Severance
Hall
May
9
A Baroque specialist with a flair for keeping the music fresh. |
Contrary
to what screaming headlines over the past week have suggested,
Cleveland is actually a pleasant place to be these days. Spring
arrived late, but with a burst of fragrant blossoms and blue skies.
The lagoon adjacent to Severance Hall is ringed with clouds of tiny
pink and white petals, shimmering in tree-sized bouquets or floating
dreamily on the breezes.
The
orchestra’s weekend program brought some of that atmosphere
indoors, with a trio of frothy Handel works conducted by Dutch
Baroque specialist Ton Koopman. Concluding a three-year artistic
residency with the orchestra, Koopman wove delicate textures into a
colorful, full-bodied sound, capturing both the effervescence of
Handel’s music and the power of his regal choral works.
The
principal challenge of the opening piece, the first suite of the
famed Water Music, is to not
sound clichéd.
Koopman avoided this by picking up the tempo and imbuing the music
with glowing optimism, making it immediately engaging and a bit more
suited to modern tastes. His genius lies in doing that without
sacrificing an authentic period sound, which is difficult to get from
an ensemble not exclusively dedicated to early music.
Though
not for Koopman. He led a chamber-sized group of 36 musicians from
the harpsichord, balancing light, radiant top strings against a rich
Romantic bottom. Paying close attention to detail, the conductor drew
ringing high notes from the French horns and intricate, carefully
articulated lines from the woodwinds, which played enchanting trios.
What set the piece apart, though, was its buoyant spirit and energy.
Water Music can seem
simplistic by modern standards, but in Koopman’s interpretation it
sounded fresh and exciting.
For
Zadok the Priest, a coronation anthem written in 1727 for the
ascension of King George II, the chamber orchestra expanded to
include timpani, trumpets and the Cleveland Orchestra Chamber Chorus.
The effect was electric. Hitting maximum intensity from the opening
notes, the chorus added both volume and depth, underscored by
rumblings in the timpani and flashes of color from the horns. Even in
that wall of sound, the vocals were crisp and the English-language
lyrics quite clear.
Zadok
is brief, just a few minutes long. But it was a glorious few minutes,
a golden ray of divinity smiling on royalty.
The
chorus was also the star of the closing piece, the “Dettingen” Te
Deum, written to celebrate
a British military victory using text from The Book of Common
Prayer. Sounding like a welcoming committee at the gates of
heaven, the chorus was even more impressive in the quieter passages –
angelic sopranos-only moments, nuanced support for the soloists. All
three of the solo singers were competent but unremarkable, though to
be fair, no single voice, no matter how good, could have matched the
soaring chorale. The spiritual grandeur it evoked was
irresistible, dominating everything else on the stage.
Koopman
provided elegant support in the orchestra, punctuated by bright,
clear embellishments from the trumpets. The conductor worked hard to
give the piece majestic proportions, sculpting the sound with fluid
strokes of his hands rather than a baton, and bounding around the
stage with an energy that earned him enthusiastic applause.
Compared
to much of the programming performed on the Severance stage this
season, the Handel pieces were confections, light pieces to be
appreciated for their immediate beauty rather than lasting impact.
Still, they’ve survived for nearly 300 years. And in the hands of
an expert like Koopman, it was easy to see why.
For
more on Ton Koopman: http://www.tonkoopman.nl//?lan=2
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