Gabetta, Rouvali and the Cleveland Orchestra balance dark Shostakovich and bright Schubert

United States Shostakovich, Schubert: Sol Gabetta (cello), Cleveland Orchestra / Santtu-Matias Rouvali (conductor). Mandel Concert Hall at Severance Music Center, Cleveland, 9.4.2026. (MSJ)

Shostakovich – Cello Concerto No.2, Op.126
Encore: Manuel de Falla – ‘Nana’ from Siete Canciones Populares Españolas
Schubert – Symphony No.9 in C major, D.944, ‘The Great’

The Cleveland Orchestra’s stellar 2025-2026 season continued this week with a program that looked highly suspect on paper but proved to be ideal in practice, counterbalancing one of Dmitri Shostakovich’s strangest, bleakest late pieces with the endless warmth and light of Franz Schubert’s ‘Great’ Symphony. Highest praise is due to cellist Sol Gabetta and guest conductor Santtu-Matias Rouvali for committing fully to both works.

The Shostakovich Cello Concerto No.2 isn’t performed often, perhaps thanks to the popularity of his catchy Concerto No.1. But the second isn’t just the greater work, it is arguably his greatest concerto, rivaled only by the excoriating Violin Concerto No.1. The Concerto No.2 opens with the cellist meditating alone on a sad, falling phrase. Sol Gabetta’s instant, laser-like focus established an identity with and ownership of this work like no other performance I have heard. Other instruments entered gradually, with instrumental colors pushed to the extreme. For example, some of the most characteristic orchestra passages of the work pit dense low woodwind chords against stinging high xylophone notes.

Highlights of the first movement included Gabetta’s desperate cadenza, accompanied by violent strikes on the bass drum, and those bassoon and contrabassoon passages, led by assistant principal Catherine Van Handel, a recent and powerful addition to the orchestra. The scherzo started off with jazzy gestures from the soloist although the theme is based on a folk song from Odessa, but the atmosphere turned increasingly brittle and bitter as the movement progressed, with Rouvali whipping up the orchestral sparring with Gabetta.

The finale is an extraordinary movement, opening with half sinister/half hallucinatory fanfares from the horns, coiling around each other like snakes. That serpentine sense became more pronounced in another cadenza, this time accompanied by the constant shaking of a tambourine that sounded like a rattlesnake. In the disjointed progress of that final movement, Gabetta was heartrending in the warm phrase that kept resurfacing without ever escaping the music’s terrifying dissociation. The fractured phrases of the movement, battered by deranged military rhythms of the percussion and the deep sadness of the cello lines, made the music feel like a harrowing commentary on current world events even though it was written sixty years ago and programmed for this concert over a year ago. Such is the uncanny sorcery of music. After another cadenza, this time accompanied by snare drum rolls, the work fractured into cello recollections of earlier themes while the percussion chattered obsessively, recalling the patterns from the end of the scherzo of Shostakovich’s Symphony No.4, which were also to be recalled at the end of his Symphony No.15.

The work ends strangely with the cello holding on to a low note as the rhythmic fragments are gradually snuffed out and the cello note suddenly surges to an ugly, wrenching accent. Gabetta interacted closely with the orchestra throughout, and Rouvali was with her every step of the way. Gabetta’s intensity was commanding. There may be other cellists who are more focused on making rich, pretty sounds, but Gabetta goes emotionally and psychologically deep, taking the listener with her. She followed this almost un-followable performance with the perfect encore, Manuel de Falla’s ‘Nana’ from Siete Canciones Populares Españolas. Gabetta took the vocal part on the cello, with the piano part played by Cleveland Orchestra percussionist Marc Damoulakis who had an almost gossamer touch on that least gentle of percussion instruments, the xylophone. Exquisite.

The Shostakovich was so devastating that, were I not covering the concert, I may have bailed at intermission from intensity saturation. I am glad, though, that I didn’t, because Schubert’s ‘Great’ Symphony No.9 proved profoundly restorative, its endless undulations welling up like water from a natural spring. It was a true test for Rouvali, who is perhaps known more for his deft way with high-intervention scores. But it proved to be a remarkably classical performance, opening the introduction at a flowing speed, two beats to the bar as written, not slowed down to a lush crawl. Rouvali trusted the orchestra to do their work without constant interference, pointing out some lovely details along the way before a natural-feeling acceleration into the main movement.

Here in Cleveland, of course, we are familiar with and dedicated to music director Franz Welser-Möst’s gracious way with this score (review here), so Rouvali was treading on almost sacred ground. What is remarkable is that his performance stood on its own with similar pacing and minimal fussing but with a brighter and weightier orchestral sound. Rouvali kept at tempo in the coda for the initial recall of the melody from the introduction, slowing it down slightly for the statement of the theme by the strings alone and closing the movement without gratuitous exaggeration.

The second movement was kept buoyantly moving, building to a climax without histrionics or even a slowdown afterward. Section principals Frank Rosenwein (oboe) and Afendi Yusuf (clarinet) introduced the theme of the movement with just the right whistling-in-the-dark nervous charm. The Scherzo was brilliant, a touch more rigid than Welser-Möst’s Viennese lilt but dancing elegantly in the trio. The Finale started at an ideal pace to allow details to register without forced speed, though the movement did bring Rouvali’s one eccentric touch, speeding up the second theme and forcing him to gear-shift back down into the main tempo even as the violins’ figurations continued. But other than that, the movement unfolded glowingly, brass occasionally allowed to cover the woodwinds but building the closing pages with their pounding low notes. The performance closed properly with an accent on the final chord, not a decrescendo as was instructed by the first printer, bewildered by Schubert’s sprawling scrawl in the manuscript.

Rouvali’s skilled negotiation through the perils of the Shostakovich and unflappable certainty in the Schubert keeps him among the valid candidates in the Cleveland Orchestra’s ongoing search for a music director to succeed Welser-Möst. At this point, it is looking like the orchestra is going to be blessed with a rich set of options. Elim Chan, Antonello Manacorda, Daniele Rustioni and Santtu-Matias Rouvali all look like strong candidates. It will be interesting to see what unfolds this summer and what clues might be found in next week’s announcement of the 2026-2027 season.

Mark Sebastian Jordan

Featured Image: Santtu-Matias Rouvali leads the Cleveland Orchestra in Schubert’s Symphony No.9 © Roger Mastroianni/TCO