- Posted by Todd Krieger (A) on May 06, 2007 at 15:38:41
Performing the Dvorak 6..... Allan Gilbert (sp?) conducting.... (Never heard of him prior to the broadcast.) At the renovated Severance Hall. Excellent piece to really get a good first impression.....I also cannot believe concert broadcast announcer Robert Conrad is still around. He was doing the broadcasts back when Szell led the Orchestra..... He and Joe Tait....
The sound of the Orchestra, to my surprise, didn't change as much as I expected. It may have even improved since late in Dohnanyi's tenure. (Or a better term would be "recovered".)
The part of the Orchestra that changed the least is the strings. Strings generally have the most continuity, obviously due to the fact there are so many musicians, so the new players tend to play like the ones they replaced. The intonation, while still excellent, isn't the standout it once was. The cohesion, while still there, isn't as good either. But the tone itself has remained intact. Maybe more "lush" than before. (More like Philadelphia, if you will.)
The brass was also a pleasant surprise. Michael Sachs has turned out to be a fine lead trumpet. My original complaint with him, weak attacks, is totally gone. He also plays louder but with less dynamic range than Adelstein. My biggest complaint about Sachs is he doesn't "phrase" the music, just gets the all the notes out. (Which was also was my main complaint about Bud Herseth.) Sachs does not play with the same dynamic range.... Has very good tone.... The brass tends to project too much into the string phrases, as opposed to blending and creating that incredible sound that Cleveland once had. (Note this is like comparing a fine athlete to Michael Jordan or Tiger Woods.)
I personally think the lead trumpet has the single biggest impact on an orchestra's overall "sound", and in retrospect, after hearing that Dvorak performance, a great acid test for "sound", I don't think the Orchestra could have done any better, in regard to a replacement for the great Bernard Adelstein. I actually got an email from a Chicago concertgoer wishing that orchestra had Michael Sachs.
The rest of the brass doesn't quite have the projection it once had. But again, I think what it once had was the best ever.
The winds had the biggest change to the downside. The new players have decent tone, but the once-distinctive articulation is gone. The new oboist lacks attack and articulation. (Although Marc Lifschey and John Mack were maybe the best ever in this regard.) The wind passage in the third movement was one thing that left me longing for the Dohnanyi recording of this work. (Some of the best wind playing ever to make recording.)
The articulation, overall, isn't the same. Although the overall intonation is still well above average. The Orchestra sounds more like a "wall of sound" during crescendos. (It could also be the broadcast or the renovated Severance Hall, which I heard on broadcast for the very first time.) But two distinctive "Cleveland" characteristics remain- The overall "snap" is still there (albeit not on absolute terms), and the overall "sound" is still world-class. The Dvorak 6 performed was a fine one. One would have to dig to find a performance that was significantly better. (Although I say one of them is that Dohnanyi recording.)
A broadcast doesn't really say much, so I shouldn't go overboard here. I'll need to see them live to get the real picture. The Cleveland Orchestra still sounded great, however, through that limited conduit. Maybe not the Orchestra it once was, but it's still a machine of world caliber, in a world where high musical standards have become a rare and precious commodity.
