Cleveland Orchestra
Herbert Blomstedt, conductor
Mandel Concert Hall
Severance Music Center
Cleveland, OH
February 12, 2022

Nielsen: Symphony No. 4, Op. 29, The Inextinguishable
Beethoven: Symphony No. 5 in C minor, Op. 67

An appearance from the remarkably indefatigable Herbert Blomstedt is virtually guaranteed to yield stupendous results, and Saturday night’s performance was certainly no exception. The Swedish-American conductor paired major symphonies of Nielsen and Beethoven, the same two composers which comprised his debut program with this orchestra in April 2006. It’s a fitting coupling to be sure, both composers major symphonists of their respective generations, and in the present case, both works employed a progressive tonality, taking the listener on a journey to a distant destination rather than coming full circle.

Nielsen’s musical language can be somewhat intractable and austere, but The Cleveland Orchestra is well-equipped for the challenge. A compelling performance of the Fifth Symphony was given a few seasons ago, and this weekend the orchestra rose to the task even more under Blomstedt’s incisive guidance. The clangorous introductory material was given with clarity and inexorable drive. Nielsen’s palette is resolutely tonal though craggy and unforgiving; some respite was to be had when the conductor coaxed a piquant lyricism from the woodwinds. Despite the first movement’s busyness, matters closed in a simple grandeur, with the pulsating of the timpani foreshadowing their role to come.

The gentle and folksy nature of the Poco allegretto seemed to take its cue from the analogous movement of a Brahms symphony. Dulcet clarinets were the highlights in this movement scored for winds alone, occasionally buttressed by touches of pizzicato strings. Pained and discursive strings opened the slow movement. A lyrical dialogue was had between concertmaster Peter Otto and principal viola Wesley Collins before the material built to a stentorian climax. The finale opened in rapid-fire energy and the dueling timpanists (Paul Yancich and Tom Freer) on opposite ends of the stage were to thrilling effect. Blomstedt has an uncanny ability to get the expansive orchestra to morph into a single organism, and nowhere was this more apparent than in the unambiguously triumphant ending.

It’s a great challenge to make Beethoven’s Fifth – surely the most frequently performed symphony in the repertoire – sound more than merely routine, but Blomstedt certainly did. This weekend also served as something of a capstone to his memorable all-Beethoven program presented at Blossom last summer. The Allegro con brio was commanding and authoritative, its energy taut, focused, and searingly intense. Long, flowing lines in the low strings brought out the warmth of the slow movement with thoughtful contrasts illuminating the double variation structure. The scherzo, though weighty in its own right, served as something of a preface to the grandiose finale, a glorious race to the finish line of this archetypal journey from darkness to light.