A Bumpy Ride
Brahms from the Cleveland Orchestra, reviewed by SUZANNE TORREY
Severance Hall was ringed with video equipment; cameras on stage, in the boxes and on a massive boom crane that occupied a large area of the floor seating and moved over and around the front of the stage. The first two nights in the series of four all-Brahms concerts were being recorded for eventual television broadcast and DVD release so they featured two different overtures and symphonies and the excellent Julia Fischer as soloist.
This should have been an easy evening for an orchestra of this caliber but it was evident even before the concert began that things were not quite right. The musicians appeared edgy, some furiously going over and over passages, others walking off and on stage or gathering in small groups to talk...
Copyright © 18 January 2014
Suzanne Torrey, Cleveland USA
|