Institute musicians in usual fine form at Severance Hall

Donald Rosenberg

Plain Dealer Music Critic

Students, faculty and staff at the Cleveland Institute of Music are trying to avoid being bonked on the head by all sorts of construction materials these days. The institute is in the midst of a $40 million expansion that will find hard hats harmonizing, however pungently, with harps and company for two years.

But musical business is continuing as usual, which means on an extremely high level. The CIM Orchestra plunged into concerts soon after the school year began, and it took a stroll down East Boulevard on Wednesday to give its first performance of the season at Severance Hall.

As always, the playing was impressive from top to bottom - from elegant strings, fragrant winds and noble brass to articulate percussion. Carl Topilow was on the podium to lead works by Bernstein, Stravinsky and Grieg that allowed the musicians to flex their artistic muscles in varied styles.

Bernstein's Divertimento for Orchestra, written for the Boston Symphony's centennial in 1980, proved a brash, brilliant opener. The eight movements comprise a smorgasbord of popular forms and dances, including waltz, mazurka, turkey trot and Sousalike march (the piccolos and brass even get to stand a la "The Stars and Stripes Forever").

Topilow and the orchestra enjoyed Bernstein's tipsy rhythms - the asymmetrical waltz is particularly endearing - and explosion of rowdy ideas. Every section had a chance to strut its instrumental stuff.

The 1919 version of Stravinsky's suite from "The Firebird" was interrupted several times by cell phones (one playing the "William Tell" Overture!). But the orchestra sounded secure in the challenging writing. Although the performance wasn't the most nuanced or flexible reading of "Firebird" imaginable, it showcased the refinement and power of which these musicians are eminently capable. And the solos by bassoonist Johanna Sterba and hornist Robert Rearden were gorgeous.

Few concertos are more beloved, or overdone, than Grieg's Piano Concerto. Happily, the performance Wednesday had a soloist who took this wonderful score off the assembly line and made it into something fresh. Antonio Pompa-Baldi, an institute faculty member and first-prize winner of the 1999 Cleveland International Piano Competition, played the famous opening octaves with fierce determination and proceeded to invest the piece with bountiful poetry and drama.

The pianist maintained a singing line, whatever the expressive mood, and tonal clarity. He was especially sensitive to the folk-inspired simplicity that gives this concerto its special charisma. But he also could roar, as in the cadenzas.

Pompa-Baldi's collaboration with Topilow and the orchestra was superb, and he returned to offer an agile encore of Moritz Moszkowski's Etude in A-flat major, Op. 72, No. 11.