the principal wind soloists in particular animating the music. It was Welser-Möst at his best, charting an insightful course through a familiar masterpiece instead of blindly following established traditions.
Mark Sebastian Jordan