CONSIDERED OPINION OF RED {AN ORCHESTRA}'S RED LIGHT: STOP AND LISTEN!, 10/20/07

Johann Sebastian Bach: Brandenburg Concerto No 2, BWV 1047; Andrzej Panufnik: Concertino for Timpani, Percussion, and Strings; Alfred Schnittke: Concerto Grosso No 1 for Two Violins, Prepared Piano, and Strings  (Jonathan Sheffer, cond.)

The boy in the picture has an enthusiastic grin: a look of genuine happiness, rather than an artificially amiable smile assumed to please the photographer. He is in his early teens. You have a sense that someone's tidied him up for a now-forgotten occasion. His hair—dark, dense, potentially unruly—seems to have been forcibly set in order. But there's no hiding his genuine enthusiasm for the object he holds proudly to his chest: his accordion.

No, a guest appearance on The Lawrence Welk Show was not in the young Alfred Schnittke's future. But there's something appropriate about picturing Schnittke—the eclectic, polystylistic Soviet composer—with an instrument chiefly known for its role in pop and folk music. Schnittke declared that he was determined to bridge the gap between art and popular music, even if he wound up breaking his own neck. Schnittke's Concerto Grosso No. 1 is perhaps his most renowned effort in that direction: a genuine modern classic. And it occupied the second half of Red Light: Stop and Listen!—Saturday evening's Red {an orchestra} concert at the First Baptist Church of Greater Cleveland.

"Red turns the spotlight on its musicians," declared the sub-sub-title of the program. Given the questionable technical caliber of a couple of last season's Red performances, that did not inspire confidence. But Red Light might just have been the best concert I've ever heard from this ensemble.

Apart from the unprepared-sounding prepared piano, Red's version of Schnittke's Concerto Grosso was a complete success. The ensemble deftly followed Schnittke's leaps from idiom to idiom. Violinists Hanne-Berit Hahnemann and Diana Cohen were confident, bold and aggressive, and at the same time acutely sensitive to one another's playing.

Andrzej Panufnik's Concertino for Timpani, Percussion, and Strings preceded the Schnittke on Saturday's program. And though I'm rather a fan of Panufnik's music—particularly his works of the '70s and '80s—the Concertino is new to me. It's an impressive piece of musical craft: a piece that makes timpani and percussion seem as natural in the solo spotlight as, say, a pair of violins. The fourth movement, titled "Canto II," was inexpressibly beautiful. And in the Concertino's concluding movement, soloists George Kiteley and Janet Pemberton generated a level of energy that could challenge some of rock's best double-drumming teams.

But perhaps the evening's biggest surprise was Red's realization of Bach's Second Brandenburg Concerto. It's not, after all, the sort of music typically associated with the ensemble. But conductor Jonathan Sheffer led the orchestra in a nicely regulated version of this Baroque favorite. Outer movements were brisk but not frantic, and interpretive gestures were kept at precisely the right scale.

With apologies to Schnittke and his accordion, Red Light is, quite simply, "Wunnerful, wunnerful."

Jerome Crossley for WCLV 104/9.

Considered Opinions is WCLV's program that reviews performances by Cleveland-area music ensembles. Commentator Jerome Crossley offers an informed and witty perspective on performances by groups that include the Cleveland Orchestra, Opera Cleveland, and Red {an orchestra}. Considered Opinions typically airs at 9.45 a.m., 12.20 p.m., and 5.20 p.m. the Friday following a Cleveland Orchestra concert, and it repeats at 9.45 a.m. on Saturday. Other air-times depend on the schedule of the ensembles reviewed.

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