CUYAHOGA FALLS, Ohio - Last week's lesson from the Cleveland Orchestra? Never pass up Blossom Music Center just because the guests aren't superstars.
Do so, and you risk missing some of the most interesting performances of the season. Performances like those given Saturday by conductor Fabien Gabel and pianist Juho Pohjonen. Their handling of a French and Russian program may not have been wholly convincing, but it wasn't anything close to dull, either.
Happily, the relative obscurity of the guests wasn't a problem. On another temperate, dry evening, the audience Saturday was as large as it's been all year, and the crowd regaled Gabel and Pohjonen with hearty applause.
That fervor was justified, mostly. Gabel evinced a fondness for slower tempos, but how he filled that extra space was scintillating, and Pohjonen's account of Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No. 1 was positively electrifying, the ideal blend of poise and passion.
The main attraction Saturday, besides the orchestra, was "Bolero," Ravel's masterpiece in the form of a giant crescendo. Of this most beloved of French scores, Gabel, music director of the Quebec Symphony Orchestra, took a long view, leading listeners on a purposeful and stately journey that fully delivered on its promise.
A softer beginning or slower overall tempo would be hard to imagine. For the first several moments, in fact, the backbone drum pattern (expertly played by principal percussionist Marc Damoulakis) was almost inaudible.
But the merits of Gabel's approach soon became clear. The slower pace gave the orchestra more than enough room to strut and swagger, while also giving listeners the rare ability to truly savor each new instrument and combination. And oh, the finale. The peak at the end of Gabel's climb was shattering, a shock to the system none will soon forget.
"The Haunted Palace" packed a much different sort of punch. Instead of a sensual explosion, the object of Florent Schmitt's symphonic etude was to conjure the ghostly fear that infuses an eponymous poem by Edgar Allen Poe.
This Gabel achieved, and vividly. The performance over which he presided at the night's outset was boldly evocative as well as effective in its nuanced transition from light to dark.
Gabel's only weak showing was in Debussy's "Iberia." Here, rather than intensify the music (three portraits of Spain), the conductor's luxurious pace sapped the scenes of their vitality. There was beauty and enchantment galore, especially in "The Fragrances of the Night," but not enough elsewhere in the way of lyricism or sweep.
As for Pohjonen and Prokofiev, one couldn't ask for better. To the short, three-movement concerto, the pianist brought virtuosity in spades, flitting through the music with a touch that was steely and bright but shy of percussive.
The Andante Assai was a special experience. Where the two outer movements were propulsive romps, the slow movement with Pohjonen gushed and bubbled over like a fountain. And yet control never wavered; Indeed, the effect was collaborative, the result of close communication between orchestra, conductor, and soloist.
Classical music is in part a celebrity culture. The biggest names attract the most attention. But there's also a big world beyond the stars, and Saturday proved it's always one worth exploring.