by Peter Feher
This article was originally published on Cleveland.com
CLEVELAND, Ohio – Johannes Brahms was a composer well attuned to the sounds of nature. They reverberate throughout his symphonies, from magnificent horn calls evoking the Alps to sunny, pastoral stretches of string writing.
Still, like most classical musicians, he probably wouldn’t have cited the great outdoors as his preferred concert environment.
So it was unexpectedly lucky for all involved that, amid air-quality alerts and thunderstorms, the Cleveland Orchestra made a rare change of venue, moving Saturday’s Blossom Music Festival performance indoors to Severance.
“A Taste of Spain” at Blossom on Saturday July 19 featured The Cleveland Orchestra and guest conductor Bramwell Tovey in Iberian-inspired music by two Frenchmen and one authentic Spaniard who went into self-exile in Argentina after Franco won the Spanish civil war. Sunny as the music was, the weather in Cuyahoga Falls was damp and chilly: in his jovial remarks at the beginning of the second half, Tovey welcomed the audience to what indeed felt like a Spanish winter.