LEWISTON — Beethoven would have liked the festival in his honor at Artpark this past weekend. He would have liked the crickets that almost drowned out the Allegretto of his riotous Seventh Symphony. He would have approved of the copious amounts of white wine, his favorite quaff, consumed by the sizable crowd.

And, oh yes, I think he would have liked the music, too.

Though everything on the program was pretty well-known, the orchestra threw itself into it with the kind of enthusiasm that makes you sit up and smile. Brahms’ “Academic Festival” Overture, opening the concert, set the tone beautifully. It was splashy and unabashed. The orchestra and Music Director JoAnn Falletta seemed to revel in their own power.

The afternoon’s secret weapon was pianist Jon Klibonoff, performing the Beethoven Fourth. This was the first time I had heard him, and he is a gem.

Klibonoff charmed from the moment he placed his hands on the keys—which, in this unorthodox concerto, is right at the start of the piece. His tone was warm and sure.

At the center of his charm is his concentration, which I imagine you could feel even from the lawn seats. During the opening tutti, he nodded to the music, feeling the orchestra. When he joined in, it was in perfect balance.

In the first movement, Klibonoff did an admirable job of projecting both robust fortes and light, scampering passages. There was a marvelous moment at the end of the first-movement cadenza when you could see the orchestra tense, the bows rise and everything seemed to hang on the slender trill the pianist was playing. Even the crickets, I think, were quiet.

The slow movement shone forth with grace and clarity. Again, the ending was magical, as the last piano note sounded just so. In the last movement the orchestra sparkled. What a delight it was to hear—and see —the theme tossed from the piano to the orchestra, from the woodwinds to the violins. This piece is not always a showstopper, but Sunday, it was.

The Beethoven Seventh, which capped Sunday’s concert, was like a fireworks finale. The slow introduction to the first movement, you could feel Beethoven’s wit, the games he liked to play. This is music that is fun to watch as well as hear.

The Allegretto movement, so famously romantic, began with a special enchantment: Falletta bent toward the first two cellos, in this case Feng Hew and Amelie Fradette, and they gave it just the right fullness and warmth. Falletta took the movement at a good tempo, not too rushed, not too slow.

The third and fourth movements popped and sizzled. That last movement—pow! You had to love it, even if you had heard it a thousand times.

Concert Review

Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra

Beethoven Festival. Sunday afternoon at Artpark, Lewiston.

mkunz@buffnews.comnull