Cleveland Orchestra Lives Up To Its Rep at Kennedy Center

Franz Welser-Moest led the superb orchestra in music by Mozart and others. (By Roger Mastroianni)

The redoubtable Cleveland Orchestra visited the Kennedy Center on Monday night, courtesy of the Washington Performing Arts Society. Music Director Franz Welser-Moest offered an early Mozart symphony, John Adams's "Guide to Strange Places" (a U.S. premiere) and Tchaikovsky's "Pathétique."

The band is still one of the world's greatest; since its glory days under George Szell, Cleveland has often been compared to a large string quartet in its unanimity of ensemble, cleanliness of intonation and perfect balance at all dynamic levels. Those qualities were all in place Monday, though there were moments of ordinariness as well. Many of us still recall their astounding Mahler Ninth about seven years ago -- how every wind and brass player seemed to have the ability to enter at either extreme of his range, no matter how softly, with perfect control. This time around, there were minute imperfections in some of the brass entrances, noticeable against the immaculate backdrop.

I rank conductors on an economy/productivity scale; the finest ones get puissant results with little apparent effort. Welser-Moest, now in his sixth season with the orchestra, has established clear understandings with his musicians; at times he shaped the sound with the movement of a single finger.

Mozart's Symphony No. 28 showcased the orchestra's long and fabled mastery of the Viennese classics: effervescent trills in the strings, deft balancing of the wind chords, every line polished to a high sheen and phrasing of melodies so natural and beguiling that one could easily imagine words.

Adams is enjoying a heyday; not since Copland and Barber were still with us has a living American composer been so firmly entrenched in the repertory. Much of his work is instantly appealing, which explains some of its success. What I have not yet come across is a piece that conceals deeper musical qualities revealed only after repeated listening or study. "Guide to Strange Places" contains all of the familiar, ear-catching elements: omnipresent percussion; layered, ostinato patterns; textures gradually morphing one into the next; themes of obsessive but indeterminate character; and colorful, tingling orchestration. But the whole amounted to less than the sum; the piece seemed amorphous and directionless. If an audience needs to read program notes to grasp the salient qualities of an orchestral work, the composer has not done his job well. There was visible fidgetage all around me long before the 24-minute work ended.

Like any abiding masterpiece, the "Path¿tique" will make its effect in a wide range of approaches. Welser-Moest held it somewhat at a distance, presenting more an X-ray of the score than a baring of his innermost nightmares, and he had the right band to do it with. After all the railing I have done about orchestral balances in the Kennedy Center Concert Hall, it was unalloyed pleasure to hear the strings singing out at all dynamic levels. The winds and brass were always present and forward, but they never overwhelmed. Those plexiglass acoustical shields the National Symphony Orchestra needs to use? Nowhere to be seen. The musicians simply listened to each other.