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Cleveland Orchestra settles in for August Concerts at Severance and Blossom

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by Daniel Hathaway

TCO@BlossomTen concerts of varied repertoire are in store for Cleveland Orchestra audiences both at Blossom and at Severance Hall during the rest of the summer season, which extends through the weekend of September 5 & 6, thanks to the late date of Labor Day this year.

Stanislaw Skrowaczewski will revisit the site of his American debut in 1958 when he returns to conduct the Orchestra in Dmitri Shostakovich’s fifth symphony on the Summers@Severance series on Friday, August 7 at 7:00 pm. Skrowaczewski knew the composer personally, and led the Paris premiere of the fifth. He talked about his career and his history with The Cleveland Orchestra in an interview last summer.

Pianist Garrick Ohlsson will team up with guest conductor Gustavo Gimeno at Blossom on Saturday, August 8 at 8:00 pm for Beethoven’s noble fifth piano concerto, nicknamed “The Emperor,” prefaced by the Leonore Overture No. 3, the third of Beethoven’s four attempts to write an overture for his only opera, later revised and renamed Fidelio. A third noble work, Antonín Dvorak’s Symphony No. 8, will round out the evening. [Read more…]

Oberlin Cooper Violin Competition: final round with The Cleveland Orchestra (July 31)

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by Daniel Hathaway

Cooper-Finals-2015Because five out of the ten contestants who played the concerto round in last week’s Thomas and Evon Cooper Violin Competition at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music had chosen the Tchaikovsky concerto, the odds were that we might have heard two if not three Tchaikovskys on Friday evening in Severance Hall, when the finalists played with Jahja Ling and The Cleveland Orchestra. Happily for the audience, it turned out that there were three different concertos on the program — Glazunov, Shostakovich and Brahms — and all three performances were superb. [Read more…]

Cleveland Orchestra Summers@Severance: Stanislaw Skrowaczewski returns on August 7

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by Daniel Hathaway

SkrowaczeswkiIn 1957, Polish conductor Stanislaw Skrowaczewski was one of the local hosts for The Cleveland Orchestra’s first European tour — an event which established the ensemble’s inter-national reputation. It was also an important moment for Skrowaczewski, whose first meeting with George Szell in Warsaw launched his own career in the United States.

On Friday, August 7 at 7:00 pm, Skrowaczewski will return to Severance Hall to conduct the Orchestra in a program that features Dmitri Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 5. He was scheduled to lead this program at Blossom last summer but was forced to withdraw at the last moment. This preview was written for that occasion and has been revised and reposted. [Read more…]

Cleveland Orchestra seeks volunteers for Severance Hall season

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Severance-Hall-SummerThe Cleveland Orchestra is seeking volunteer ushers, greeters, ticket-takers, tour guides and store clerks for the 2015-2016 Severance Hall season. Opportunities to serve include concerts by The Cleveland Orchestra (evening, matinee, education, family, and holiday events) and performances by other ensembles including the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra, Cleveland Pops Orchestra, Cleveland Institute of Music Orchestra, Cleveland Youth Wind Symphony, and the Cleveland Women’s Orchestra, as well as other musical and non-musical events.

Individuals who are energetic, enthusiastic, and eager to assist the Severance Hall audiences with a high level of customer service are invited to attend open interviews in the Smith Lobby of Severance Hall (ground floor near the Box Office) on Wednesday, August 5, Monday, August 17, or Thursday, August 27, anytime between 5:00 pm to 8:00 pm. [Read more…]

Cleveland Orchestra with Jahja Ling: Franklin Cohen farewell concerto (July 26)

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by Daniel Hathaway

Cohen-072615When it’s time for a musician to say goodbye to an ensemble and its audience after 39 years, what piece should he choose for his swan song? Long-time Cleveland Orchestra principal clarinet Franklin Cohen revisited Carl Maria von Weber’s second concerto on Sunday night, July 26 at Blossom, winning a standing ovation before he even played a note. [Read more…]

The Cleveland Orchestra: Clarinetist Franklin Cohen to perform Weber’s Second Concerto (July 26)

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by Mike Telin

COHEN-FrankInformalCRAlthough Franklin Cohen played his final concert as a member of The Cleveland Orchestra wind section back in May, on Sunday, July 26 at 7:00 pm at Blossom Music Center, Cohen will make his farewell appearance as concerto soloist after 39 seasons as the Orchestra’s principal clarinet. The program includes Weber’s Clarinet Concerto No. 2, and Elgar’s Enigma Variations.

During a recent telephone conversation Cohen said that he looks forward to performing the Weber under the direction of his good friend Jahja Ling. “I love Jahja. He has such seriousness of purpose, yet such a great sense of humor. He’s a wonderful family person, and he brings a lot of humanity to everything he does. And, if I have to play a last performance with this group, he’s the one I want to do it with,” Cohen said. “I think he’s conducted more performances with The Cleveland Orchestra than almost any other conductor.” [Read more…]

Cleveland Orchestra at Blossom: big turnout for a festive opener (July 11)

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by Daniel Hathaway

Blossom-Lawn-071115A crowd estimated at 10,000 blanketed the lawn and filled the center section of the vast pavilion on Saturday evening, July 11, as The Cleveland Orchestra settled into its Blossom season. The program included striking performances of Olivier Messiaen’s L’Ascension and Ludwig van Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 led by music director Franz Welser-Möst. That seemingly odd pairing of pieces added up to an evening of orchestral and choral ecstasy from two very different points of view.

[Read more…]

Cleveland Orchestra “Summers@Severance” with pianist Igor Levit (July 10)

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by Nicholas Jones

LEVIT-IgorFriday’s Cleveland Orchestra program, the first of 2015’s three Summers@Severance concerts, opened with Olivier Messiaen’s Hymne, composed in 1933. The score was lost during the war and reconstructed from memory by the composer in 1947. The original title (Hymne au Saint-Sacrement) indicated explicitly that it was an act of reverence to the Holy Eucharist of the Catholic Mass, and it apparently represents that ritual. [Read more…]

Summers@Severance to feature three (no, four!) Friday concerts in 2015

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by Daniel Hathaway

TCOS@STerraceExcept for special events like Oberlin’s Cooper Competitions, Severance Hall usually takes a summer break while The Cleveland Orchestra is off performing at Blossom Music Center. Last year, in response to burgeoning summer activity among other University Circle institutions, the Orchestra’s administration planned three Friday evening performances on its home turf. As chief marketing officer Ross Binnie said in an interview for this publication last July, “The change is so dramatic and the area is really buzzing with life now on a year-round basis. So it seemed an oversight not to have our doors opened as well to anyone wants to come to hear our concerts indoors in a relaxed atmosphere in the summer.”

This summer, Severance Hall will again resound with three concerts by The Cleveland Orchestra — on July 10, August 7, and August 21 at 7:00 pm — plus a bonus performance on August 28 at 8:00 pm by Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra.

Music director Franz Welser-Möst will lead the opening performance, which revisits two works the Orchestra played during that busy week in May when the League of American Orchestras was visiting Cleveland for its annual conference. On July 10, Olivier Messiaen’s Hymne and Richard Strauss’s Symphonia domestica will share the program with Ludwig van Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 4, with Igor Levit as the featured soloist. [Read more…]

Cleveland Orchestra: Messiaen & Dvořák (May 29)

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by Daniel Hathaway

MessiaenWoodsFranz Welser-Möst led the apparently indefatigable musicians of The Cleveland Orchestra in the third of four challenging, all-in-a-row concerts on Friday evening, May 29, major attractions on the agenda for the League of American Orchestras Cleveland meeting. Olivier Messiaen’s dazzling Chronochromie and Antonín Dvořák’s infrequently performed fifth symphony made different but compelling connections to the natural world, while Messiaen’s theologically-infused Hymne opened a portal to the heavenly realms. [Read more…]

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