Of all the concerts at this year’s Edinburgh International Festival, one really intrigued me Tuesday night’s Usher Hall concert top-billed by the Cleveland Orchestra, writes Garry Fraser.
The attraction was not only the orchestra, but two solo organ works by Charles Ives a rare chance to hear the hall’s organ in all its glory.
The result? Extreme disappointment.
His variations on America (which “borrows” the tune of God Save The Queen) were ordinary to say the least, and more of a light-hearted spoof.
Misgivings apart about the work, the performance of Joela Jones left a lot to be desired. Her choice of registration was shrill at best, muddy at worst, and I decided that this was a performer lacking in preparation and familiarity with the organ.
The Postlude In F, her second contribution, made the organ sound as it should.
In between these two Ives works was his From The Steeples And The Mountains, a dreadful mix of tubular bells and two solo brass.
The combination of Ives and what was to follow just did not work a rare example of programme planning gone wrong.
The saving grace was Bruckner’s Eighth Symphony, which was once referred as the “crown of 19th-century music.”
I would disagree with that, as would adherents of Brahms and Mahler, but it is 80 minutes or so of pulsating masses of orchestral colour and texture.
The Cleveland Orchestra’s reputation was underlined in a superb performance with direction by Franz Welser-Most.
I thought they might have peaked during the second movement, but they provided an idyllic adagio and a triumphantly belligerent finale.
This work can be daunting to the uninitiated, but there is reward in the glory of its sound.
That, and performances like that of the Clevelanders.
Photo by Roger Mastroianni/Edinburgh International Festival.