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Cellist Julia Hagen to make Cleveland Orchestra debut in Beethoven’s Triple Concerto

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by Mike Telin

“When I think about playing with the Cleveland Orchestra, it still sounds like a dream,” cellist Julia Hagen said during a recent Zoom conversation. “It still feels surreal, but it’s going to be such an honor to share the stage with an orchestra that has so much history —  and I’m very excited to get to meet them and to work with them.”

On Wednesday, November 6 at 7:30 pm, Hagen will make her Cleveland Orchestra debut at Severance Music Center when she joins pianist Orion Weiss and violinist Augustin Hadelich for a performance of Beethoven’s Triple Concerto.

Under the direction of Daniel Reith, the evening will also include Sir Stephen Hough as soloist in the composer’s Piano Concerto No. 3. The program, which will be repeated on November 7 at 7:30 pm, is the first of three that feature all six of Beethoven’s concertos for the instrument. The series runs through November 17. Tickets are available online.

Hagen, the 2024 winner of the UBS Young Artist Award, said that although she has not previously worked with Hadelich, she is a huge fan of his playing. “I can’t wait to meet him and because the two string parts in the Triple Concerto have so many things to work on before we meet with the orchestra, I’m very curious to see how that process will go.”

[Read more…]

Cleveland Orchestra: A conversation with violin soloist Frank Peter Zimmermann

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by Mike Telin

After a six-year absence, violinist Frank Peter Zimmerman will return to the Severance Music Center stage on Thursday, September 19  to play Robert Schumann’s concerto with Osmo Vänskä and The Cleveland Orchestra in the first performance of the new season. The program will be repeated on Sunday the 22nd at 3:00 pm.

“I’m extremely happy to be returning to Cleveland. It’s my favorite orchestra in the States and maybe the world, and the public is also special,” the violinist said in a telephone conversation from his home in Germany. “I have a long relationship with them —  I think my first concerts were in 1987 with Christoph von Dohnányi  — and I have many friends there. So it’s going to be a joy to come back for the season opener.”

The Schumann concerto is a musically complicated piece with an intriguing history. He wrote it very late in his career for Joseph Joachim, and although the violinist was in possession of the manuscript for the rest of his life, he never performed the Concerto. It finally received its premiere by George Kulenkampff and the Berlin Philharmonic on 26 November 1937.

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Cleveland Orchestra weathers the storm with Tchaikovsky’s Fifth at Blossom (Aug. 17)

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by Stephanie Manning

This article was originally published on Cleveland.com.

CUYAHOGA FALLS, Ohio — The Cleveland Orchestra hasn’t had much luck with the weather lately.

Last week’s performance with John Legend started late, got put on pause, and was eventually canceled after strong storms moved over Blossom Music Center. August 17 presented another uncertain forecast, but the Orchestra was determined to forge ahead if possible. And this time, they weathered the storm.

The turbulent weather — which delayed the concert by 30 minutes — made the marquee work feel especially fitting for the occasion. Written during a tempestuous period in Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s life, his Symphony No. 5 explores the composer’s inner turmoil and his struggles against the forces of Fate.

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The Cleveland Orchestra revives Summers at Severance series

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by Stephanie Manning

Four years on from pandemic disruptions, some ensembles are still working on returning to 100% of their pre-2020 programming. Case in point from this summer: The Cleveland Orchestra, which is reviving its Summers at Severance series for the first time in five years.

“As we’ve been coming back to ‘normal,’ there is definitely an appetite for more of our classical offerings during the summer,” artistic administrator Michael Gandlmayr said in a recent interview. While the Orchestra’s home at this time of year is unquestionably Blossom Music Center, performing a few times at Severance Music Center gives audiences more options to enjoy their programming. “It’s also a great opportunity for us to see some new and returning faces, both on the podium as well as soloists.”

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Cleveland Orchestra: Mozart’s Magic Flute (May 16)

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by Kevin McLaughlin

In what has become a welcome springtime tradition at Severance Music Center, Franz Welser-Möst and The Cleveland Orchestra devoted their season finale to opera. Mozart’s The Magic Flute contained many delights — a beautiful score, superb singing, imaginative staging by Nikolaus Habjan, spare but thought-provoking sets — in such quality as to perhaps win over even the most opera-resistant. And maybe to prompt the timeless question: doesn’t Cleveland deserve a full-time, professional opera company? I attended opening night on May 16.

A centerpiece of the second Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Opera & Humanities Festival, Magic Flute shares the festival’s theme of “power.” The characters of Tamino, Papageno, and Pamina eventually vanquish an angry queen, though the allegorical plot is more a parable of growing up and learning to love and trust. There are also initiation rites, a rescue, and a conversion to the high ideals of another powerful figure, Sarastro. [Read more…]

Cleveland Orchestra closes Severance season with glorious performance of Mozart’s Wind Serenade No. 10 (May 23)

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By Daniel Hathaway | Cleveland Classical
This article was originally published on Cleveland.com

CLEVELAND, Ohio — Most orchestras choose to close out their subscription seasons with a blowout piece of epic proportions. Not Cleveland. Trusting its players to produce something grand and memorable with modest resources, The Cleveland Orchestra sent its strings, brass, and percussion players home early (except for principal bass Maximilian Dimoff) on Thursday, May 23.

After a mammoth stage reset during intermission, music director Franz Welser-Möst and thirteen players filed onstage to serenade the large audience in Mandel Concert Hall at Severance Music Center with a glorious performance of Mozart’s Wind Serenade No. 10 (Gran Partita) that wonderfully shared the program with works by Wagner and Berg.

That was no small feat. The evening began with Richard Wagner’s Prelude and Liebestod from Tristan und Isolde and continued with Alban Berg’s Violin Concerto featuring Leila Josephowicz, works that made lasting impressions due to their sonic magnificence or the successful fusing of disparate musical elements. [Read more…]

Leila Josefowicz to join The Cleveland Orchestra in Berg’s Violin Concerto

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by Mike Telin

Whenever the adventurous violinist Leila Josefowicz and The Cleveland Orchestra join forces, Northeast Ohio audiences are sure to be treated to a captivating performance of a  contemporary masterpiece. Since 2010 Josefowicz and The Orchestra have teamed up for concertos by Thomas Adès, Oliver Knussen, Igor Stravinsky, and two by John Adams.

“It really is an honor to have had so many beautiful opportunities to perform with that incredible orchestra,” Josefowicz said during a Zoom conversation. “There’s a great pride in the quality of what they do and I’m always super excited to be there and play my very best.”

On Thursday, May 23 at 7:30 pm at Severance Music Center, Josefowicz will join Franz Welser-Möst and The Cleveland Orchestra in Alban Berg’s haunting Violin Concerto. The program also includes Mozart’s Serenade No. 10, “Gran Partita,” and the Prelude and Liebestod from Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde.

The program, which will be repeated on Saturday at 8:00 pm, is part of The Mandel Opera and Humanities Festival. Click here to see the full schedule of the Festival. Tickets are available online.

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Cleveland Orchestra presents Magic Flute: a conversation with the Queen of the Night

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by Mike Telin

Since its premiere on September 30, 1791 in Vienna, Mozart’s The Magic Flute, with a libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder, has become regarded as one of the greatest operas ever written. Its enchanting story about the search for truth and reason, love and enlightenment, and how power is used for good or evil purposes continues to enthrall audiences around the world.

On Thursday, May 16 at 7:00 pm at Severance Music Center, The Cleveland Orchestra will present Mozart’s timeless tale under the direction of Nikolaus Habjan as part of The Mandel Opera and Humanities Festival. Franz Welser-Möst will lead the Orchestra and a cast that includes Julian Prégardien (Tamino), Ludwig Mittelhammer (Papageno), Christina Landshamer (Pamina), Kathryn Lewek (Queen of the Night), and Tareq Nazmi (Sarastro).

Sung in German with English supertitles, performances will continue on Saturday the 18th and Friday the 24th at 7:00 pm, and Sunday the 26th at 3:00 pm. Tickets are available online. Click here to see the full schedule of the Festival.

[Read more…]

Lang Lang and Cleveland Orchestra team up for a virtuoso night of Saint- Saëns, Berlioz and more (May 2)

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By Daniel Hathaway | Cleveland Classical
This article was originally published on Cleveland.com

CLEVELAND, Ohio  — Virtuosity was abundantly on display at Severance Music Center on Thursday evening, May 2, not only in the persona of pianist Lang Lang, but also in the music and orchestrations of 19th-century French composers Camille Saint-Saëns and Hector Berlioz — as well as in performances by their modern interpreters, Franz Welser-Möst and The Cleveland Orchestra.

In general use since the mid-18th century and meaning “a person with great skill, one who is a master of the mechanical part of a fine art,” the term virtuoso only begins to describe Lang Lang. In addition to his skills on the keyboard, he’s the classical equivalent of a rock star, capable of drawing sold-out crowds to his performances, as he did in Cleveland on Thursday. And worthy of both a private audience with the Pope and — just last month — a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. And he’s an international advocate for the piano whose “101 Pianos” extravaganza will visit Cuyahoga Community College on Friday.

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The Cleveland Orchestra: Ilya Gidalevich shares insights into the 2024-25 Severance Season

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by Mike Telin
Kevin McLaughlin contributed to this article

During “Fanfare: A Patron Appreciation Event,” a special unveiling of The Cleveland Orchestra’s 2024-25 season at Severance Music Center on Friday, March 15, music director Franz Welser-Möst was joined onstage by president and CEO André Gremillet and violinist Katherine Bormann.

The conversation was lively. Welser-Möst was particularly excited to talk about soprano Asmik Grigorian, who will perform Strauss’ Four Last Songs and the final scene from Puccini’s Suor Angelica (March 13 and 15). “Not since Netrebko has there been a singer with that kind of charisma,” he said, adding that during the Salzburg performances of Suor Angelica “there wasn’t a dry eye in the house.” [Read more…]

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