CONSIDERED OPINION OF THE CLEVELAND ORCHESTRA CONCERT OF 5/1/08

Johann Sebastian Bach: Passacaglia and Fugue in C minor, BWV 582 (arr. Andrew Davis). Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Violin Concerto No. 3 in G major, K. 216. César Franck: Symphony in D minor. (Stefan Jackiw, v.; Sir Andrew Davis, cond.)

Perhaps it was an omen that the New York Yankees were in town this past weekend. When word came down from the Cleveland Orchestra, you couldn't help but think of Yogi Berra's famous observation: "It's like déjà vu all over again." Last week, Pierre-Laurent Aimard's performance of the Bartók Piano Concerto No. 2 was cancelled due to muscular pain. This week, illness has sidelined Janine Jansen, who was to have played Prokofiev's Second Violin Concerto.

It's been a fortnight of disappointment for Northeast Ohio music lovers. And yet all has not been lost. This week, Cleveland Orchestra concertgoers have the chance to sample the artistry of an excellent but relatively little-known violinist: Stefan Jackiw, who was brought in to substitute for Jansen at the last minute, and who plays the Mozart Third Violin Concerto in place of the originally scheduled Prokofiev.

Jackiw, still just in his twenties, is a violinist of very considerable gifts. He draws a brawny, room-filling sound from his instrument. His lack of distracting mannerisms goes hand in hand with an apparently natural musicality. This wasn't quite a desert-island-quality rendition of the work. In the outer movements Jackiw tended to rush headlong through phrases that would have benefited from stricter rhythmic definition. The same was true in his encore: a rather precipitate reading of the Prelude from Bach's E-major violin partita. Even more significantly, Jackiw didn't seem to command much variety of color and character. Nor is that necessarily explained by his youth: compare the much more impressive breadth of tone in Anne-Sophie Mutter's first recording of the concerto, made when she was only fifteen. But Jackiw's sense of lyricism and proportion betoken a talent with an extremely promising future.

Guest conductor Sir Andrew Davis' interpretation of Franck's Symphony in D minor was equally absorbing, though it, too, exhibited the occasional miscalculation. In the beginning Lento section of the first-movement recapitulation, for example, Davis allowed the brass to become so overbearing that the strings, opening the subsequent Allegro with a vigorous variation on the same theme, sounded anemic. But such minor imperfections didn't greatly detract from this robust, exciting performance.

The evening opened with a surprise as pleasant as Stefan Jackiw's debut: Andrew Davis' superb orchestration of Bach's Passacaglia and Fugue for organ. It's inventive, adroit, and, for my money, more interesting than the famous adaptations by Respighi and Stokowski. You probably won't learn much about Bach's original from Davis' realization. Indeed, the base material seems almost irrelevant. But if someone orchestrated the greatest hits of Paula Abdul this creatively, it would probably still make for compelling listening.

Yes, there were a few points where the ensemble's execution seemed a bit tentative. But maybe we should cut the musicians some slack, given the confusion they've endured over the past couple weeks. As Yogi Berra might have observed, had he been of an artistic bent, half of playing music is 90% mental.

I'm 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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