MUSIC REVIEWS : CLEVELAND ORCHESTRA PLAYS ROYCE HALL

The Cleveland Orchestra played in Royce Hall, UCLA, Friday and Saturday nights, led by its music director Christoph von Dohnanyi.

In appearance, as well as in certain musical matters, Dohnanyi is the antithesis of the late George Szell, who led the orchestra from 1946-70. Szell was stern, forbidding and professorial in appearance; his manner never courted familiarity. Dohnanyi, a vigorous 57, with rumpled gray hair and an athletic stance, beams geniality and cheerfulness. In action, he is alert, controlled and unshakably authoritative, he can be active, but he never becomes theatrical. He commands the undivided attention of the orchestra as well as that of the audience.

The peak of the Royce Hall concerts was Brahms’ First Symphony. Dohnanyi takes an imposing view of it. He invokes driving rhythms, maintains constant awareness of inner voices and deals in broad contrasts. He is not one to fuss over minor details, and he keeps a long unbroken musical line, lavished with large-scale emotional patterns.

He creates flexibility by strictness. The first movement was powerful yet logical. The second and third movements were at once mellow and virile. The final movement rose to a stirring climax, and at all times the orchestra played with extraordinary precision and supple phrasing.

Haydn’s Symphony No. 88 in G appeared on both programs. The conductor used a fairly large quota of string players, yet judicious balance was maintained and dynamics remained within the classical frame.

The second program brought Ligeti’s “Lontano,” a rather attractive manipulation of orchestral sonorities based on devices invented by Schoenberg in his Opus 16.

Mendelssohn’s Symphony No. 1 in C Minor offered no great satisfaction to either players or audience. It was pleasant enough, but it had little to say. Richard Strauss’ rarely heard “Metamorphosen: A Study for 23 Solo String Instruments” proved a masterful performance of remarkable clarity and urgent emotional appeal.

For all-out, crackling virtuosity, Strauss’ “Till Eulenspiegel” was nothing short of spectacular. The Cleveland is not the only high-powered virtuoso orchestra, but in any rating list it belongs close to the top.