The Cleveland Orchestra March 14, 16 & 17 Concerts

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2023/2024 SEASON

JACK, JOSEPH AND MORTON MANDEL CONCERT HALL AT SEVERANCE MUSIC CENTER

Levit Plays Mozart

Thursday, March 14, 2024, at 7:30 PM

Saturday, March 16, 2024, at 8 PM

Sunday, March 17, 2024, at 3 PM

Franz Welser-Möst, conductor

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791)

Piano Concerto No. 27 30 minutes in B-flat major, K. 595

I. Allegro

II. Larghetto

III. Allegro

Igor Levit, piano

minutes

Anton Bruckner (1824–1896)

Sunday’s concert will be livestreamed on Adella.live & Medici.tv

Symphony No. 4

70 minutes in E-flat major, “Romantic”

I. Bewegt, nicht zu schnell

(With motion, not too fast)

II. Andante quasi Allegretto

III. Scherzo: Bewegt (With motion)

IV. Finale: Bewegt, doch nicht zu schnell (With motion, but not too fast)

Total approximate running time: 2 hours

Thank you for silencing your electronic devices.

Thursday evening’s performance is dedicated to Mr. and Mrs. Albert B. Ratner in recognition of their generous support of music.

Saturday evening’s performance is dedicated to Mr. Yuval Brisker in recognition of his generous support of music.

by Franz Welser-Möst

THIS YEAR , orchestras all over the world are honoring the bicentennial of Anton Bruckner. As part of the celebration on September 4, 2024 — what would have been Bruckner’s 200th birthday — I will conduct The Cleveland Orchestra in his Symphony No. 4 just yards away from where he was born, in Ansfelden, Austria. In an early commemoration of the anniversary, we also present the Fourth Symphony, the “Romantic,” this weekend.

While Bruckner’s music has become more popular over the past decades, he was misunderstood for much of his life. He was a simple man who was dedicated to the church, yet he was also a genius whose symphonies were so expansive and expressive they are often called “cathedrals in sound.” This term might give the false notion that his music is merely religious in nature, but there’s so much more. His works can be obsessive, extreme, sentimental, highly emotional, sad, or aggressive. Sometimes he seems to be screaming out from the pages of the score, and at others he anticipates 20th-century modernism.

Like Bruckner, I was also born in Upper Austria and came of age in the Catholic Church: He was a choir boy at St. Florian Monastery, and I was an altar boy for eight years. When you’re raised in that environment, you can’t escape Bruckner — you might say that his music is in my blood!

I first tackled a Bruckner symphony, his Fifth, at age 24, and it raised for me this question: If he was so enamored with the Catholic Church, why did he decide to focus on composing symphonies and not masses or other liturgical music? I didn’t have an answer then, and I don’t have one now. Yet, visiting the Baroque Marble Hall and Basilica at St. Florian, where he spent much of his life and is interred beneath its organ, you can see how he kept one leg in the music of J.S. Bach and Palestrina. The other leg was in the intensely dramatic world of Richard Wagner. Perhaps the complexity of his approach, encompassing these contrasting, almost oppositional influences, could only be expressed through symphonic form.

Piano Concerto No. 27 in B-flat major, K. 595

by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

BORN : January 27, 1756, in Salzburg

DIED: December 5, 1791, in Vienna

▶ COMPOSED: 1788 – 91

▶ WORLD PREMIERE: March 4, 1791, in Vienna, with the composer as soloist

▶ CLEVELAND ORCHESTRA PREMIERE: April 1, 1948, with pianist Robert Casadesus and George Szell conducting

▶ ORCHESTRATION: flute, 2 oboes, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, and strings, plus solo piano

▶ DURATION: about 30 minutes

THIS CONCERTO IS THE LAST in Mozart’s incomparable series of piano concertos. He completed it on January 5, 1791, and entered the date in his catalog. It has been associated with the pianist Maria Magdalena Hofdemel, but the association is tenuous, since the one Vienna performance was given not by her but by Mozart himself on March 4, 1791, nine months before his death. Were the solo cadenzas written out for her perhaps? It’s possible, although Jan Vitásek, who played the concerto in Prague a few weeks later, would have needed cadenzas, too.

Research of British musicologist Alan Tyson, who examined every surviving scrap of music paper Mozart ever wrote on, has recently settled the matter. The concerto was almost entirely

composed three years earlier, in 1788, and was evidently not written with anyone in mind — Mozart did not know the Hofdemels then (so far as we know). As in the case of the last three symphonies, also composed in 1788, he probably proposed to organize a concert series for that year in which the concerto might be featured. As soon as the proposal (and the hoped-for profit its ticket sales would bring) failed, he gave up working on the piece.

At the beginning of 1791, the clarinetist Joseph Beer approached Mozart and asked the composer to take part in a concert on March 4. This gave Mozart cause to finish a “new work” and he pulled the three-year-old concerto out of his papers and finished it up. He only had a few pages of the finale to write.

other than Aloysia Weber, sister of Mozart’s wife, Constanze, and his adorata of some 12 years before.

The concert became historic in many ways, being the last time Mozart played the piano in public. It was given in a restaurant across the street from his lodgings, and the soprano soloist whom Beer also invited to take part was none

Concerto No. 27 is a strikingly serene work, even allowing for the brilliance always required in a concerto, with signs of a new level of maturity in Mozart’s style. Outwardly, the concerto resembles the composer’s others in its three

Mozart gave his final public performance in March 1791, a concert which included his Piano Concerto No. 27.

balanced movements, judiciously placed cadenzas, and a tranquil middle movement of great beauty.

This work profoundly affected Beethoven, whose concertos offer many echoes of individual phrases and combinations. His Third Piano Concerto in C minor, for example, opens with a similar rising triad followed by a descending scale much as we find here. Mozart, however, softens the drama in his opening movement (Allegro) by allowing one bar’s gentle introduction and by keeping a steadily pulsating tonic bass

extreme simplicity, as at the opening, and the sophisticated elegance of the closing cadence, where second violins and violas move into a winding inner line — a texture Mozart had used frequently since his earliest works.

The finale, given a tempo marking of Allegro, is a rondo — essentially a series of variations alternating with a related main melody. Here, however, solo cadenzas twice hold up the return of the theme. The one point where the theme appears in the wrong key (a fourth higher than usual or expected) is clearly

Concerto No. 27 is a strikingly serene work, even allowing for the brilliance always required in a concerto, with signs of a new level of maturity in Mozart’s style.

underneath his melody. A second theme, which follows soon after, presents a plain descending scale followed by the “same” descending scale, no longer plain, but modified with flat and natural signs, almost as contortedly chromatic as he could devise. This sort of musical teasing must have given Mozart particular delight. The movement’s development section is easily recognizable for its rather unsubtle moving through remote keys; the solo cadenza, on the other hand, stays close to the home key.

In the concerto’s slow movement, marked Larghetto, we observe once more the powerful contrast between

prominent if only because the pretense cannot be sustained for long.

Overall, Mozart’s final concerto for piano and orchestra leaves the clear impression that his invention would have kept bubbling in a similar and evolvingly wondrous vein for many years to come, had fate spared us (and him) his early death. Still, the concertos we have are numerous enough — and rich enough in invention — to give us little possible ground for regret.

— Hugh Macdonald

Hugh Macdonald is Avis H. Blewett Professor Emeritus of Music at Washington University in St. Louis. He has written books on Beethoven, Berlioz, Bizet, and Scriabin, as well as Music in 1853: The Biography of a Year

Symphony No. 4 in E-flat major, “Romantic”

by Anton Bruckner

BORN : September 4, 1824, in Ansfelden, Upper Austria

DIED: October 11, 1896, in Vienna

▶ COMPOSED: 1874 – 80, revised 1886 – 88

▶ WORLD PREMIERE: February 20, 1881, with Hans Richter conducting the Vienna Philharmonic

▶ CLEVELAND ORCHESTRA PREMIERE: April 12, 1945, led by Erich Leinsdorf

▶ ORCHESTRATION: 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, and strings

▶ DURATION: about 70 minutes

FOR MANY PEOPLE , Anton Bruckner’s Fourth Symphony has been tenaciously identified with the essence of Romanticism. After all, the composer himself applied the official moniker “Romantic” to the score. Bruckner actually conferred nicknames on several of his symphonies, but this is the only one he published with an official title, giving it literally an “imprimatur” status. Even more, he supplied brief but rambling programmatic descriptions of the music that conjure images of medieval knights riding forth from a city, spurned love, a hunt complete with a picnic interlude, “woodland magic,” and the like.

Yet these “explanations” for his musical thoughts are, simply put, a red herring. They were provided well after

he’d written the music. And such postscripts, with their romanticizing glosses on an abstract concert score were, well, trendy at the time. It’s safer to say that they represent the composer’s understandable attempt to “sell” this music, which was quite out of sync with his era, and not a confirmation of what the music really is.

Bruckner’s symphonies create a sense of sonic spaciousness and awe that is in fact unique to him. Robert Simpson, one of the most perceptive English commentators on Bruckner, argues persuasively that the “flight from reality” and “emotional egotism” characteristic

Bruckner (shown here in 1895) was a deeply devout Catholic, a quality which seeped into his symphonies.

of 19th-century Romanticism held little attraction for Bruckner — that his music is indeed profoundly anti-Romantic insofar as it envisions a musical architecture that differs from the patterns of tension and release so crucial to “dramatic” music.

Much has been made of Bruckner’s idolization of Richard Wagner. Yet the dramatic side of the equation in Wagnerian opera seems barely to have registered for Bruckner. What left its mark on him was, above all, Wagner’s expanded sense of musical time. (After seeing Wagner’s Ring operas, Bruckner

famously expressed puzzlement as to why the heroine had been set on fire at the end — entirely missing the point that she orders the fire to be built and sets herself on fire to bring closure to the dramatic story.) The Brucknerian aesthetic contrasts sharply with Romantic drama, instinctively tending toward a more spiritual contemplation — as Simpson writes, Bruckner’s symphonies illustrate a quest toward an “essence crystallized, the sky through which the earth moves.”

The Fourth Symphony marks a major milestone in the composer’s attempt to establish a symphonic design suitable to sustain his innovative musical thought. Not surprisingly, the score was subjected to extensive revisions as Bruckner groped

Despite the Romantic drama central to Wagner’s work —  captured in the 1876 stage design by Josef Hoffmann for Das Rheingold, the first opera of the Ring cycle — what left a mark on Bruckner was Wagner’s expanded sense of musical time.

his way through uncharted terrain.

The Fourth, in fact, represents the most convoluted revision history of all his symphonies — and this for a composer for whom variant editions of a work, often involving substantial changes, became the norm. The result is that identification of the “authentic” final score that should be performed is a matter of ongoing debate for many of his symphonies —  in particular the Fourth.

A brief summary of the issue might be helpful. Although Bruckner composed the first version of the Fourth in 1874, he withdrew it before it was even performed. And that original version remained unpublished and unheard during his lifetime (in fact it wasn’t published until 1975). Then, from 1878 to 1880, he reworked the material of the first two movements and rewrote both the Scherzo and the Finale (including substantially different rewrites of the latter). With this, he arrived at the version that was premiered, under Hans Richter’s baton, in February 1881. This, more or less, with some subsequent tinkering, provides the basis for the most frequently performed version of the work nowadays.

Yet after a series of rejections from publishers, Bruckner — desperate to have his much-misunderstood music officially in print — finally entered into a contract for publication of the Fourth in the late 1880s and embarked on yet another series of revisions he had begun in 1886 or 1887. At this point, to prepare the first printed edition, he collaborated with his students Ferdinand Löwe, Franz

Schalk, and Joseph Schalk — all of whom became major players in the history of Bruckner’s symphonic revisions.

It is this first printed edition of the Fourth Symphony that American musicologist Benjamin M. Korstvedt revisited to prepare his recent scholarly edition, closely studying the engraver’s copy of the score and its corrections. (Korstvedt also prepared an edition of Bruckner’s 1878–80 revision.) This “1888 edition” had in fact been the standard until 1936, when Bruckner scholar Robert Haas published his edition based on the 1880 version. The source of controversy here has to do with the extent to which changes later introduced by Bruckner’s collaborators may have distorted the composer’s original ideas in a well-intentioned effort to make his music more palatable to their contemporaries — for example, by introducing more seamlessly “Wagnerian” orchestrations. Countering these claims, Korstvedt writes: “Recent research has revealed, however, that the 1888 version was prepared, performed, and published with the composer’s full participation and approval and thus has a strong claim to legitimacy. ...”

In any case, there are valid reasons to perform each of these editions. For this weekend’s concerts, though, Music Director Franz Welser-Möst has opted to program Bruckner’s second version of the symphony (from 1878–80), which presents a fascinating (and perhaps clearer) snapshot of the composer’s original vision.

Through its combination of readily attractive elements and impressive architecture, the Fourth has kept its status at the forefront of Bruckner’s most popular works. The premiere in 1881, in fact, provided him with an encouraging turn of luck — his first taste of success as a symphonic composer in Vienna — following the disastrous reception of his Third Symphony in 1877. Curiously, up to this point all of Bruckner’s major scores —  sacred choral compositions and five symphonies (including two not listed or numbered within his canon of nine) —  had been anchored in the minor. The Fourth Symphony inaugurates a series of major-key symphonies that would extend through No. 7.

... essence crystallized, the sky through which the earth moves.

— Robert Simpson on Bruckner’s symphonies

Yet Bruckner’s treatment of tonality, in which he lays out enormous spans of time and majestic blocks of sound, transcends the classical polarity of majorminor. Indeed, the Fourth Symphony’s much-admired opening acquires something of its mysterious power by incorporating a minor-key inflection into the horn call’s otherwise simple harmonic palette, all set against a pregnant backdrop of trembling strings.

With the opening of the first move-

ment, instead of the romantic imagery of a noble knight (such as Wagner’s Lohengrin) setting out at dawn on honest quests in this “heroic” key of E-flat major, Bruckner’s music intimates an epic that is far more elemental — even cosmic — in its pared-down majesty. The prominence of the horn is a hallmark of the rest of the symphony — the instrument appears almost as a protagonist in its own right. At the same time, the massive summoning of the ensemble for the second part of the opening theme group is shaped by a duplet-followed-by-triplet pattern that also functions as a unifying device across the symphony’s span. (This socalled “Bruckner rhythm,” whose origins are likely related to his fascination with numerology and his obsessive counting of prayers and objects, indeed recurs as a rhythmic thumbprint throughout the composer’s career.)

With the second, rustically flavored theme group comes a counter to the epic, setting up a contrast — between nature viewed from an enormous, cosmic distance and from close-up, down in the valley, as it were. This sense of perspective, in fact, applies to the Fourth as a whole. Bruckner expands the dimensions of Classical sonata form, particularly in the resonant sounding of a chorale-like passage in the movement’s development section. New perspectives accompany the recapitulation, signaled by the flute’s counter-commentary against the opening horn call. And Brucknerian proportions reign supreme in the movement’s superbly paced coda.

The rest of the symphony continues to carry out the implications of this vast opening design. Bruckner establishes a solemnly measured gait in the march-like second-movement Andante, developing this C-minor slow movement from three interconnected sections of material presented in succession. Its recapitulation flows into another enormous coda, in which the motion becomes more flowing, reaching a powerful climax and then subsiding. Characteristically, Bruckner’s use of pauses is meditative, not dramatic.

After this, the third-movement “hunting” Scherzo, with its overlapping “Bruckner rhythms” in horns and brass, instills a rush of energy to complement the slow motion of the preceding march. Yet the Scherzo itself, in its secondary themes, as well as the innocent piping of the Trio section, juxtaposes the epic and the rustic that are twin poles of this symphony at large.

No part of the Fourth posed more difficulty for the composer than the fourth-movement Finale. The result, most commentators agree, is marred by uncertainties of direction that reflect

his struggle to lay out a design adequate to his spacious concept — a design that had to go beyond the conventions of sonata form.

Yet the Finale’s titanic opening shows Bruckner at his most confident, evoking a sense of mystery similar to what we encountered at the beginning of the work. The main theme coalesces against thundering timpani, while the fundamental contrast of epic against relaxed nature returns once more in the second theme group. All of these ideas meanwhile reintroduce material from the previous movements in new guises. By the time Bruckner arrives at the stunning final coda, writes Simpson, the effect is altogether different from that of “the accumulated energy of a vividly muscular process (as in the classical symphony)” or of “the warring of emotive elements (as in the purely romantic work)” but instead reveals “the final intensification of an essence.”

— Thomas May

Thomas May is a writer, critic, educator, and translator. A regular contributor to The New York Times, The Seattle Times, Gramophone, and Strings magazine, he is the English-language editor for Lucerne Festival.

The Sound of Music

| Baldwin Wallace Music Theatre at Blossom Music Center

PHOTO BY JULIA WESELY

THE CONDUCTOR

Franz Welser-Möst

Music Director

KELVIN SMITH FAMILY CHAIR

FRANZ WELSER-MÖST is among today’s most distinguished conductors. The 2023–24 season marks his 22nd year as Music Director of The Cleveland Orchestra. With the future of their acclaimed partnership extended to 2027, he will be the longest-serving musical leader in the ensemble’s history. The New York Times has declared Cleveland under WelserMöst’s direction to be “America’s most brilliant orchestra,” praising its virtuosity, elegance of sound, variety of color, and chamber-like musical cohesion.

With Welser-Möst, The Cleveland Orchestra has been praised for its inventive programming, ongoing support of new music, and innovative work in presenting operas. To date, the Orchestra and Welser-Möst have been showcased around the world in 20 international tours together.

In the 2023–24 season, Welser-Möst is a featured Perspectives Artist at Carnegie Hall, where he leads The Cleveland Orchestra and the Vienna Philharmonic as part of the series, Fall of the Weimar Republic: Dancing on the Precipice.

In addition to his commitment to Cleveland, Welser-Möst enjoys a particularly close and productive relationship with the Vienna Philharmonic as a guest conductor. He has conducted its celebrated New Year’s Concert three times, and regularly leads the orchestra

at home in Vienna, as well as on tours. Welser-Möst is also a regular guest at the Salzburg Festival where he has led a series of acclaimed opera productions, including Rusalka, Der Rosenkavalier, Fidelio, Die Liebe der Danae, Aribert Reimann’s opera Lear, and Richard Strauss’s Salome. In 2020, he conducted Strauss’s Elektra on the 100th anniversary of its premiere. He has since returned to Salzburg to conduct additional performances of Elektra in 2021 and Giacomo Puccini’s Il trittico in 2022.

In 2019, Welser-Möst was awarded the Gold Medal in the Arts by the Kennedy Center International Committee on the Arts. Other honors include The Cleveland Orchestra’s Distinguished Service Award, two Cleveland Arts Prize citations, the Vienna Philharmonic’s “Ring of Honor,” recognition from the Western Law Center for Disability Rights, honorary membership in the Vienna Singverein, appointment as an Academician of the European Academy of Yuste, and the Kilenyi Medal from the Bruckner Society of America.

THE ARTIST

Igor Levit, piano

With an alert and critical mind, pianist Igor Levit places his art in the context of social events and understands it as inseparably linked to them. The New York Times described him as one of the “most important artists of his generation.” Levit was Musical America’s 2020 Recording Artist of the Year and the 2018 Gilmore Artist. In June 2022, his album On DSCH received the Recording of the Year Award alongside the Instrumental Award from BBC Music Magazine

Levit regularly appears as soloist with the world’s leading orchestras such as The Cleveland Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, and Vienna Philharmonic, and at festivals including the Salzburger Festspiele, Musikfest Berlin, and Lucerne Festival. In the 2022–23 season, Levit was one of the Vienna Musikverein’s portrait artists and also joined the Heidelberger Frühling Music Festival as its co-artistic director.

Levit’s acclaimed 2019 debut recording of Beethoven’s 32 piano sonatas was awarded the Gramophone Artist of the Year Award as well as the Opus Klassik Award. In spring 2021, Hanser published Levit’s first book, House Concert, coauthored by Florian Zinnecker. Levit’s solo album for Sony Classical, featuring Henze’s Tristan with the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig and Franz Welser-Möst, was released in fall 2022 alongside the feature documentary Igor Levit: No Fear.

Born in Nizhny Novgorod, Russia, Levit moved to Germany with his family at age 8. He completed his piano studies in Hanover and was the youngest participant in the 2005 International Arthur Rubinstein Competition in Tel Aviv, where he won the Silver Medal. In spring 2019, he was appointed professor of piano at his alma mater, the Hanover University of Music, Drama and Media.

For his political commitment, Levit was awarded the 5th International Beethoven Prize and the “Statue B” award from the International Auschwitz Committee. In October 2020, he was recognized with the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany. In Berlin, where he makes his home, Levit plays on a Steinway D Grand Piano kindly given to him by the Trustees of Independent Opera at Sadler’s Wells.

“SWEET!”

you, as you secure tickets for the best seats in the house Cleveland Orchestra donors enjoy a variety of great benefits including priority presale for select concert tickets. Past presales have included sell-out programs such as Ax, Kavakos & Ma in Recital, Holiday Concerts, and movie presentations like The Princess Bride and more. With your gift of $180 or just $15 per month, this sweet priority access is yours.

John Williams conducted The Cleveland Orchestra for a concert of his music in 2022. The concert was a sell-out success, and donors had early access to tickets.

ABOUT THE CLEVELAND ORCHESTRA

NOW IN ITS SECOND CENTURY ,

The Cleveland Orchestra, under the leadership of Music Director Franz Welser-Möst since 2002, is one of the most sought-after performing ensembles in the world. Year after year, the ensemble exemplifies extraordinary artistic excellence, creative programming, and community engagement. The New York Times has called Cleveland “the best in America” for its virtuosity, elegance of sound, variety of color, and chamber-like musical cohesion.

Founded by Adella Prentiss Hughes, the Orchestra performed its inaugural concert in December 1918. By the middle of the century, decades of growth and sustained support had turned it into one of the most admired globally.

The past decade has seen an increasing number of young people attending concerts, bringing fresh attention to The Cleveland Orchestra’s legendary sound and committed programming. More recently, the Orchestra launched several bold digital projects, including the streaming platform Adella, the podcast On a Personal Note, and its own recording label, a new chapter in the Orchestra’s long and distinguished recording and broadcast history. Together, they have captured the Orchestra’s unique artistry and the musical achievements of the Welser-Möst and Cleveland Orchestra partnership.

The 2023 – 24 season marks Franz Welser-Möst’s 22nd year as music director, a period in which The Cleveland Orchestra earned unprecedented acclaim around the world, including a series of residencies at the Musikverein in Vienna, the first of its kind by an American orchestra, and a number of acclaimed opera presentations.

Since 1918, seven music directors — Nikolai Sokoloff, Artur Rodziński, Erich Leinsdorf, George Szell, Lorin Maazel, Christoph von Dohnányi, and Franz Welser-Möst — have guided and shaped the ensemble’s growth and sound. Through concerts at home and on tour, broadcasts, and a catalog of acclaimed recordings, The Cleveland Orchestra is heard today by a growing group of fans around the world.

THE CLEVELAND ORCHESTRA

Franz Welser-Möst, Music Director

KELVIN SMITH FAMILY CHAIR

FIRST VIOLINS

Jung-Min Amy Lee

ASSOCIATE CONCERTMASTER

Gretchen D. and Ward Smith Chair

Jessica Lee

ASSISTANT CONCERTMASTER

Clara G. and George P. Bickford Chair

Stephen Tavani

ASSISTANT CONCERTMASTER

Dr. Ronald H. Krasney Chair

Wei-Fang Gu

Drs. Paul M. and Renate H.

Duchesneau Chair

Kim Gomez

Elizabeth and Leslie Kondorossy Chair

Chul-In Park

Harriet T. and David L. Simon Chair

Miho Hashizume

Theodore Rautenberg Chair

Jeanne Preucil Rose

Larry J.B. and Barbara S. Robinson Chair

Alicia Koelz

Oswald and Phyllis Lerner

Gilroy Chair

Yu Yuan

Patty and John Collinson

Chair

Isabel Trautwein

Trevor and Jennie Jones Chair

Katherine Bormann

Analisé Denise Kukelhan

Gladys B. Goetz Chair

Zhan Shu

Youngji Kim

Genevieve Smelser

SECOND VIOLINS

Stephen Rose*

Alfred M. and Clara T. Rankin Chair

Jason Yu2

James and Donna Reid Chair

Eli Matthews1

Patricia M. Kozerefski and Richard J. Bogomolny Chair

Sonja Braaten Molloy

Carolyn Gadiel Warner

Elayna Duitman

Ioana Missits

Jeffrey Zehngut

Sae Shiragami

Kathleen Collins

Beth Woodside

Emma Shook

Dr. Jeanette Grasselli Brown and Dr. Glenn R. Brown Chair

Yun-Ting Lee

Jiah Chung Chapdelaine

Liyuan Xie

VIOLAS

Wesley Collins*

Chaillé H. and Richard B.

Tullis Chair

Stanley Konopka2

Mark Jackobs

Jean Wall Bennett Chair

Lisa Boyko

Richard and Nancy

Sneed Chair

Richard Waugh

Lembi Veskimets

The Morgan Sisters Chair

Eliesha Nelson

Anthony and Diane

Wynshaw-Boris Chair

Joanna Patterson Zakany

William Bender

Gareth Zehngut

CELLOS

Mark Kosower*

Louis D. Beaumont Chair

Richard Weiss1

The GAR Foundation Chair

Charles Bernard2

Helen Weil Ross Chair

Bryan Dumm

Muriel and Noah Butkin Chair

Tanya Ell

Thomas J. and Judith Fay

Gruber Chair

Ralph Curry

Brian Thornton

William P. Blair III Chair

David Alan Harrell

Martha Baldwin

Dane Johansen

Paul Kushious

BASSES

Maximilian Dimoff*

Clarence T. Reinberger Chair

Derek Zadinsky2

Charles Paul1

Mary E. and F. Joseph Callahan Chair

Mark Atherton

Thomas Sperl

Henry Peyrebrune

Charles Barr Memorial Chair

Charles Carleton

Scott Dixon

HARP

Trina Struble*

Alice Chalifoux Chair

FLUTES

Joshua Smith*

Elizabeth M. and William C. Treuhaft Chair

Saeran St. Christopher

Jessica Sindell2

Austin B. and Ellen W. Chinn Chair

Mary Kay Fink

PICCOLO

Mary Kay Fink

Anne M. and M. Roger Clapp Chair

OBOES

Frank Rosenwein*

Edith S. Taplin Chair

Corbin Stair

Sharon and Yoash Wiener Chair

Jeffrey Rathbun2

Everett D. and Eugenia S. McCurdy Chair

Robert Walters

ENGLISH HORN

Robert Walters

Samuel C. and Bernette K. Jaffe Chair

CLARINETS

Afendi Yusuf*

Robert Marcellus Chair

Robert Woolfrey

Victoire G. and Alfred M. Rankin, Jr. Chair

Daniel McKelway2

Robert R. and Vilma L. Kohn Chair

Amy Zoloto

E-FLAT CLARINET

Daniel McKelway

Stanley L. and Eloise M.

Morgan Chair

BASS CLARINET

Amy Zoloto

Myrna and James Spira Chair

BASSOONS

John Clouser*

Louise Harkness Ingalls Chair

Gareth Thomas

Barrick Stees2

Sandra L. Haslinger Chair

Jonathan Sherwin

CONTRABASSOON

Jonathan Sherwin

HORNS

Nathaniel Silberschlag*

George Szell Memorial Chair

Michael Mayhew§

Knight Foundation Chair

Jesse McCormick

Robert B. Benyo Chair

Hans Clebsch

Richard King

Meghan Guegold Hege

TRUMPETS

Michael Sachs*

Robert and Eunice Podis

Weiskopf Chair

Jack Sutte

Lyle Steelman2

James P. and Dolores D. Storer Chair

Michael Miller

CORNETS

Michael Sachs*

Mary Elizabeth and G. Robert Klein Chair

Michael Miller

TROMBONES

Brian Wendel*

Gilbert W. and Louise I.

Humphrey Chair

Richard Stout

Alexander and Marianna C. McAfee Chair

Shachar Israel2

BASS TROMBONE

Luke Sieve

EUPHONIUM & BASS TRUMPET

Richard Stout

TUBA

Yasuhito Sugiyama*

Nathalie C. Spence and Nathalie S. Boswell Chair

TIMPANI

vacant

PERCUSSION

Marc Damoulakis*

Margaret Allen Ireland Chair

Thomas Sherwood

Tanner Tanyeri

KEYBOARD INSTRUMENTS

Carolyn Gadiel Warner

Marjory and Marc L.

Swartzbaugh Chair

clevelandorchestra.com

LIBRARIANS

Michael Ferraguto

Joe and Marlene Toot Chair

Donald Miller

ENDOWED CHAIRS CURRENTLY UNOCCUPIED

Elizabeth Ring and William Gwinn Mather Chair

Blossom-Lee Chair

Virginia M. Linsdseth, PhD, Chair

Paul and Lucille Jones Chair

Charles M. and Janet G.

Kimball Chair

Sunshine Chair

Otto G. and Corinne T. Voss Chair

Mr. and Mrs. Richard K.

Smucker Chair

Rudolf Serkin Chair

CONDUCTORS

Christoph von Dohnányi

MUSIC DIRECTOR LAUREATE

Daniel Reith

ASSISTANT CONDUCTOR

Sidney and Doris Dworkin Chair

Lisa Wong

DIRECTOR OF CHORUSES

Frances P. and Chester C. Bolton Chair

* Principal

§ Associate Principal

1 First Assistant Principal

2 Assistant Principal

This roster lists full-time members of The Cleveland Orchestra. The number and seating of musicians onstage varies depending on the piece being performed. Seating within the string sections rotates on a periodic basis.

*

THE 2023/2024 SEASON CALENDAR

Pre-concert lectures are held in Reinberger Chamber Hall one hour prior to the performance.

WINTER

MAR 14, 16 & 17

LEVIT PLAYS MOZART

Franz Welser-Möst, conductor

Igor Levit, piano

MOZART Piano Concerto No. 27

BRUCKNER Symphony No. 4, “Romantic”

Pre-concert lecture by Cicilia Yudha

SPRING

MAR 21 – 23

SIBELIUS’S SECOND SYMPHONY

Dalia Stasevska, conductor

Josefina Maldonado, mezzo-soprano

RAUTAVAARA Cantus Arcticus

PERRY Stabat Mater

SIBELIUS Symphony No. 2

Pre-concert lecture by Kevin McBrien

APR 4 & 6

CITY NOIR

John Adams, conductor

James McVinnie, organ

Timothy McAllister, saxophone

GABRIELLA SMITH Breathing Forests

DEBUSSY Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun

JOHN ADAMS City Noir

Pre-concert lecture by Eric Charnofsky

APR 11 – 13

ELGAR’S CELLO CONCERTO

Klaus Mäkelä, conductor

Sol Gabetta, cello

Thomas Hampson, baritone *

The Cleveland Orchestra Chorus *

JIMMY LÓPEZ BELLIDO Perú negro

ELGAR Cello Concerto

WALTON Belshazzar’s Feast *

Pre-concert lecture by James Wilding

APR 14

RECITAL Schumann & Brahms

Evgeny Kissin, piano

Matthias Goerne, baritone R. SCHUMANN Dichterliebe

BRAHMS Four Ballades, Op. 10

BRAHMS Selected Songs

APR 18 – 20

YUJA WANG PLAYS

RAVEL & STRAVINSKY

Klaus Mäkelä, conductor

Yuja Wang, piano

RAVEL Concerto for the Left Hand STRAVINSKY Concerto for Piano and Wind Instruments

STRAVINSKY The Rite of Spring

Pre-concert lecture by Caroline Oltmanns

APR 26 – 28

RACHMANINOFF’S SECOND PIANO CONCERTO

Lahav Shani, conductor

Beatrice Rana, piano

UNSUK CHIN subito con forza

RACHMANINOFF Piano Concerto No. 2

BARTÓK Concerto for Orchestra

Pre-concert lecture by James O’Leary

MAY 2 – 4

LANG LANG PLAYS SAINT-SAËNS

Franz Welser-Möst, conductor

Lang Lang, piano *

SAINT-SAËNS Piano Concerto No. 2 *

BERLIOZ Symphonie fantastique

Pre-concert lecture by Caroline Oltmanns

MAY 16, 18, 24 & 26

MOZART’S MAGIC FLUTE

Franz Welser-Möst, conductor

Nikolaus Habjan, director

Julian Prégardien, tenor

Ludwig Mittelhammer, baritone

Christina Landshamer, soprano

The Cleveland Orchestra Chorus

MOZART The Magic Flute

Staged production sung in German with projected supertitles

MAY 23 & 25

MOZART’S GRAN PARTITA

Franz Welser-Möst, conductor

Leila Josefowicz, violin

Trina Struble, harp

WAGNER Prelude and Liebestod from Tristan und Isolde

JÜRI REINVERE Concerto for Violin and Harp

MOZART Serenade No. 10, “Gran Partita”

Pre-concert lecture by Michael Strasser

YOUR VISIT

HEALTH & SAFETY

The Cleveland Orchestra is committed to creating a comfortable, enjoyable, and safe environment for all guests at Severance Music Center. While mask and COVID-19 vaccination are recommended they are not required. Protocols are reviewed regularly with the assistance of our Cleveland Clinic partners; for up-to-date information, visit: clevelandorchestra. com/attend/health-safety

LATE SEATING

As a courtesy to the audience members and musicians in the hall, late-arriving patrons are asked to wait quietly until the first convenient break in the program. These seating breaks are at the discretion of the House Manager in consultation with the performing artists.

PAGERS, CELL PHONES & WRISTWATCH ALARMS

As a courtesy to others, please silence all devices prior to the start of the concert.

PHOTOGRAPHY, VIDEOGRAPHY & RECORDING

Audio recording, photography, and videography are prohibited during performances at Severance. Photographs can only be taken when the performance is not in progress.

HEARING AIDS & OTHER HEALTH-ASSISTIVE DEVICES

For the comfort of those around you, please reduce the volume on hearing aids and other devices that may produce a noise that would detract from the program. For Infrared Assistive-Listening Devices, please see the House Manager or Head Usher for more details.

IN THE EVENT OF AN EMERGENCY

Contact an usher or a member of house staff if you require medical assistance. Emergency exits are clearly marked throughout the building. Ushers and house staff will provide instructions in the event of an emergency.

AGE RESTRICTIONS

Regardless of age, each person must have a ticket and be able to sit quietly in a seat throughout the performance. Classical Season subscription concerts are not recommended for children under the age of 8. However, there are several age-appropriate series designed specifically for children and youth, including Music Explorers (for 3 to 6 years old) and Family Concerts (for ages 7 and older).

The Cleveland Orchestra is grateful to the following organizations for their ongoing generous support of The Cleveland Orchestra: the State of Ohio and Ohio Arts Council and to the residents of Cuyahoga County through Cuyahoga Arts and Culture.

Cleveland Orchestra performances are broadcast as part of regular programming on ideastream/WCLV Classical 90.3 FM, Saturdays at 8 PM and Sundays at 4 PM.

The Cleveland Orchestra is proud of its long-term partnership with Kent State University, made possible in part through generous funding from the State of Ohio.

The Cleveland Orchestra is proud to have its home, Severance Music Center, located on the campus of Case Western Reserve University, with whom it has a long history of collaboration and partnership.

© 2024 The Cleveland Orchestra and the Musical Arts Association

Program books for Cleveland Orchestra concerts are produced by The Cleveland Orchestra and are distributed free to attending audience members.

EDITORIAL

Kevin McBrien, The Cleveland Orchestra kmcbrien@clevelandorchestra.com DESIGN

Elizabeth Eddins, Eddinsdesign

“We are paving a path for our next chapter by establishing connections now. We can keep enjoying our wonderful skyline views and musical activities, knowing our plan is in place.”

Max Bunker and Tony Bianchi / Bratenahl

As a Judson at Home member, you’ll have access to an engaging community, cultural programs, wellness activities and an array of dining venues. Most of all, you have all the services and amenities of a retirement community at your fingertips while living in your own home.

SETTING THE STAGE

for Success

We believe that all Cleveland youth should have access to high-quality arts education. Through the generosity of our donors, we have invested more than $12.6 million since 2016 to scale up neighborhood-based programs that serve thousands of youth year-round in music, dance, theater, photography, literary arts and curatorial mastery. That’s setting the stage for success. Find your passion, and partner with the Cleveland Foundation to make your greatest charitable impact.

(877) 554-5054

www.ClevelandFoundation.org/Success