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The Cleveland Orchestra to host Martin Luther King Celebration Concert

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by Mike Telin

TCO MLKThe Cleveland Orchestra will present its annual Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration Concert under the direction of Franz Welser-Möst on Sunday, January 14 at 7:00 pm in Severance Hall. All of the free tickets to the event have been distributed, but the program will be broadcast live on WCLV, 104.9 FM and WCPN, 90.3 FM. The concert will also be broadcast on Cleveland Public Television WVIZ on January 26.

Sunday’s concert will feature bass-baritone Ryan Speedo Green, actor James Pickens Jr., and the Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration Chorus under the direction of William Henry Caldwell. The program includes Beethoven’s Overture to Egmont, Mendelssohn’s “Lord God of Abraham” from Elijah, George Walker’s Lyric for Strings, Verdi’s “Va pensiero” from Nabucco, Respighi’s “Pines of the Appian Way,” the fourth movement of Mendelssohn’s “Reformation” Symphony, Julia Ward Howe’s Battle Hymn of the Republic, and James Weldon Johnson’s and John Rosamond Johnson’s Lift Every Voice and Sing.

“There are a lot of new things happening at the concert this year,” Chorus Director William Henry Caldwell said during a recent telephone conversation. “I’m especially excited about commissioned arrangements by Charles Floyd of Down by the Riverside and Precious Lord. To have the opportunity to present those to the Cleveland community for this celebration speaks volumes about how much The Cleveland Orchestra thinks of this choir.” [Read more…]

Preparing to hear a new work:
Staud’s Stromab at Severance Hall

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by Daniel Hathaway

StaudThis weekend, music director Franz Welser-Möst and The Cleveland Orchestra will precede their Thursday and Saturday performances of Mahler’s Symphony No. 9 with the Cleveland premieres of Austrian composer Johannes Maria Staud’s Stromab. The 15-minute work was co-commissioned by The Cleveland Orchestra, who will take it to New York’s Stern Auditorium at Carnegie Hall on January 23. Staud was named by Welser-Möst as the Orchestra’s Daniel R. Lewis Young Composer Fellow for the 2007-08 and 2008-09 seasons.

Thanks to the resources of the internet, it’s possible to do a bit of prepping to hear such a new work before taking your seat in Severance Hall — when many patrons will have their first opportunity to read the notes in the program book. Here’s your opportunity to do a little homework before the downbeat.

Staud’s work, which translates as “Downstream,” is based on The Willows, a 1907 horror tale by the British author Algernon Blackwood. [Read more…]

Cleveland Orchestra in Mahler’s Sixth (October 5)

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by Daniel Hathaway

TCO-FWM-Strav-092817Gustav Mahler’s Sixth Symphony is the perfect candidate for a 75-minute, straight-through concert. Bursting at the seams with musical content of astonishing variety and emotional range, it bombards the listener with almost as much sonic stimulation as a human ear and brain can process in one sitting. Franz Welser-Möst and The Cleveland Orchestra put the work across with total conviction and arresting effect on Thursday evening, October 5 in Severance Hall, a few days before departing on a European tour. [Read more…]

TCO announces 2017-18 tour schedule

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by Jarrett Hoffman

TCOMusikvereinThe Cleveland Orchestra has announced details of its Centennial Season tour schedule, marking the ensemble’s 17th and 18th international tours to be led by Music Director Franz Welser-Möst. Twenty concerts spanning seven weeks will include an October trip to Europe, two concerts at Carnegie Hall in January, and season-capping appearances in Vienna and Tokyo during May and June. Complete details of the tour can be found below.

“Touring is important for The Cleveland Orchestra,” said Welser-Möst in a press release. “It requires an enormous amount of flexibility to find ‘our sound’ playing in different acoustics. We refine this sound every day in our home, Severance Hall, and bring this to audiences outside of Cleveland.”

The music director praised the strong will that exists in the community. “With the history of Cleveland, ups and downs economically, there has been an enormous determination in this community to maintain and enhance a world-class orchestra. Going around and showing that to the world is gratifying. [Read more…]

Cleveland Orchestra opens Centennial Season with Vixen redux and stunning Rite of Spring (September 26 & 28)

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by Daniel Hathaway

Vixen-Perf-FarmyardWhat a week at Severance Hall! On Tuesday, September 26, The Cleveland Orchestra’s revival of Leoš Janáček’s opera The Cunning Little Vixen received its third and final performance, and two days later, Franz Welser-Möst returned to the podium to lead the Orchestra in a spellbinding performance of Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring. [Read more…]

Cleveland Orchestra: Stravinsky and Beethoven share a program, and Igor muses on Ludwig

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by Jarrett Hoffman

collagestravinskybeethoven

On Thursday, September 28 at 7:30 pm and Saturday, September 30 at 8:00 pm, The Cleveland Orchestra continues its centennial season at Severance Hall under Music Director Franz Welser-Möst with “The Rite of Spring.” The concert will include Stravinsky’s famously provocative work — which Puccini called “the work of a madman” — and a string orchestra adaptation of Beethoven’s Quartet No. 15 in a, Op. 132.

Should Beethoven, from the grave in Vienna, feel snubbed by the title of the concert, TCO and Welser-Möst will make it up to him on the 29th at 11:00 am at Severance. “Friday Morning: All-Beethoven” features the same a-minor Quartet adaptation and Leonore Overture No. 3. Friday bus service will be provided from the South Side, East Side (Beachwood), West Side, and Akron.

Passing the mic to Stravinsky, six feet under on the Isle of San Michele in Venice — how does it feel to share a program with the great German? A 1922 quote suggests, not so good.

[Read more…]

The Cleveland Orchestra begins 100th Season with revival of Janáček’s The Cunning Little Vixen

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by Mike Telin

Opera: Leoš Janáček's The Cunning Little Vixen Martina Janková, soprano (Vixen) Alan Held, bass-baritone (Forester) Jennifer Johnson Cano, mezzo-soprano (Fox) Raymond Aceto, bass (Harašta) Julie Boulianne, mezzo-soprano (The Dog Lapák) Dashon Burton, bass-baritone (Parson/Badger) David Cangelosi, tenor (Schoolmaster/Mosquito) Cleveland Orchestra Chorus Cleveland Orchestra Children's Chorus with The Cleveland Orchestra conducted by Franz Welser-Möst Photo by Roger MastroianniThe Cleveland Orchestra begins its landmark 100th season this week with a revival of Yuval Sharon’s critically acclaimed, made-for-Cleveland production of Leoš Janáček’s opera The Cunning Little Vixen.

Franz Welser-Möst leads the Orchestra and a cast that will include Martina Janková (Vixen), Alan Held (Forrester), Jennifer Johnson Cano (Fox), Andrew Foster-Williams (Harašta), Daryl Freedman (Lapák the Dog), Dashon Burton (Parson/Badger), and David Cangelosi (Schoolmaster/Mosquito).

Performances will take place on Saturday, September 23 at 8:00 pm, Sunday the 24th at 3:00 pm, and Tuesday the 26th at 7:30 pm. Tickets available online. Writing for Classical Voice North America, Daniel Hathaway said that the digitally enhanced production was “beguiling in concept and brilliant in execution.” [Read more…]

Save the dates for September’s early season openers & special events

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by Daniel Hathaway

hradetzky_usa_oh_cleveland_st_paulsAfter the gradual spinning down of the summer concert season, September can sneak up on you. Here’s a list of early season openers and one-off events that Northeast Ohio music lovers should be sure to jot down in their calendars.

Ars Organi at St. Paul’s, Cleveland Heights

Organist Karel Paukert has created a festival to celebrate the collection of organs (and a harpsichord) that grace the music program at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Cleveland Heights. The seven events in “Ars Organi” between September 15 and October 1 will feature the Walter Holtkamp Sr. instrument as well as the Vladimir Slajch chamber organ, the Gerhard Hradetzky Italian Baroque organ, and the Matthias Griewisch harpsichord — a fleet of keyboard instruments any church would be delighted to have at its disposal.

Performers include Prague organist Jaroslav Tuma (right) on Friday, September 15 at 7:30 jaroslav_tumapm and Saturday, September 16 at 4:00 pm (featuring his paraphrase of Smetana’s My Country); Oberlin professor James David Christie with members of Oberlin’s Collegium Musicum on Tuesday, September 19 at 7:30 pm; and University of Kansas professor James Higdon in a lecture and masterclass on Jehan Alain on Saturday, September 23 at 2:00 pm and a recital of Alain’s works on Sunday, September 24 at 4:00 pm. [Read more…]

Cleveland Orchestra at Blossom: Milhaud, Roussel & Beethoven (July 15)

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by Daniel Hathaway

TCO-FWM-070917-1Dionysius and Apollo each reigned over half of the Cleveland Orchestra program at Blossom on Saturday evening, July 15 under the direction of Franz Welser-Möst. Albert Roussel’s Suite No. 2 from Bacchus and Ariadne celebrates the invention of wine — for which picnickers on the Blossom lawn will be ever grateful — and Darius Milhaud’s Brazilian-infused ballet Le boeuf sur le toit takes place in a rowdy New York bar during Prohibition. Even with its premonitions of Romanticism and the composer’s signature quirkiness, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7 brought a sense of Classical balance to the second half. [Read more…]

Cleveland Orchestra: Summers@Severance July 14

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by Timothy Robson

Summers@Severance-Barbara-MerrittSeverance Hall was packed on Friday, July 14, for the first of this year’s Summers@ Severance concerts. It was the perfect evening for this more casual concert, which included audience members attired in everything from t-shirts and shorts to evening attire, plus food and drinks before and after on the terrace. In the auditorium, however, the proceedings were anything but casual. Franz Welser-Möst conducted a program of Beethoven: the Symphonies Nos. 1 and 5, and the Overture to Egmont. [Read more…]

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