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Mandel Festival: Fabulous ‘Fidelio’ from Welser-Möst, Cleveland Orchestra and Chorus, Soloists (May 16)

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By Daniel Hathaway|Cleveland Classical

This article was originally published on Cleveland.com

CLEVELAND, Ohio — This season, the Mandel Festival of Opera and Humanities is featuring three concert performances of Ludwig van Beethoven’s only opera to illustrate the Festival’s theme of Courage. The opening concert at Severance Music Center on Saturday evening, May 16 also demonstrated the mastery of conductor Franz Welser-Möst and The Cleveland Orchestra and Chorus, whose Beethoven performances are second nature and flawless.

“Leonora,” based on the story of a woman who disguised herself as the prison guard Fidelio to rescue her husband Florestan from death in a Spanish political prison, premiered in Vienna in 1805 and was presented in a revised version in 1806. The composer fussed with the work for the next eight years, presenting the final version, now named “Fidelio,” in 1814.

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Mandel Festival of Opera and Humanities: Tenor David Butt Philip looks inside Fidelio

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by Mike Telin

In his program note, Franz Welser-Möst writes that “Fidelio is not only an opera; it’s a philosophical statement about courage, liberty, love, and the triumph of the human spirit. Every stage director I’ve met wrestles with the same question when putting on Fidelio: How do you make it relevant to the time we live in? Here, we present it in concert to bring attention to the extraordinary ways that Ludwig van Beethoven’s music is philosophy set to sound.”

On Thursday, May 16 at 7:00 pm and Sunday May 24 at 3:00 pm in Mandel Concert Hall at Severance Music Center, Franz Welser-Möst will lead The Cleveland Orchestra and Chorus in the second and third performances of Beethoven’s only opera as part of the Jack, Joseph, and Morton Mandel Opera & Humanities Festival.

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Mandel Festival at Severance presents Hero’s Song — a conversation with composer Jüri Reinvere

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by Mike Telin

Jüri Reinvere is more than a celebrated Estonian composer. He has also published essays and poems, worked for Estonian and Finnish Radio, produced and written screenplays for documentary films, and translated and co-written books, as well as written the libretto for his earlier opera, Purge.

All of his artistic abilities have influenced his Concerto for Violin, Harp, and Orchestra, which will receive its world premiere on Friday, May 22 by violinist Leila Josefowicz, harpist Trina Struble and The Cleveland Orchestra led by Franz Welser-Möst.

The 7:30 pm performance at Severance Music Center is part of the Mandel Opera and Humanities Festival. The program also includes Adolphus Hailstork’s Epitaph for a Man Who Dreamed, Grażyna Bacewicz’s Symphony No. 4, and Antonín Dvořák’s Hero’s Song. Tickets are available online.

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Impressive versatility from Welser-Möst, Widmann, Cleveland Orchestra (May 7)

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by Daniel Hathaway

This article was originally published on Cleveland.com

CLEVELAND, Ohio — Over the course of a concert season, The Cleveland Orchestra is called upon to play a variety of works in all categories from four centuries’ worth of repertoire. Not so often do audiences get to experience in a single concert three such wildly different works as were on display at Severance Music Center on Thursday evening, May 7.

Sergei Prokoviev’s Symphony No. 1, Olga Neuwirth’s “Zones of Blue,” and four excerpts from Richard Wagner’s “Götterdämmerung” require, in turn, cool neoclassical clarity, expert control of avant-garde techniques, and the kind of pre-film cinematic virtuosity that pushes 19th-century instruments to the limits of their original design.

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Verdi’s Requiem, Welser-Möst, Cleveland Orchestra and Chorus find sacred balance, stamina (Jan. 15)

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by Kevin McLaughlin

Photo by Yehven Gulenko

This article was originally published on Cleveland.com

CLEVELAND, Ohio — Verdi’s Requiem surprised in its beauty on Thursday evening Jan. 15 at Severance Music Center in a performance by Franz Welser-Möst and The Cleveland Orchestra and Chorus.

Welser-Möst understands that the Requiem lives on a fault line between opera house and church, but, as he explains in the program, a performance ought never lose sight of Verdi’s reverence for the mass text. On Thursday the balance felt wisely judged. The “Dies irae” was terrifying precisely because it was controlled. The choir’s entrance struck with sudden force.

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Cleveland Orchestra: Welser-Möst leads two symphonies with The Cleveland Orchestra (Jan. 9)

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by Daniel Hathaway

Franz Welser-Most conducts the Cleveland Orchestra on Thursday evening. Human Artist Photography + Cinema / Yevhen Gulenko

This article was originally published on Cleveland.com

CLEVELAND, Ohio – What makes a piece a symphony? That label invokes the ancient Greek notion of musicians playing together harmoniously, but in actual usage, “symphonies” are just containers into which composers pour their orchestral inspirations, with few common features from one work to another.

This was obvious on Thursday evening, January 8 at Severance Music Center, when music director Franz Welser-Möst led The Cleveland Orchestra in wildly dissimilar Symphonies by Wolfgang Amadé Mozart and Dmitri Shostakovich.

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Cleveland Orchestra with pianist Garrick Ohlsson at Severance (Oct. 30)

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by Kevin McLaughlin

This article was originally published on Cleveland.com

CLEVELAND, Ohio — Frequent guest pianist Garrick Ohlsson returned to Severance Music Center on Thursday, Oct. 30, 50 years after his first appearance with The Cleveland Orchestra.

The concert, conducted by Franz Welser-Möst, reminded us why we cherish these performances year after year: consistent excellence, both familiar and new music, and the company of an artist whose quiet dignity and calm brilliance have become a reliable part of the city’s musical life.

The program opened with “Permissions,” a ten-minute churn by Tyler Taylor, the Orchestra’s new Daniel R. Lewis Composer Fellow. The Louisville, Kentucky-born composer and horn player brings a performer’s instinct for timbre and ensemble dynamics to his writing.

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Cleveland Orchestra, Chorus, and soloists excel with “Ode to Joy” performance (Oct. 23)

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by Stephanie Manning

This article was originally published on Cleveland.com

CLEVELAND, Ohio – Few melodies in the classical canon hold as much name recognition as Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy.” The beloved tune, set to the words of German poet Friedrich Schiller, comes from the composer’s Symphony No. 9 — a revolutionary piece both in its form and in its celebration of the indomitable human spirit.

The desire to witness such joyful music making in person is undoubtedly what drove a large audience to Mandel Hall at Severance Music Center on Thursday, Oct. 23. And it’s safe to say that the Cleveland Orchestra, Chorus and soloists did not disappoint.

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Garrick Ohlsson returns to the Severance Music Center stage

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by Mike Telin

“The thing about playing Mozart concertos, especially with a great orchestra like Cleveland, is that when it goes well, it will leave me on such an adrenaline high I may not be able to sleep,” pianist Garrick Ohlsson said during a recent telephone conversation.

On Thursday, October 30 at 7:30 pm, Garrick Ohlsson will join Franz Welser-Möst and The Cleveland Orchestra at Severance Music Center for a performance of Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 23.

“Like Shakespeare, Mozart can find the appropriate way to express the full range of human emotions. He can write the saddest music and the happiest music. He can write an aria for a servant who’s upset because she’s lost a pin. But unlike a 19th century composer, he doesn’t lay it on thick, he doesn’t do what the English call making heavy weather of it.”

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The Cleveland Orchestra & Beethoven Nine: a conversation with tenor Miles Mykkanen

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by Mike Telin

“I think that Beethoven Nine is the ultimate piece about unity and human brotherhood,” tenor Miles Mykkanen said during a Zoom conversation from his home in Ironwood, Michigan. “Every time I sing it, I think about the millions of people who have either performed it or heard it over the last two centuries and how it reminds us of the goodness in all of us — that’s what life is all about.”

On Thursday, October 23 at 7:30 pm at Severance Music Center, Mykkanen will join soprano Joélle Harvey, mezzo-soprano Taylor Raven, and bass-baritone Dashon Burton, The Cleveland Orchestra and Chorus in Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9. Conducted by music director Franz Welser-Möst, the performance also includes Jean Sibelius’ Tapiola. The program will be repeated on Friday and Saturday at 7:30 pm and Sunday at 3:00 pm. Tickets are available online.

Mykkanen made his Cleveland Orchestra debut as Brighella in Richard Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos in 2019 and he returned last spring to sing the role of Steva in Leoš Janáček’s Jenůfa. “I’m just thrilled to be back to sing a piece that is 200 years old and still brings the audiences to their feet. And to perform it in Severance with The Cleveland Orchestra, my great quartet colleagues, and Franz Welser-Möst on the podium — that’s very special for any singer.”

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