by Daniel Hathaway
Conductor Alain Altinoglu brought music by his fellow Frenchpeople Debussy and Ravel to his guest appearance with The Cleveland Orchestra last week, along with an intriguing new work by Matthias Pintscher featuring principal flute Joshua Smith. The concert on Saturday, November 10 played to a large audience who may not have been lured to Severance Hall by the U.S. premiere, but who gave the Pintscher work a thoughtful hearing and its soloist a big ovation. [Read more…]
by Hannah Schoepe
What could be better than an evening of opera with a world-class orchestra and stars of the opera world? There’s an easy answer: two operas, one performed within the other. (A free piece of opera cake to crown the evening would add to the final flourish — but let’s not push our luck.)
Music director Franz Welser-Möst will lead The Cleveland Orchestra in a created-for-Severance Hall production of Richard Strauss’ Ariadne auf Naxos directed by Frederic Wake-Walker on January 13 at 4:00 pm, January 17 at 7:30 pm, and January 19 at 8:00 pm. The performances mark the first time Ariadne has been programmed by the Orchestra. [Read more…]
by Daniel Hathaway
Only two works made up the program for Matthias Pintscher’s guest appearance with The Cleveland Orchestra at Severance Hall on Thursday, November 1, but they were big ones. Pianist Kirill Gerstein — always worth a few surprises — brought a breezy, fresh interpretation to Rachmaninoff’s Third Concerto, and Pintscher and the Orchestra labored mightily to make the music of Bartók’s infrequently performed ballet The Wooden Prince work as a symphonic poem without dancers. [Read more…]
by Daniel Hathaway
It doesn’t require close proximity to Halloween to make the combination of Webern, Berg, and Schoenberg sound a bit scary for some potential concertgoers. That might account for the slim Thursday audience at Severance Hall on October 25, when Ingo Metzmacher and Christian Tetzlaff visited music of the Second Viennese School with The Cleveland Orchestra. Those who came got an earful of ravishing music fully as expressive as Brahms, just in a different way. [Read more…]
by Mike Telin
When Gustavo Gimeno was appointed principal percussion of Amsterdam’s Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, he quickly began doing something that he had wanted to do for some time. “I always wanted to study conducting,” the friendly maestro said by phone from St. Louis. “It was not so much an attempt to become a conductor — that was not really in my thoughts. I did it to become a better musician.”
Later this week, the music director-designate of the Toronto Symphony will make his Severance Hall debut when he leads The Cleveland Orchestra in a program that will feature principal cello Mark Kosower in Alberto Ginastera’s Second Cello Concerto, along with Barber’s Overture to The School for Scandal and Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade. You can hear the full program on Thursday, October 18 at 7:30 pm, Friday, October 19 at 7:00 pm (the first Fridays@7 concert of the season), and Saturday, October 20 at 8:00 pm, or a shorter version without the Ginastera on Friday at 11:00 am (a one-hour matinee). Tickets are available online.
These concerts will mark Gimeno’s third visit to the Orchestra’s podium — the two previous times were at Blossom. [Read more…]
by Daniel Hathaway
On Thursday, October 4, in a nearly-full Severance Hall and on a stage so packed with musicians that percussionists had to navigate sideways to change instruments, Franz Welser-Möst led The Cleveland Orchestra and Chorus in a strategically- paced performance of Gustav Mahler’s “Resurrection” Symphony as remarkable for its vast dynamic range as for its sonic magnificence. [Read more…]
by Daniel Hathaway
It’s difficult to explain why there were so many empty seats in Severance Hall for The Cleveland Orchestra’s third subscription concert of the season on Thursday, September 27. Did Prokofiev + Bartók + Prokofiev scare people away? Had binge-watching the Kavanaugh hearings all day sent folks into a decline? Were subscribers opting for the Orchestra’s big benefit on Saturday instead? Those who passed up hearing the performance — for whatever reason — missed out on one of the most remarkable evenings in recent memory. [Read more…]
by Daniel Hathaway
Last Thursday evening at The Cleveland Orchestra’s season opener in Severance Hall, music director Franz Welser-Möst was honored with the Orchestra’s twenty-third annual Distinguished Service Award. On Friday, an uncommonly hot evening for September, he deserved a medal for leading the ensemble in full concert dress while his colleagues played in shirtsleeves in Oberlin’s steamy Finney Chapel, surely one of the only major concert halls in Northeast Ohio not to offer climate control. (Photo from an earlier performance). [Read more…]
Several media outlets reported on Saturday that Cleveland Orchestra principal trombone Massimo La Rosa has been suspended in conjunction with an ongoing investigation into sexual harassment prompted by the July 26 Washington Post report that resulted in the suspension of concertmaster William Preucil. Read more here.
Led by Rose Breckenridge, fall music study groups for The Cleveland Orchestra’s 2018-2019 season will begin on September 25, 26, and 27 at four different community locations throughout the Greater Cleveland area. Click here for more information and to register.