Cleveland Orchestra
David Robertson, conductor
Marc-André Hamelin, piano
Mandel Concert Hall
Severance Music Center
Cleveland, OH
November 29, 2024

Copland: Suite from Appalachian Spring (1945 orchestration)
Gershwin: Rhapsody in Blue (arr. Grofé)
Ellington: New World A-Comin’
Copland: Suite from The Tender Land

Over the Thanksgiving weekend, The Cleveland Orchestra and guest conductor David Roberston served up a rich course of American orchestral music. As the centerpiece was a pair of works for piano and orchestra with virtuoso Marc-André Hamelin, both of which artfully brought jazz and popular traditions into the concert hall.

This year marks the centennial of Gershwin’s epochal Rhapsody in Blue, and the evening’s performers offered an energetic and joyous performance fitting for such an anniversary. The work was presented in its original jazz band orchestration arranged by Ferde Grofé, as it would have been heard in its 1924 premiere at Carnegie Hall — and The Cleveland Orchestra morphed into a bona fide dance hall band.

The iconic wail of the clarinet opened the work, stylishly played by Daniel McKelway. A muted trumpet responded in its striking timbre, setting the stage for Hamelin’s commanding pianism, given with flair and virtuosity. In this amalgamation of the classical and the vernacular, the two resided not in opposition, but as a unified whole. A downtempo section was a sultry affair, while a passage of repeated notes conveyed the mechanistic fury of the Industrial Age, not unlike what one finds in Prokofiev at the same time. All cares were left aside though in the abandon of the foot-tapping finale.

Duke Ellington’s 1943 work New World A-Comin’ premiered under similar circumstances as the Gershwin: a Carnegie Hall performance that endeavored to break the confines of the traditional classical repertoire. Unlike Rhapsody in Blue, Ellington’s work was not initially well-received. Credit, then to Hamelin et al. for offering a compelling performance. A lushly-scored opening in the orchestra gave way to a quasi-improvisatory passage for piano, with silky filigree and silvery runs, colored by jazz-inflected harmonies. A drum kit onstage added to the rhythmic pulse. Comprised of alternating sections for orchestra and piano, it lacked the cohesion of the Gershwin, but proved an attractive discovery nonetheless. On the subject of jazz-influenced classical works, Hamelin’s 2008 album In a state of jazz is warmly recommended.

Bookending the concertante works was music of Aaron Copland, in both cases orchestral suites extracted from stage works. Appalachian Spring made for a lovely opening to the evening. Earthy harmonies began, brimming with hope and possibility. Robertson and the orchestra gently breathed life into this soft-spoken material, starkly different from the bustling Manhattan streetscape conveyed in Gershwin’s Rhapsody. More angular material was enhanced by the sheen of the brass, and rhythmic inflections conveyed a dance-like quality — this was, after all, originally a ballet. A magical moment saw the first appearance of the Simple gifts hymn, first in the winds and then blooming to its magnificent orchestration. The loveliest of epilogues concluded, wholly at peace.

Less well-known was the three movement suite from Copland’s opera The Tender Land, dating about a decade after Appalachian Spring. Strident, brassy beginnings retreated inward for a gentle love song. A specialist of the American repertoire, Robertson served as a keen guide in this deeply lyrical writing. A boisterous, raucous “Party Scene” took matters in a rather different direction, splashed by piquant touches from the xylophone. The closing “Promise of the Living” was a peaceful paean with a fine English horn solo, and a touching, topical close for the Thanksgiving program.

And for those who couldn’t make it to Severance Hall in person, Sunday’s performance was live-streamed and subsequently available on demand through Adella and Stage+.