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The Cleveland Orchestra returns
to Blossom Music Center

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by Mike Telin

While many of us understood the seriousness of COVID-19 back in March of 2020, it did take time to grasp the extent to which the pandemic would alter our lives. “We cancelled the later part of the Severance season, but it wasn’t until we cancelled Blossom that I thought to myself, ‘this is very serious,’ Ross Binnie, the Orchestra’s Chief Brand Officer recalled during a recent conversation. “It was a huge signal and a huge blow.”

After a year’s hiatus, the sounds of The Cleveland Orchestra will once again fill the grounds of Blossom Music Center and no one could be more excited than Binnie. “I was down there to do a television spot, and looking out on the lawn, the space is so beautiful. To be honest, it was very emotional, thinking that a small bit of people’s lives every summer is on its way back. And the more interviews I do the more excited I become.”

The season kicks off on Saturday, July 3 and Sunday, July 4 at 8:00 pm with An American Celebration. Brett Mitchell, will lead performances of Leonard Bernstein’s “Overture” to Candide, Mary D. Watkins’ Soul of Remembrance, Florence Price’s Concerto in One Movement, with Michelle Cann as soloist, Adolphus Hailstork’s An American Fanfare, Aaron Copland’s “Suite” from Appalachian Spring, Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture, and Sousa’s Stars and Stripes Forever. A full season list is below. [Read more…]

Cleveland Orchestra releases details of its 104th Severance Hall Season

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by Daniel Hathaway

On Sunday, May 23, The Cleveland Orchestra announced its return to live concerts at Severance Hall in October, as “a more flexible, innovative, versatile, and empathetic institution, strengthened by the lessons of the past 14 months.”

Music Director Franz Welser-Möst, who begins his 20th season with the Orchestra this fall, commented on the planning process for the new season. “We are in a constant state of exploration, there’s an infinite number of options and combinations of how you put together a season, which is fun and exciting.”

Chief Artistic Officer Mark Williams wrote, “It’s been empowering to embrace meaningful conversations about incorporating voices especially from people of color and women. Going forward, I’m encouraged that the strides we’ve made in realizing this season will become a template for the future.” [Read more…]

Cleveland Orchestra adds details to its Blossom Festival lineup

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by Daniel Hathaway

When The Cleveland Orchestra released the initial information about its forthcoming, in-person summer season at Blossom, only the conductors and main works on the eleven concerts were listed. Now, the all-important side dishes for the Orchestra’s al fresco musical picnic have been added to the menu.

As previously announced, attendance will be somewhat limited this summer, with social distancing in effect both in the pavilion and on the lawn. Face masks will be required when patrons are not actively eating and drinking — yes, picnics are welcome! Program materials will be accessible online. Here are the updated listings.

AN AMERICAN CELEBRATION

Saturday, July 3, 2021 at 8:00 p.m.
Sunday, July 4, 2021 at 8:00 p.m.
Both concerts with fireworks

The Cleveland Orchestra
, Brett Mitchell, conductor, 
Michelle Cann, piano (Cleveland Orchestra debut) [Read more…]

Cleveland Orchestra: In Focus 9 with percussionist Marc Damoulakis

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by Daniel Hathaway

Marc Damoulakis’ performance of Conjurer, John Corigliano’s percussion concerto, may well go down as one of the most spectacular events of the COVID-19 era.

In Episode 9 of The Cleveland Orchestra’s In Focus series, its principal percussionist dazzled both eye and ear with the 40-minute work. Written for Evelyn Glennie and commissioned by seven orchestras, Conjurer deployed a vast collection of instruments across the Severance Hall stage as it brought Damoulakis from his usual spot in the back row to front and center.

[Read more…]

Cleveland Orchestra’s In Focus 8 features Joshua Smith & Paul Jacobs

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by Daniel Hathaway

Wind players have arguably been the most frustrated instrumentalists during the pandemic. When you pursue your art and livelihood by forcing air from your lungs through an instrument, you’re among the most likely candidates to spread the novel coronavirus, thus your near exile from concert halls.

For its latest In Focus episode, “Visions and Impressions,” The Cleveland Orchestra makes a gesture in the direction of welcoming winds back into the action, although principal flute Joshua Smith’s contribution to the event comes in the form of two unaccompanied pieces that leave him looking very lonely on the Severance Hall stage. [Read more…]

Cleveland Orchestra’s In Focus 7 marks COVID-19 anniversary with emotional Shostakovich and Messiaen 

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by Daniel Hathaway

Episode 7 of The Cleveland Orchestra’s pre-recorded In Focus series is the shortest so far, clocking in at only 37 minutes. But the emotional impact of Dmitri Shostakovich’s bleak Chamber Symphony in c followed by the calm, shimmering hopefulness of Olivier Messiaen’s Le Christ, lumière du Paradis (from Éclairs sur l’Au-Delà) is out of all proportion to the length of the music.

The Shostakovich is an arrangement by Rudolf Barshai for string orchestra of the composer’s String Quartet No. 8, a work directly inspired by the firebombing of Dresden, an attack toward the end of World War II that claimed more victims than Hiroshima. [Read more…]

Gremillet announces Cleveland Orchestra changes

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Cleveland Orchestra CEO André Gremillet announced on Wednesday afternoon that in-person performances at Severance Hall have been cancelled through June due to the continuing health risks of the COVID-19 pandemic. Watch a video of his announcement here.

A new series of recorded concerts will be available on the Orchestra’s Adella platform beginning in March for subscribers, ticket holders, and donors who have supported the ensemble above $300 for the year.

Looking forward to summer, Gremillet noted that the Orchestra is planning a ten-concert season at Blossom Music Center in July and August, which will operate at reduced capacity.

Cleveland Orchestra In Focus 4 with Nicholas McGegan (debut Dec. 10)

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by Daniel Hathaway

British-born conductor Nicholas McGegan made what he reckoned was his third Thanksgiving weekend appearance with The Cleveland Orchestra a few weeks ago, but this time the event was recorded in an empty Severance Hall for later release on the Orchestra’s Adella streaming platform beginning December 10.

His agenda is his specialty: Baroque music, which he characterizes in his remarks as “over the top, what I like in music. It’s as if you take the front of the Supreme Court Building — very symmetrical, nice columns — and put all the frou-frou of fancy violin parts on top of the rough and tumble and fun part of the music.” Comparing it to jazz, he notes “in this music you have to do a lot of it for yourself.” [Read more…]

The Cleveland Orchestra:
Bach, Mendelssohn, Masks, and Mysteries — a conversation with Nicholas McGegan

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by Mike Telin

If it’s late November, it must be time for Nicholas McGegan to return to Severance Hall. “This Cleveland thing is becoming a Thanksgiving tradition,” the affable conductor said during a recent telephone conversation. “This will be my third visit around this time in three years.”

Last week, McGegan led The Cleveland Orchestra in rehearsals and recording sessions of music from the late 17th to early 19th centuries. The program, titled “Inventions: Bach to Mendelssohn,” will be released on Thursday, December 10 at 7:00 pm as part of the Orchestra’s “In Focus” series and will be available exclusively on the Adella app. Click here for information. The stream will be accessible on demand until March 10, 2021.

Interestingly, McGegan’s visit to Cleveland was not on his schedule until a few weeks ago, when COVID restrictions necessitated a change in the Orchestra’s plans. The pandemic had also forced a change in McGegan’s calendar. “In October I was supposed to be on a month-long tour in the Netherlands and Belgium conducting the Mozart Requiem, and then I was to have had a month in Australia performing Messiah, and all of that disappeared.”

But as fortune would have it, opportunities began to knock at the door. “I’ve been to the Houston Symphony twice, now I’m coming to Cleveland, then going back to Houston and on to Dallas. None of this was on the books, so I am incredibly happy and grateful that the work I lost has been replaced.” [Read more…]

Cleveland Orchestra:
Episode 3 of “In Focus”

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by Mike Telin

“We have Severance Hall and we have Blossom Music Center, and Adella feels like our third home — a digital home for the 21st century,” Cleveland Orchestra chief brand officer Ross Binnie said during a recent telephone conversation.

On Thursday, November 12 at 7:00 pm, The Cleveland Orchestra will present “In Focus: Episode 3.” Recorded at Severance on the 22nd and 23rd of October under the direction of Franz Welser-Möst, the program features Haydn’s Piano Concerto in D with Emanuel Ax as soloist, and Bartók’s Divertimento for Strings. Click here to access the Orchestra’s Adella streaming platform (available on demand following the premiere), and here to purchase Adella premium.

Although behind-the-scenes discussions had centered around the creation of digital concerts for some time, Binnie noted that “like our ‘On a Personal Note’ podcasts, creating ‘In Focus’ was accelerated because of the pandemic.”

While acknowledging that they are not the only orchestra to offer their own digital platform, Binnie does see Cleveland’s as being a little different from the others. “We’re all trying to tell our stories, but I think ours is more focused on our music-making than our history, although there is a part of the site that’s devoted to archives.”

Ultimately, when audiences cannot attend in-person performances, Adella provides a way for the Orchestra to stay in touch with their donors, subscribers, and single-ticket buyers. “We typically play to 400,000 people in a year, and Adella helps us transport our story across the world. It helps us keep in touch: it’s great for our audiences in Miami, it’s great for our audiences in Europe and Asia — they can see what we’re doing the rest of the year, which I think is a tremendous asset.” [Read more…]

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