Review: 'Cleveland Orchestra exudes joy on resplendent 2021 Holiday Concerts program'

Brett Mitchell leads The Cleveland Orchestra in a dozen performances of their 2021 Holiday Concerts at Severance Music Center. (Photo by The Plain Dealer)

CLEVELAND — cleveland.com has published a review of the opening night performance of The Cleveland Orchestra’s 2021 Holiday Concerts, led by guest conductor Brett Mitchell:

Look no further than this year’s Holiday Concerts for proof the Cleveland Orchestra is glad to be back playing for live audiences.

Packed like a full stocking with a wide variety of music, the orchestra’s holiday program in 2021 is nothing if not a display of sincere goodwill all the way around.

Brett Mitchell, a former associate conductor here, is back in a role for which he is uncommonly well suited. He’s adept at the classics, to be sure, but he’s also got a special knack for pops and an easy sense of humor that makes him a natural host.

Patrons Thursday night at Severance Music Center also got to hear the first live notes by the Cleveland Orchestra Chorus with the orchestra in 21 months. On its own, “O Come, All Ye Faithful” would have been beautiful, but context made it an even greater treasure.

All patrons, happily, get to hear vocalist Capathia Jenkins. Into an evening otherwise devoted to classical, traditional, and contemporary music, she injects a healthy dose of holiday jazz, expertly conjuring Ella Fitzgerald in “Santa Claus is Coming to Town” and holding the house perfectly transfixed with “Let it Snow!” and “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.”

The Chorus remains in fine form under director Lisa Wong. To this listener, Eric Whitacre’s solemn “Lux Aurumque” (“Light and Gold”) is alone worth the price of admission, with its gentle, haunting dissonance, but a lavish, resonant “Wexford Carol” and stirring first movement from Rutter’s “Gloria” compete as close seconds.

The singers also hold up admirably on a brisk account of Handel’s tricky but always rewarding “Hallelujah” Chorus and in a luminous performance of “Somewhere in my Memory” from John Williams’ brilliant soundtrack to the film “Home Alone.”

The big man himself pays an unannounced visit, stopping by to exchange witty remarks with Mitchell, improvise sly responses to audience questions, and narrate “The Night Before Christmas,” in an obviously rehearsed performance with the orchestra.

That the musicians also have done their due diligence is evident in several purely orchestral numbers. Leroy Anderson’s “Sleigh Ride” makes its mandatory appearance but a lilting performance of Tchaikovsky’s “Waltz of the Flowers,” a dashing “Christmas Overture” by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, and the little-known “Sleigh Ride” German Dance by Mozart are even more welcome.

Rounding out the night are two (okay, three, with an encore) sing-along moments. All those without hearts of stone are certain to enjoy taking part in the all-too-rare experience of communal singing, in this case of “Away in a Manger,” “Joy to the World,” and “Silent Night.” If the concert as a whole is a well-decorated tree, they’re the last, essential piece, the star at the top.

To read the complete review, please click here.