Cleveland, January 25, 2015 — The Cleveland Orchestra will play fifteen of seventeen Blossom Festival concerts this summer, which begins on July 2 and continues through September 6. Subscription Renewals are currently underway, and premier subscriptions and Create-Your-Own are now available for purchase. Pre-sale single tickets for current Cleveland Orchestra subscribers will go on sale on April 20 and individual tickets for the general public may be purchased beginning on May 12.
The complete schedule follows. [Read more…]
Tugan Sokhiev has withdrawn as conductor from concerts by The Cleveland Orchestra on January 29, 30 and 31 on the advice of his physician. He will be replaced by Finnish conductor 
Although the second concert of this busy Severance Hall week wasn’t formally part of the Boulez tribute, Friday’s performance fit right in, featuring as it did the premiere of a new work by British composer-conductor Ryan Wigglesworth, and an expedition into one of Gustav Mahler’s more enigmatic and unwieldy symphonies. 
Though the man of the hour was unable to travel and bask in his celebration, The Cleveland Orchestra’s tribute to Pierre Boulez on Thursday, January 15, was a festive one, warmed by video tributes from long-time Orchestra members and illuminated by thrilling performances of works written or led by the French composer-conductor during his forty-some year relationship with the organization. 
“His personality is a tremendous contrast, because he seems so serious and intellectual, and of course he’s probably the person with the highest IQ that I ever met. Yet, he has this whimsical and humorous personality behind it.”
Mezzo-soprano Anne Schwanewilms is indisposed and unable to travel to Cleveland for The Cleveland Orchestra’s January 15 tribute to Pierre Boulez on his 90th birthday. 
Among the more appealing attractions of the classical music genre is its ability to wrap the talents of multiple generations into a single performance. In the next two weeks, young musicians will be showcased alongside their more seasoned colleagues in concerts by the Akron Symphony, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, and The Cleveland Orchestra.
Thanks to Serge Diaghilev, his Ballets Russes, and the young Russian composer Igor Stravinsky, Paris in the four years just before the Great War has to count as one of the most exciting eras for a balletomane to be alive.