Photo: Roger Mastroianni
This article was originally published on Cleveland.com
by Kevin McLaughlin
The world premiere of a percussion extravaganza stole the show on Thursday night in Mandel Hall at Severance Music Center, and may have set a record for the most percussion ever assembled on one stage.
Beginning the concert, Franz Welser-Möst’s account of Mozart’s Symphony No. 29 was airy and buoyant, despite larger-than-fashionable forces (42 strings). The outer movements were joyous and rhythmically meticulous, and the Orchestra’s ability to coalesce and balance was uncanny.
IN THIS EDITION:
The Akron Symphony fully embraced tradition with its opening-night concert this season. In an all-out performance of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony on September 29 at E.J. Thomas Hall, the Orchestra was recreating a major moment from its history. And at the end of the evening, as the finale of the “Ode to Joy” resounded throughout the hall, the program transformed into a complete celebration.
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It’s certainly not something you hear every day: a concert-lecture of Korean traditional music played on the modern violin. Can this kind of thing work? Should it?