by Kevin McLaughlin
This article was originally published on Cleveland.com
CUYAHOGA FALLS, Ohio – The Cleveland Orchestra brought together music, nature and friendship in a program as warm and satisfying as a summer night under the trees at Blossom Music Center on Saturday.
Conducted by Daniel Reith — making his final appearance as the ensemble’s associate conductor — the concert offered the regional premiere of Gabriella Smith’s Rewilding, Max Bruch’s seldom-heard Violin Concerto No. 2 and Edward Elgar’s beloved Enigma Variations.
Commissioned in honor of the 50th anniversary of Cuyahoga Valley National Park — where Blossom is situated — Rewilding is Smith’s exuberant tribute to ecological restoration.
From its opening moments, the work delights in unusual sounds: Percussionists swirl walnuts in mixing bowls, snap twigs in rhythm and set bicycle spokes clattering with mallets. Smith has described her fondness for the rattling bicycles’ as “sheer joy,” a sentiment clearly shared by the percussionists, who managed to smile through their concentration.
Under Reith’s direction, the musicians threw themselves into the composer’s unconventional instructions — to be “messy,” to “wiggle,” even to “be a frog.” That last effect was accomplished so convincingly by the violins that one could imagine hearing “ribbits” from the creeks nearby. These gestures are not gimmicks, but invitations to share Smith’s optimism that restoring damaged ecosystems can be playful as well as urgent.
With equal aplomb, the orchestra pivoted to Romantic-era drama. Assistant Concertmaster Stephen Tavani stepped forward as soloist in Bruch’s Violin Concerto No. 2, a work the ensemble had not performed since Jascha Heifetz played it here in 1923.
Tavani embraced the concerto’s operatic breadth, floating his phrases in the unusual Adagio first movement with the ease of a light tenor. Reith was a sensitive partner, offering the most transparent support from the orchestra. In the central Recitativo, Tavani introduced a horn-call motive that soon drew an answering echo from the orchestra’s horns — a reminder of Bruch’s dramatic instincts, if not quite of Smith’s amphibians from earlier in the evening.
The finale crackled with Tavani’s fleet passagework, and Reith’s attentive accompaniment let the soloist’s nuanced reading register fully. He was rewarded at the end by warm smiles from the audience and his fellow orchestra musicians.
Elgar’s Variations on an Original Theme, universally known as the Enigma Variations, closed the program. Composed between October 1898 and February 1899, the piece quickly established Elgar’s international reputation after its London premiere.
Dedicated “to my friends pictured within,” each variation sketches someone from the composer’s circle, from his wife Alice to his confidant and publisher, August Jaeger. Elgar himself appears in the cheerful finale, “E.D.U.,” a nickname drawn from his wife’s pet name for him, “Eduard.”
The mystery of the title theme — whether it conceals a hidden counter-melody or symbolic reference — has never been solved, fueling more than a century of speculation.
Reith brought chamber-like clarity to the lighter character portraits — the playful “Dorabella,” the bustling “Troyte” — while giving space to the orchestra’s soloists: Wesley Collins’s warm viola in “Ysobel,” Mark Kosower’s soulful cello in “B.G.N.” and Afendi Yusuf’s dreamy clarinet in “Romanza.”
The noble “Nimrod” unfolded with dignity while the finale marshaled the brasses for a stirring conclusion, capping both the work and Reith’s tenure.
In a concert linking Smith’s joy in nature, Bruch’s operatic fervor and Elgar’s portraits of friendship, the evening became both a meditation on connections and a fond farewell to Reith, whose impact on the orchestra and its audiences will be warmly remembered.
Published on ClevelandClassical.com August 23, 2025
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