O say, can those CIM students play

Donald Rosenberg

Plain Dealer Music Critic

What an encouraging tradition. Every year, the Cleveland Institute of Music Orchestra beats the Cleveland Orchestra out of the starting gate by giving a mid-September concert at Severance Hall. Listening to these exceptional students instills hope for classical music's bright future. And if history is accurate, more than a few of them one day will play in Severance's august resident ensemble.

The CIM Orchestra's concert Wednesday at our hallowed hall was another blockbuster under the baton of Carl Topilow. But it had one difference from past events: The program did without a concerto featuring a student or seasoned soloist. The emphasis was on the CIM students, who did their estimable best to seize the day (at night).

Topilow used as many CIM instrumentalists as possible, cramming the Severance stage for colorful works by Morton Gould, Manuel de Falla and Ottorino Respighi. The two latter composers received the extra benefit of projected texts on a screen above the orchestra. The titles helped mightily in clarifying the narratives as the music traveled its merry or exotic way.

But the texts did something even more important. They revealed how masterfully Falla and Respighi evoked scenes and atmospheres in sound. Falla's ballet "The Three-Cornered Hat" is an explosion of Spanish whimsy and passion, its tale of a debauched mayor trying to seduce the miller's wife a splendid opportunity for the composer to exploit the full resources of the orchestra.

Topilow and his CIM forces told the tale with fine attention to detail and earthy sonority. The national dances were irresistible acts of seduction, the solos rendered with mounds of personality. The mischievous mayor had an endearing champion in bassoonist Kristin Day, and hornist Brigette Bencoe and English hornist Catherine Weinfield also did stellar solo work. Mezzo-soprano Natasha Ospina was in opulent voice onstage and off.

Dynamics all evening long veered to the loud side, though the sound never journeyed into harsh territory. Respighi's "The Pines of Rome" received a performance of immense power, with a final crescendo to the Appian Way that is still ringing in my ears. Yet Topilow also exulted in the score's subtle touches, including the magical clarinet solo (handsomely shaped by Justin Johnston) and recorded nightingale chirps.

Anyone who believes the expansive range of "The Star-Spangled Banner" makes it unsingable -- which should be just about everyone -- would be delighted to hear how Gould treats the song in "Star Spangled Overture," from his "American Ballads." The work deconstructs the tricky tune, sending fragments here and there, and uses the orchestra in bursts of imaginative colors and rhythmic gestures.

It's an ideal concert opener. Topilow led the orchestra in an account that honored the wit and affection Gould poured into the piece. O say, you could really hear, even if not by the dawn's early light, these musicians proudly doing their artistic stuff.