CONSIDERED OPINION OF THE CLEVELAND ORCHESTRA CONCERT OF 2/28/08

Johannes Maria Staud: Apeiron—Music for Large Orchestra. Ludwig van Beethoven: Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 3 in C minor, Op. 37. Johannes Brahms: Symphony No. 4 in E minor, Op. 98.

Last Chance to See was the title of a BBC series and book in which Douglas Adams, author of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, traveled with a zoologist in search of vanishing animal species. But it might also serve as title for this weekend's Cleveland Orchestra program. Alfred Brendel isn't just the soloist in this series of concerts: he's, plain and simple, the star. The pianist, now in his late seventies, has announced that he'll give his final concert at Vienna's Musikverein this December. Unless you're heading to central Europe for the holidays, this could well be your last chance to see a musical giant before he heads into a planned future of lecturing and writing.

Brendel's musical vehicle this weekend is the Beethoven Third Piano Concerto. You know Beethoven, right?: high-strung...quick to pick a quarrel...a sort of Middle-European Yosemite Sam. But you probably won't find that Beethoven in Brendel's playing. "Beethoven the architect" is what Brendel has called the composer: but "Beethoven the structural engineer" might be as apt a metaphor for what the pianist uncovers in this music. There's not a hint of bluster in Brendel's performance. He's not afraid to execute the occasional bold gesture when one is demanded. But he appears far more interested in the music's subtle internal balances. Even the first-movement cadenza—in other hands a mercurial, temperamental tour de force—is carefully proportioned. Other pianists might play this music with more drama, or more passion, or more spectacular technique. But you'd be hard pressed to find a pianist who plays it more coherently.

Music Director Franz Welser-Möst seemed generally sympathetic to Brendel's approach to the concerto-though it sounded like, left to his own devices, the conductor might have adopted quicker tempos in the concluding Rondo. Certainly Welser-Möst didn't allow the opening movement of Brahms' Fourth Symphony to dillydally. In Welser-Möst's reading, Brahms' final symphony is weighty without being ponderous. It's a bit like a big, heavy car that's surprisingly nimble when you get it out on the road. This is an unusual, fresh take on some extremely familiar music.

Johannes Maria Staud's Apeiron is pretty close to other end of the familiarity spectrum: Thursday's concert was its U.S. premiere. Never mind the composer's forbidding commentary on the work, reproduced in the program guide: Apeiron is surprisingly accessible. In the hands of an adventurous director and producer, it would make striking movie music—sometimes icily evocative, sometimes rousing, but not, for the most part, crudely manipulative. The final section, full of anxious energy, would be a dandy accompaniment for a climactic encounter between an intrepid gumshoe and an elusive villain—preferably in a maze of shadowy alleys.

Wander into the dark academic alley of Staud's program notes, however, and you might yourself feel like Yosemite Sam. "Don't rush me," he says in Bugs Bunny Rides Again, "I'm a-thinkin'….And my head hurts!"

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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