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Michael Francis leads The Cleveland Orchestra in all-Czech program at Blossom (Aug. 5)

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by Timothy Robson

On Sunday, August 5 at Blossom Music Center, The Cleveland Orchestra played a concise and musically satisfying program of works by three Czech composers: Smetana, Janáček, and Dvořák. British conductor Michael Francis led the stylish performance. With the temperature hovering around a sweltering and humid 87 degrees at concert time, the male members of the orchestra sensibly doffed their usual white dinner jackets for shirtsleeves. Even the tree-surrounded — and usually cooler — Blossom grounds failed to provide much relief from the midsummer heat.

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TCO: Blomstedt at Blossom (July 28)

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by David Kulma

Having recently turned 91, Herbert Blomstedt is practically an institution in himself, with a career spanning more than six decades. On Saturday, July 28, he returned to Northeast Ohio to lead The Cleveland Orchestra at Blossom Music Center in two canonical symphonies by Mozart and Brahms. The “Jupiter” was so smooth and straightforward as to pass by unremarkably, while the stirringly passionate performance of Brahms 4 showed how a seasoned conductor with a top-flight orchestra can achieve magic.

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Cleveland Orchestra: a conversation with Simon Trpčeski

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by Mike Telin

The sounds of Russian music will fill Blossom Music Center on Saturday, August 11 at 8:00 pm when Vasily Petrenko leads The Cleveland Orchestra in Liadov’s Baba-Yaga, Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini and Prokofiev’s Symphony No. 5. Tickets are available online.

The concert also marks the return visit to the Blossom stage by pianist Simon Trpčeski. “I made my Cleveland Orchestra debut at Blossom playing Rachmaninoff’s second concerto and it was an honor to be asked to perform that same piece the following year on the subscription series at Severance Hall,” the pianist said by telephone from California, where he was premiering a new concerto at the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music.

“It’s not just my opinion, but Cleveland is one of the top orchestras in the world, and Blossom is such a beautiful venue. This time I am playing a different concerto, but it is by the same composer,” the Macedonian pianist said. “And to play it with my good friend Vasily — we’ve played and recorded all of the Rachmaninoff concertos — is going to be a fantastic musical journey.”

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Blossom Festival 50th Anniversary: Reasons to celebrate (Part III)

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by Alice Koeninger

As we celebrate its 50th anniversary, it’s fun to look back on highlights from Blossom Music Center’s illustrious list of performances. In its inaugural season in 1968, Vladimir Ashkenazy made his first appearance with The Cleveland Orchestra as a pianist. The newly-formed Blossom Festival Chorus performed Carmina Burana on August 25, to great acclaim. This year, they will perform that same work on the same date, exactly 50 years later.

Blossom’s second year brought performances by such artists as Alicia de Larrocha, Victor Borge, José Feliciano, Duke Ellington, Maria Alba, Hank Thompson, Dionne Warwick, André Kostelanetz with Marian Anderson, and Peter Nero. The first Fourth of July concert also took place in 1969, conducted by Meredith Willson, composer of The Music Man. That same year saw the official record for the largest crowd ever at Blossom: 24,364 people came out to hear Blood, Sweat & Tears. That record was “unofficially” broken in 1973 when Pink Floyd attracted an estimated 32,000 people to Blossom’s green slopes.

Leonard Bernstein conducted Mahler’s Second Symphony –– his only appearance with The Cleveland Orchestra –– in 1970. While governor of Georgia, Jimmy Carter visited Blossom in 1974 as the guest of Ohio governor John Gilligan. In 1984, Big Bird made a guest appearance, and in 1985, Christoph von Dohnányi presented a fully-staged production of The Magic Flute. [Read more…]

Blossom Music Center: opening a summer home for The Cleveland Orchestra (second of three articles)

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by Alice Koeninger

50 years ago, the Cleveland-Akron area was bursting with anticipation of Blossom Music Center’s opening on July 19, 1968. For the two weeks leading up to the inaugural performance –– which began with The Star Spangled Banner and continued with Beethoven’s Consecration of the House Overture and the Ninth Symphony –– newspapers ran a continuous flow of previews to hype the event. Articles about the coupon books being sold (tickets were only $2 for the lawn), the relaxed dress code (an Akron Beacon Journal headline read “Wear what you please”), and the planned broadcast of the program in color on Channel 3 and on WCLV-FM, all added to the excitement. [Read more…]

Cleveland Orchestra at Blossom: Roger Daltrey in Tommy (July 8)

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by Timothy Robson

On Sunday evening, July 8, Roger Daltrey, legendary lead singer of The Who, joined members of the current incarnation of the band and the Cleveland Orchestra in a concert performance of Tommy in front of a sold-out Blossom Music Festival audience. This was the last show on an 11-city, 13–performance tour. [Read more…]

Blossom Music Center: starting to build a summer home for The Cleveland Orchestra
(first of three articles)

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by Alice Koeninger

As you may remember, two summers ago The Cleveland Orchestra helped to celebrate the centennial of the National Parks Service at the Blossom Music Center. Now it is time for Blossom to celebrate its own milestone: its 50th anniversary.

At Blossom’s conception, The Cleveland Orchestra was the only “Big Five” orchestra in the country that did not offer full-time positions to its musicians, mainly due to the fact that it did not have a summer home. In 1965, it became musical director George Szell’s mission to build such a residence, and the Musical Arts Association was finally listening.

Soon, Frank E. Joseph, Szell’s friend and board president, along with Beverly Barksdale, the Orchestra’s general manager, began looking at possible sites for that outdoor venue. 

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Got summer plans, Cleveland Orchestra? Blossom + Summers@Severance + a few extra notables

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by Jarrett Hoffman

Absence makes the heart grow fonder, and Clevelanders haven’t heard their orchestra live since mid-May. In the interim, The Cleveland Orchestra has been on the road, finishing off their centennial-capping Prometheus Project with performances at Vienna’s Musikverein and Tokyo’s Suntory Hall. Oh, how we miss them.

We’ll get reacquainted with TCO soon, thanks to their schedule at this year’s 50th anniversary season of Blossom Music Festival, plus their fourth Summers@Severance series.

The Cleveland Orchestra marks the unofficial beginning of summer when they open their Blossom season on Saturday, July 7 at 8:00 pm. At the helm will be music director Franz Welser-Möst, leading the Orchestra in Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition in its orchestration by Ravel, Reznicek’s Overture to Donna Diana, and Beethoven’s Triple Concerto, featuring TCO’s own soloists –– pianist Joela Jones, violinist Stephen Rose, and cellist Mark Kosower. At this concert and two others, check out the Image Magnification system, which displays live video of the performers on LED screens in the Blossom Pavilion. Fingers crossed for the weather — a firework show is planned for afterwards.

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Cleveland Orchestra at Blossom with Fabien Gabel & Juho Pohjonen (Aug. 19)

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by Daniel Hathaway

Pohjonen-GabelThe promotional material for The Cleveland Orchestra’s program on Saturday, August 19 may have shouted “Bolero!,” but a brilliant performance by Finnish pianist Juho Pohjonen of Sergei Prokoviev’s brash first concerto — presided over by French guest conductor Fabien Gabel — was the true headliner on this perfect summer evening at the Blossom Music Center. [Read more…]

Cleveland Orchestra at Blossom with Robert Trevino & Behzod Abduraimov (Aug. 5)

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by Robert Rollin

Trevino-AbduraimovOn Saturday evening, August 5, The Cleveland Orchestra played an excellent, all-Tchaikovsky concert at Blossom under guest conductor Robert Trevino. The evening’s high point was a magnificent performance by the young Uzbekistani pianist Behzod Abduraimov of the First Concerto.  [Read more…]

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