Concert Review: Talkin' 'bout Their Generation

The Cleveland Youth Orchestra at Severance Hall.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Youth movement: Conductor Vinay Parameswaran at the helm of the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra.
Photo from the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra website © 2018 The Cleveland Orchestra.

For this New Yorker, it is unusual to attend a concert at Cleveland's lush, elegant Severance Hall and not see the familiar musicians of the Cleveland Orchestra on the stage. But last Friday night belonged to the next generation: the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra in one of its three subscription concerts at the venue this season.

Concert Review: Listening to Ecstasy

The Cleveland Orchestra plays Messiaen.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Ecstasy: Franz Welser-Möst (on podium, back to camera), Jean-Yves Thibaudet (left) and Cynthia Millar (right)
and the Cleveland Orchestra play the Turangalîla-symphonie.
Photo by Roger Mastroianni © 2018 The Cleveland Orchestra.

The music of Olivier Messiaen has never been an "easy sell" to the average concert-goer. Performances of his works remain infrequent, partially because of his own status as an outlier among the creative minds of the 20th century and partially because of the massive demands these pieces place on both performers and audience. It is a state of unfortunate neglect, one that the Cleveland Orchestra corrected on Wednesday night with a performance of Turangalîla-symphonie, the huge ten-movement piece commissioned by the Boston Symphony Orchestra in 1949.

Concert Review: Revenge of the Nerds

Andrés Orozco-Estrada debuts with the Cleveland Orchestra.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Talk to the hands: Conductor Andrés Orozco-Estrada
made his Cleveland Orchestra debut this week.
Photo by Werner Kmetitsch courtesy the artist's website.

Things are changing at Severance Hall, the staid Egyptian-inspired concert hall that squats, temple-like at the side of the lagoon in eastern Cleveland, Ohio. On Thursday night, the lobby of Severance was decorated with a bright neon and incandescent sign: the word NERDS blazing red and green, inviting concertgoers to take selfies with this work of pop art.

Concert Review: The Glittering Sound of Another Age

Jane Glover conducts the Cleveland Orchestra.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Conductor and period performance expert Jane Glover is in Cleveland playing
Mozart and Haydn. And Superconductor is there too. Photo © 2016 janeglover.co.uk

The Cleveland Orchestra is one of the finest and most unique ensembles in North America, playing all kinds of repertory with a professionalism and polish that evokes the legendary ensembles of central Europe. On Thursday evening, British conductor Jane Glover visited the orchestra in its home building of Severance Hall, leading a program of symphonies by Haydn and Mozart flanking a rare double concerto by the latter composer.

Field Trip: The Severance Package

A visit to the home of the Cleveland Orchestra.

Severance Hall at dusk, from the corner of Euclid Avenue and East Blvd, Cleveland OH.
Photo by the author.

In the interest of expanding my horizons and hearing some really good music this weekend, I took the Greyhound out to Cleveland, OH. The purpose: to attend two concerts at Severance Hall, the legendary home of the Cleveland Orchestra and hear this great band on its home turf.

Severance Hall on Sunday afternoon, set up for a choral performance.
Photo by the author.

When talking about great American orchestras, those unfamiliar with the reputation of this extraordinary ensemble are surprised to hear this Midwest city's orchestra ranked alongside the New York Philharmonic, Boston Symphony Orchestra, even the legendary Philharmonics of Vienna and Berlin. The Cleveland players are a first-class organization, and their home, Severance Hall is one of the finest music venues in North America, if not the world.

Egyptian moifs and red marble dominate the main lobby of Severance Hall,
which is available for weddings. Photo by the author.

Built in 1929 and opened in 1931, Severance (named after the deceased wife of John Severance, who put up the initial multi-million dollar stake for the venue) replaced the Masonic Hall downtown as the main venue of the Cleveland Orchestra.

The building has been renovated, but remains a miracle of Depression-era engineering, a sturdy temple of music picked out in Egyptian motifs. It sits on the western edge of the Case Western Reserve university campus. This relatively isolated location (five miles east of downtown Cleveland) emphasizes the vibe: like a performance at a nobleman's house or a European festival. Wagner would have loved it.

The Szell Shell (above the organ) modifies and brightens the acoustics.
Note the aluminum trim. Photo by the author.

The concert hall itself is picked out in beige, dark wood and aluminum, a new-fangled material in those days. The aluminum filigree on the ceiling and the walls lends a soft, burnished glow as the Orchestra plays. A second venue: Rheinberger Hall is tucked underneath, and is used for chamber music and recording sessions

The organ (left) the timpani, with the ornamental pipes.
They look cool, though. Photo by the author.

In the Hall, organ pipes lend a touch of solemnity to the decor. However, the visible pipes are ornamental, closed off by the special acoustic concert shell added to the venue under music director George Szell. The stage also expands via an old-school elevator system for performances of large-scale works. The elevator can also be lowered to form an orchestra pit, allowing opera to be performed.

Aluminum trim, beige paint, blue seats.
Severance Hall from down in the orchestra seats.
Photo by the author.

Comfortable, blue velour seats and polished, red marble lobby give a feeling of Old World elegance. But the real draw here is the acoustic, crisp, yet warm, capturing the roar of brass or the plaintive tone of bassoons. 

Read the reviews of this weekend's concerts under music director Franz Welser-Möst: 

Oct 8: Stravinsky's Concerto in D, Agon, Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 4, Wagner encore.

Oct. 9: Richard Strauss' Metamorphesen, Mozart's Great Mass in C Minor.

And then consider a trip out to Cleveland for the real hall of fame where music lives: the amazing Severance Hall.