by Daniel Hathaway
This article was originally published on Cleveland.com
CUYAHOGA FALLS, OHIO — The Cleveland Orchestra, Norwegian guest conductor Tabita Berglund, and Dutch violinist Simone Lamsma — pyromaniacs all — set what looked like a routine orchestral program ablaze on Saturday evening, August 15 at the Blossom Music Center.
Lamsma is a well-known guest with the Orchestra, and judging only by the ardent reception she received from the Blossom crowd the moment she stepped on stage for Jean Sibelius’s concerto, a very popular visitor.
The Cleveland Orchestra’s final classical concert at Blossom Music Center on Saturday, like the last rose of summer, was the unexpected apogee of the season. Transforming a generic-sounding program titled “Impressions of France and Spain,” conductor Fabien Gabel captivated in works of Ravel, de Falla, and Saint-Saëns’ 
The Cleveland Orchestra’s production of Janácek’s Cunning Little Vixen was a tough act to follow, but the last concert of the Severance Hall season under guest conductor Vladimir Jurowski proved to be anything but anti-climactic. A sumptuous performance of an hour-long suite from Prokofiev’s ballet, Cinderella, a spellbinding reading of Britten’s Violin Concerto by Simone Lamsma and the opportunity to hear a very early Stravinsky work, the Scherzo fantastique, op. 3, added up to a surprisingly brilliant season finale. I heard the first of three concerts on Thursday, May 29.