United States Blossom Music Festival 2025 [2]: Veronika Eberle (violin), Cleveland Orchestra / Petr Popelka (conductor). Blossom Music Center, Cuyahoga Falls, 19.7.2025. (MSJ)
Beethoven – Violin Concerto in D major, Op.61
R. Schumann – Symphony No.1 in B-flat major, Op.38, ‘Spring’
One of the great joys of live concerts is encountering new artists for the first time, unfiltered by expectations or preconceptions. This Blossom Music Festival concert did double duty by gifting the audience with quality music-making from European artists who are just beginning to build their reputation in the US. Evidence suggests prominent futures for both.
Veronika Eberle was making her Cleveland Orchestra debut in this performance of Beethoven’s well-loved Violin Concerto. While introducing oneself with a familiar piece allows the audience to quickly familiarize themselves with the artist’s approach, it does run the risk of failing to say anything that has not been said many times before. Eberle, however, took a two-pronged advance into Beethoven’s world. The immediately evident part was the sweetness of her tone, no doubt helped by the exquisite Stradivarius violin she plays.
As the work unfolded, it became evident that Eberle showed a kind of fearlessness in the work, taking familiar ground that has been trodden almost flat by her predecessors and finding a way to bring it – and us – into her own world, achieving a timeless concentration. Points of transition, both structural and emotional, became moments of daring introspection where Eberle brought her sound down to near inaudibility, or took a moment of psychological breath before moving on to the next event. To go fearlessly inward in a concerto is impressive enough, but to do it in a summertime festival concert when so many potential distractions are at hand is particularly bold. Eberle grabbed us by the hand and took us on an epic journey, particularly in the lengthy first movement. Instead of the music feeling long, it felt timeless, an escape from our current stressful world. For such an approach to succeed, it takes a conductor willing and able to join the violinist, and Petr Popelka proved to be perfectly in-sync with Eberle, powering the orchestral tuttis with energy and clarity.
For the brief but delightful encore, the orchestra’s recently-appointed concertmaster, Joel Link, joined Eberle for the playful ‘Pizzicato’, the forty-third of Bartók’s 44 Duos for Two Violins. It was a fun, if fleeting, treat. Let us hope that we will have more chances to hear Eberle in the future, as we anticipate repertory favorites to come that will offer us opportunities to hear Link in featured solos.
Energy and clarity were also hallmarks in Popelka’s ‘Spring’ Symphony by Robert Schumann. There tends to be two schools of thought on the work where Schumann first staked a claim as a major symphonic composer after a youth spent writing mostly piano works and songs: The first, typified by former Cleveland Orchestra music director George Szell in his 1960 recording, emphasizes the lyrical and relaxed side of the work. The second, exemplified by Leonard Bernstein’s recordings, unleashes its exuberant energy. Popelka was closer to the Bernstein end of the spectrum, displaying a spring running riot with color and high spirits, though his well-considered sculpting of phrases and note values would get an approving nod from Szell. His conducting emphasized contrasts and accents, closely guiding the orchestra but leaving room for them to run at fleet speeds near the ends of the first and last movements.
Jessica Sindell gave glittering voice to the work’s birdcall-inspired flute solos, while Frank Rosenwein brought his customary gleam to the prominent oboe solo. The orchestra sounded at the top of its very considerable game, delivering a highly satisfying romp through Schumann’s genial piece. Popelka, currently chief conductor of the Vienna Symphony Orchestra – and with a return engagement this coming season – might prove to be one to watch as a potential music director here in Cleveland.
Mark Sebastian Jordan
Featured Image: Petr Popelka conducts Robert Schumann’s First Symphony with the Cleveland Orchestra © Esterly Photography/TCO