United States ‘Summers at Severance’ 2025 [2]: Cleveland Orchestra / Santtu-Matias Rouvali (conductor). Mandel Concert Hall at Severance Music Center, Cleveland, 17.7.2025. (MSJ)
Beethoven – Symphony No.2 in D major, Op.36
Stravinsky – Jeu de cartes
Ravel – Suite No.2 from Daphnis et Chloé
Earlier this season, Finnish conductor Santu-Matias Rouvali stepped in to substitute for Cleveland Orchestra music director Franz Welser-Möst. Rouvali came back for the ‘Summers at Severance’ series with a well-chosen program of his own, full of sparkle and wit, and it certainly made this listener eager to hear more of his work.
To say that Rouvali is a bit different from Welser-Möst might be the understatement of the century. Even Rouvali’s bow to the audience was made with a flourish of the baton. Once the music started, he was elegant, theatrical, imperious and mischievous – sometimes simultaneously. I have watched a lot of conductors over the years, and I have seen many whose grandiose gestures have nothing whatsoever to do with the actual sound being drawn from the orchestra. That was not the case here.
Rouvali clearly did his work in rehearsal to sculpt a crisp, bold sound from an orchestra that typically has a very soft grain focus under its music director. Rouvali pounced on accents and phrases in the Beethoven, energizing and refreshing the music with enormous vitality. Any conductor who can achieve that kind of alacrity can dance the can-can for all I care, as long as the music-making is alive, and that is what this performance was, even with a full complement of strings. Matters of tradition or historically-informed performance fell by the wayside as Rouvali encouraged the orchestra to play as though they were encountering the work for the first time. Even the second movement Larghetto, arguably Beethoven’s least compelling symphonic movement, held the listener’s attention here.
After intermission came a shift from classical to neoclassical with Stravinsky’s Jeu de cartes, which turns a game of poker into a ballet. The piece is witty, colorful and wry. Rouvali savored the numerous humorous quotes of other composers’ music and delivered the surprise ending with flair. It is worth pointing out that just over sixty years ago, the composer himself stood on that podium and conducted the piece in concert and for a recording with the Cleveland Orchestra that is still available from Sony today. While it is always worthwhile hearing Stravinsky’s way of handling his own works, he could learn a thing or two from Rouvali about how to deliver this piece with both precision and gusto!
The concert closed with a different flavor of neoclassicism in Ravel’s second suite from his ballet Daphnis et Chloé. Rouvali delighted in Ravel’s sensuous orchestration, carefully gauging the full climax of the sunrise movement to deliver the most brilliance possible in Mandel Hall while deftly avoiding sounding harsh. Assistant principal flute Jessica Sindell achieved a languorous yet remarkably saturated sound in the second movement solo, notes hanging out over the rest of the orchestra’s sound, before the final dance erupted in a swift but controlled whirl, notable for some breathtaking whiplash crescendos.
At a time when every guest of this orchestra is being scrutinized closely as potential music director material, Rouvali is intriguing, for he would strongly cut against the usual ‘type’ of conductor selected in Cleveland. One wonders if he would be able to maintain such an interventionist sort of interpretive approach over the long haul without warping into mannerism. But there is no question that this concert was electrifying, and future Rouvali visits will be anticipated with interest.
Mark Sebastian Jordan
Featured Image: Santtu-Matias Rouvali conducts the Cleveland Orchestra © Aireonna McCall-Dube/TCO