Cleveland Orchestra announces major changes to November’s Beethoven Concerto Cycle

November 5, 2024 by Daniel Hathaway

by Daniel Hathaway

On Monday morning, The Cleveland Orchestra announced that both its music director and the featured soloist for its forthcoming Beethoven Concerto Cycle have withdrawn from the seven-concert series at Severance Music Center, scheduled for November 6-17.

In a press release, the Orchestra wrote that “Franz Welser-Möst will be unable to conduct the upcoming three weeks of performances in Cleveland due to ongoing medical treatment. The Cleveland Orchestra family greatly looks forward to his return to the podium when he is fully recovered.

“Following Franz Welser-Möst’s cancellation, pianist Igor Levit withdrew from his planned performances of the Beethoven piano concertos.”

Five pianists — Sir Stephen Hough, Yunchan Lim, Garrick Ohlsson, Minsoo Sohn, and Orion Weiss — will now be featured in the five concertos and Triple Concerto. Assistant Conductor Daniel Reith will conduct. The previously announced programs will remain the same.

Here is the revised schedule for the Beethoven Concerto Cycle.

Program No. 1
Wednesday, November 6, 2024, at 7:30 pm
Thursday, November 7, 2024, at 7:30 pm
Orion Weiss, piano (Triple Concerto)
Augustin Hadelich, violin
Julia Hagen, cello
Sir Stephen Hough, piano (Third Concerto)

BEETHOVEN Triple Concerto
BEETHOVEN Piano Concerto No. 3

Program No. 2
Saturday, November 9, 2024, at 8 pm
Tuesday, November 12, 2024, at 7:30 pm
Garrick Ohlsson, piano

BEETHOVEN Piano Concerto No. 2
BEETHOVEN Piano Concerto No. 4

Program No. 3
Friday, November 15, 2024, at 7:30 pm
Saturday, November 16, 2024, at 8 pm
Sunday, November 17, 2024, at 3 pm
Minsoo Sohn, piano (First Concerto)
Yunchan Lim, piano (Fifth Concerto)

BEETHOVEN Piano Concerto No. 1
BEETHOVEN Piano Concerto No. 5, “Emperor”

Published on ClevelandClassical.com November 5, 2024

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About Daniel Hathaway

Daniel Hathaway founded ClevelandClassical.com in September, 2008, after a thirty-one year tenure as music director of Cleveland’s Trinity Cathedral, where he founded the Wednesday Noon Brownbag Concert Series and Trinity Chamber Orchestra. A graduate of Harvard College and the Episcopal Divinity School, he also studied historical musicology at Princeton and Harvard Universities. Before coming to Cleveland in 1977, he served as head of humanities at the Sunset Hill School in Kansas City and as head of arts at Groton School in Massachusetts. In Cleveland, he has served on the music staff of Cleveland Opera, Great Lakes Theater Festival, and the faculty of Laurel School. As an organist, Hathaway has played recitals in the U.S., England, France, Germany, and Austria. He team-teaches Music Journalism at Oberlin College and Conservatory and is a member of the Music Critics Association of North America.

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