United States Blossom Music Festival 2026 [1] – Various composers and works: Russell Thomas (tenor), The Cleveland Orchestra / Edwin Outwater (conductor). Blossom Music Center, Cuyahoga Falls, 3.7.2026. (MSJ)
The Cleveland Orchestra and its audience had to weather a severe thunderstorm to complete the ‘America at 250’ celebration concert that launched this year’s Blossom Music Festival. High winds sent dust and the musicians’ music flying and even drew a surprise sneeze from conductor Edwin Outwater as he led the ensemble through a pert and shapely performance of Gershwin’s An American in Paris. But it would have taken more than that, or even the torrential rain and dangerous lightning that followed, to derail this performance. The orchestra never paused, and they held the music together without flinching.
Regardless of whatever metaphor the weather might be for the current state of the nation, the music in question was part of a shrewd program that celebrated the history of the United States and its music while keeping an eye on the range of cultures that make up the fabric of the land. For instance, the great American composer Leonard Bernstein was represented by two pieces: one was the overture from Candide, his witty modern gloss on the European operetta, while the other was ‘America’, the Puerto Rican-fueled song from West Side Story, heard here in an arrangement for string orchestra with concertmaster Joel Link soloing brilliantly. Outwater’s way with the works was vibrant, if more reserved than the composer himself was in many of his recordings.
While the weather was unavoidable, an additional challenge for guests in the section where I sat was an almost continuous parade of ushers stopping people from using their phones to video parts of the concert. If the point of not having people use their phone cameras is to keep them from disrupting other guests’ enjoyment of the concert, this constant parade of ushers was far worse. Enough!
Fortunately, the music overcame the disruptions. Particularly enjoyable was Charles Ives’s cantankerous Variations on ‘America’ (in William Schuman’s orchestration), all the more hilarious for being the same tune our British friends use for their national anthem. Outwater made sure that each variation was characterized in full, from crunchy dissonances to Hispanic rhythms. John Williams’s Sound the Bells! brought his characteristic mix of brass fanfares and spacious strings to a piece saluting the Japanese emperor during an Asian tour made by Williams and the Boston Pops.
The Black experience was reflected in four works, two orchestral and two vocal, all of which were highlights of the concert. The ‘Ring Shout’ from Carlos Simon’s Four Black American Dances opened with vocal shouts and muted trumpet whoops before charging forward with compelling rhythm and melody. Much more lyrical was an arrangement for strings of the Andante moderato from Florence Price’s String Quartet No.1 in G major, which started quietly but held a sly, bluesy middle section, which itself held a lively interlude. The orchestra savored the opportunity to dig into these unfamiliar pieces.
One aspect of the concert was poignant. The originally scheduled guest soloist was the great Limmie Pulliam, who tragically passed away just over a month ago. We were fortunate that tenor Russell Thomas, a friend of Pulliam’s, was able to step in to deliver a pair of traditional spirituals in a performance that he dedicated to his friend’s memory. Thomas’s voice rang out in ‘Witness’ and ‘Give Me Jesus’ with a heroic gleam, underpinned by a dark weight fit for a baritone. That rare mix of brightness and substance made him a compelling voice to hear as the narrator in Copland’s Lincoln Portrait, a bombastic and declamatory piece that can be insufferable under a ponderous, pretentious narrator. Instead, Thomas renewed the meaning of Lincoln’s words, delivering them with a conviction so strong that the crowd burst into applause well before the closing bars.
Thomas returned after the Copland to sing a showtune encore, and the rain yielded enough for the scheduled fireworks to proceed as planned at the end of the concert. With drama onstage and off, the festival was launched, and it will continue over the next several weeks.
Mark Sebastian Jordan
Featured Image: The concert concluded with fireworks, thanks to a lull in the rain © Roger Mastroianni/TCO