Cleveland Pops Orchestra

Wilma Salisbury

Plain Dealer Music Critic

Guest artist Craig Schulman was billed as the star of the Cleveland Pops Orchestra concert Friday night at Severance Hall. But the veteran Broadway singer did not shine until the end of the program. In the meantime, a teenage wonder from Brunswick, Ohio, dazzled the crowd, and conductor-clarinetist Carl Topilow put on a terrific show.

Pianist Jerry Lang II, 16, played Gershwin's "I Got Rhythm Variations" with steely fingers, clean technique and fiery personality. With dreadlocks flying and shoulders dancing, he embodied the music and drew the audience into his exciting interpretation. After his performance, he was awarded the orchestra's 7th annual Jean L. Petitt Memorial Music Scholarship.

Topilow led the orchestra in energetic performances of medleys from Broadway shows, and he took the solo spotlight playing his red and black clarinets. With the red one, he told a musical joke based on "Over the Rainbow" from "The Wizard of Oz." With the black one, he portrayed the title character in "Clarinetist on the Roof."

In this klezmer-flavored revision of "Fiddler on the Roof," the fun-loving virtuoso made his instrument sing, dance, laugh and cry. A consummate showman, he played with extraordinary expressiveness and breath control while simultaneously leading the orchestra and getting audience members to sing a four-note phrase, clap in rhythm and sway in their seats.

As if that weren't enough, Topilow also contributed an orchestral arrangement of selections from "The Fantasticks." Trombonist Paul Ferguson, however, made the most distinctive new arrangement on the program. In his jazzy take on songs by Irving Berlin, the ensemble sounded like the orchestral counterpart of a swing-era big band. In the first part of the program, Schulman introduced himself in songs from "Man of La Mancha," "The Secret Garden" and "Company."

Although he belted out notes with power and used the microphone effectively, his voice sounded tired and stale. In a scene from "The Wizard of Oz" performed with scholarship runner-up Sharon Pearlman as Dorothy, he pushed his vibrato to extremes.

When he got to his specialties, however, his interpretations were thrilling. Having given more than 2,000 performances as Jean Valjean in "Les Misérables," Schulman has mastered the skill of making every inflection meaningful. His performance of the tearjerker, "Bring Him Home," struck an emotional chord. He was impressive, too, in "Music of the Night" from "The Phantom of the Opera." Smoothly blending gesture, posture and tone, he transformed himself into the tragic title character. In response to a standing ovation, Schulman offered an encore, "This is the Moment" from "Jekyll & Hyde," another show in which he played the title character - or as Topilow quipped, both of them.

To reach this Plain Dealer reporter:

wsalisbury@plaind.com, 216-999-4248