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Cleveland Orchestra with Pintscher & Gerstein (Nov. 1)

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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…]

Cleveland Orchestra with Tetzlaff & Metzmacher (Oct. 25)

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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…]

Gustavo Gimeno returns to the Cleveland Orchestra podium

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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…]

Cleveland Orchestra & Chorus: Mahler’s Second Symphony (Oct. 4)

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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…]

Cleveland Orchestra: Prokofiev & Bartók with Yefim Bronfman (Sept. 27)

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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…]

Oberlin Artist Recital Series: The Cleveland Orchestra (Sept. 21)

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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…]

Cleveland Orchestra Study Groups

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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.

Cleveland Orchestra plays Star Wars at Blossom (Aug. 31)

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by David Kulma

On Friday, August 31 with a jam-packed lawn and many toy lightsabers, The Cleveland Orchestra’s final Blossom Music Center program with assistant conductor Vinay Parameswaran was a certifiable hit. This first of three screenings of George Lucas’s original Star Wars film with live orchestra showed off the many virtues of both John Williams’s iconic score and the Orchestra’s luxurious playing, most notably the power and grandeur of the brass. [Read more…]

Cleveland Orchestra tribute to Fitzgerald & Sinatra at Blossom (Aug. 19)

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by Robert Rollin

On Sunday evening, August 19 at Blossom, Randall Craig Fleischer led The Cleveland Orchestra in “Frank & Ella: The Music of Ella Fitzgerald and Frank Sinatra,” featuring soprano Capathia Jenkins and singer/pianist Tony DeSare in songs that Ella and Frank made famous. Jenkins has a gorgeous, well-controlled voice. DeSare’s talented rhythm section supported his wonderful piano playing. [Read more…]

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