South Florida Classical Review

Rafael Payare conducted the Cleveland Orchestra in music of Sibelius and Stravinsky Friday night at the Arsht Center. Photo: Alex Markow

In 1913, Igor Stravinsky sent shock waves through the musical world with his ballet The Rite of Spring. Music would be changed forever. 

To conclude its 2026 Miami residency, the Cleveland Orchestra joined with members of the New World Symphony for a fiery performance of Stravinsky’s iconic creation on Friday night at the Arsht Center. Rafael Payare was on the podium, making his South Florida debut.

In the concert’s first half, the Clevelanders had the stage to themselves in music of Sibelius. “The Swan of Tuonela” (from Lemminkäinen or the Four Legends from the Kalevala) is heard far less frequently today than in former decades. At the work’s opening, the Cleveland strings conjured up a sense of dark mystery. The plaintive English horn solo was shaped with unaffected flow and breadth.

The Venezuelan-born Payare is a flamboyant podium and stage presence. Currently music director of the Orchestre symphonique de Montreal and the San Diego Symphony, his gestures are large and sweeping and he literally runs on and off stage. Yet beneath that showmanship, he is a sensitive and illuminating musician. 

Payare definitely knows his Sibelius. That was especially evident in his vital accompaniment to Sergey Khachatryan’s performance of the Finnish composer’s Violin Concerto in D minor.

The Armenian violinist’s tone is on the small side but his technique is rock solid and he can play with expressive force. Double stops were firmly dispatched. Rather than a moment of sheer display, the first movement’s cadenza emerged as part of the concerto’s larger concentrated focus and patterns. 

Sergey Khachatryan performed Sibelius’s Violin Concerto with the Cleveland Orchestra Friday night. Photo: Alex Markow

Khachatryan drew every ounce of emotion from the Adagio and his daredevil tempo and wide vibrato captured the off-kilter polonaise of the finale. Payare’s large orchestral soundscape drew out the score’s moody chill as well as its throbbing heat. Yet, for all its fine execution and musicality, Khachatryan’s performance lacked that extra spark of excitement that can make this concerto a fiery, passionate statement rather than a mere showpiece.

During the concerto’s first movement, a member of the orchestra’s viola section became ill. She left the stage with the help of one of her colleagues and stage personnel while the performance continued without interruption. (That was the second such incident for the Cleveland Orchestra this season. In January music director Franz Welser-Möst briefly paused a performance of Verdi’s Requiem due to an attack of hypertension.)

The story of the riot and scandal at the premiere of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring has become the stuff of music legend. Initial audiences were shocked by the dissonance and uninhibited rhythmic drive of the score. Today, the work has come to sound conventional, even old-fashioned by the standards of the artistic avant garde. 

Leading a greatly enlarged ensemble with New World fellows sitting side by side with the Cleveland musicians, Payare reignited the shock, modernity and sheer originality of Stravinsky’s opus. The famous opening bassoon solo was clear-toned and precise. Payare’s brisk, headlong drive kept the excitement level unabated. 

Glints of tonal coloring that are often overwhelmed by the orchestral mass were brought to the fore with x-ray detailing and the constant changes of meter were deftly accomplished. With associate concertmaster Jung-Min Amy Lee in the first chair, string sonorities were luminous. Brass sound was blazing and the full orchestral climaxes had volcanic impact.

For all its power and velocity, this Rite still retained a balletic aura. It was clearly dance music with an edgy side that never veered out of control. “The Dance of the Earth,” which culminates the work’s first part, radiated ferocity with the voltage turned up several notches. The languor of the introduction to Part II “The Sacrifice” was given full weight. Drumbeats that announce the maiden chosen for the pagan ritual emerged like thunderbolts. The terror and tension that runs through the dances was fully realized, particularly in the all-out orchestral vehemence of the concluding “Sacrificial Dance.”

Cheers rang out at the final chord and Payare generously recognized many of the players and instrumental choirs following a Rite to remember.

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The Cleveland Orchestra’s 2027 Miami residency will mark the 20th anniversary of the ensemble’s annual visits to the Arsht Center.

In Franz Welser-Möst’s final local appearances as music director, he will conduct Strauss’ Metamorphosen and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 and Leonore Overture No. 3 January 23-24, and Schubert’s Symphony No. 6 and waltzes and polkas by Johann Strauss, Jr. and Josef Strauss on January 30-31.

Semyon Bychkov takes the podium March 13-14 for Britten’s Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra, Elgar’s Enigma Variations and Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini with pianist Alexandre Kantorow. The annual joint performance with members of the New World Symphony on March 20 will be led by New World artistic director Stéphane Denève. The programs features both Respighi’s Fountains of Rome and Pines of Rome and Bruch’s Scottish Fantasy with violinist Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider.

The Cleveland Orchestra repeats the program 8 p.m. Saturday at the Arsht Center in Miami. arshtcenter.org

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