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THE CLEVELANDERS
By Tim Smith
In the world of American orchestras, there's the Big Five and then everyone else. And within the Big Five, there's the Cleveland Orchestra and then everyone else. It has long been so.
Of course, there's room for argument, as in any attempt to rank something as subjective as artistic quality. Some listeners will hear in the other four top ensembles many an attribute that should merit number one status -- the brilliant brass of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the silken and sumptuous strings of the Philadelphia Orchestra, the overall vigor of the New York Philharmonic, or the sheer elegance of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. But when it comes to the total package -- all those minute technical details in the articulation of music, and all those even subtler elements of expression and communication -- it's awfully hard to beat the Clevelanders.
Although certain characteristics have changed with each new music director over the decades, there is a remarkable consistency, a fundamental strength of purpose and artistry behind this institution from Ohio. The Cleveland Orchestra that is opening the 2006-2007 season at New York's Carnegie Hall is, in many ways, the same stellar Cleveland Orchestra of 10 years ago -- or 20, 40, even 60 years ago. It's still the orchestra to beat.
The roster of music directors speaks volumes about the institution's quality and the firmness of its roots. Founding conductor Nikolai Sokoloff may not be widely remembered today, but his successors at the helm of the Cleveland Orchestra include some of the best known, most respected names of the classical music world's last 80 years -- Artur Rodzinski, Erich Leinsdorf, George Szell, Lorin Maazel, Christoph von Dohnányi. It's a who's who of top conductors (clearly weighted toward those of European extraction). Although there may not be as clear a consensus about the orchestra's current music director (since 2002), Austrian-born Franz Welser-Möst, as there is about his predecessors, his artistic sensibility is considerable, the caliber of the ensemble still formidable.
Music came early to Cleveland. There was a Mozart society in town by 1837, a Mendelssohn society by 1850. Choirs and brass bands were plentiful; chamber music was well represented, too. Several orchestras were up and running by the 1870s, and by the early 20th century, the city was ready for a crack at the big time. The opportunity arrived the same year World War I ended, with the founding of the Cleveland Symphony Orchestra (the middle name was dropped after the first season). The public debut was at Grays' Armory on December 11, 1918, with Nikolai Sokoloff on the podium. As the NEW GROVE DICTIONARY OF AMERICAN MUSIC notes, a local review of the inaugural concert predicted that Sokoloff would "lead our ever-existing nucleus out of the house of bondage into the land of honey and pleasant pastures." (They just don't write like that anymore.)
Top banner photos: Soprano Dorothea Röschmann and Franz Welser-Möst with the Cleveland Orchestra (photos by Joe Sinnott); Carnegie Hall exterior (photo by Don Perdue).
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The Cleveland Orchestra (photo by Joe Sinnott). |  |
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The gala was hosted by Paula Zahn (photo by Joe Sinnott). | |
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No CD or DVD available. | |
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