South Florida Classical Review

Franz Welser-Möst conducted the Cleveland Orchestra Friday night at the Arsht Center in Miami.

It was heartening to see Franz Welser-Möst back on the podium of the Cleveland Orchestra Friday night at the Arsht Center. Last week,  the conductor temporarily halted a performance of Verdi’s Requiem due to illness—“hypertension,” according to an orchestra spokesperson—and he did not take any curtain calls at the work’s conclusion. (The repeat was handed off to assistant conductor Taichi Fukumura.) 

Welser-Möst was very much in charge on Friday, conducting with considerable vigor and drawing the kind of well-honed, patrician ensemble playing that has characterized the collaboration between this conductor and orchestra.

The concert’s marquee attraction was pianist Yefim Bronfman playing Beethoven’s Concerto No. 5 in E-flat Major (“Emperor”). For over four decades, Bronfman has been a stalwart of the international concert scene. From the octaves and arpeggios of the concerto’s opening cadenza, it was clear that his technique is still strong. 

While note-perfect and commanding, Bronfman’s playing has always been distinguished by probing musicality. There was nothing matter of fact or routine about his iteration of the concerto. Bronfman’s Emperor was more lyrical than monumental yet not lacking in velocity for the big keyboard volleys. His nuanced dynamics throughout the performance were infinitely varied with the soft, pearly-toned rendition of the secondary subject in the first movement especially striking.

Yefim Bronfman performed Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 5 Friday night. Photo: Alex Markow

The Cleveland strings sounded smooth as silk in the initial measures of the Adagio and the wind lines emerged harmonious, balanced and perfectly blended. Bronfman articulated the movement almost like a nocturne, his playing refined and elegant. He attacked the main theme of the Rondo with lilt and effervescence. The final movement had a sense of energetic grace rather than overt impetuosity or pounding exuberance. 

In a comment in the concert’s program book, Welser-Möst noted that Bronfman was the soloist at his debut with the Clevelanders in 1993. Their years of collaboration was fully evident in the reading of the concerto. Phrasing and tempos were totally unified, the music never lacking breadth or shape.

The audience that cheered and repeatedly recalled Bronfman to the stage was rewarded with a virtuoso encore – the Liszt-Paganini Etude No. 2. Here the fiery side of Bronfman finally came through. Taken at a rapid clip, he offered blazing pianism with fortissimos that probably could be heard in the Arsht’s lower lobby.

Mozart’s Symphony No. 41 in C Major (“Jupiter”) was the Salzburg master’s last essay in this genre and, in many ways, light years ahead of his previous efforts and those of his predecessors and contemporaries. That complexity and structural rigor was fully evident in Welser-Möst’s reading. The first movement was replete with heft and thrust. Played at a leisurely pace, the Andante cantabile was given drama and weight. Welser-Möst gave special emphasis to the wind writing which includes dissonances that had to have shocked 18^th century listeners. There was a natural sense of flow in the Menuetto while still maintain energy and vigor.

The Clevelanders’ chamber-like cohesion was on full display in the Allegro molto finale. Contrapuntal lines were assayed with total clarity and that remarkable passage at the symphony’s conclusion when all five of the movement’s themes are sounded simultaneously was executed with sterling precision. Conductor and orchestra were in peak form for both scores on the program.

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

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