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Mahler’s Fourth Symphony NOVEMBER 30 – DECEMBER 2, 2023
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2023/2024 SEASON J A C K , J O S E P H A N D M O RTO N M A N D E L C O N C E RT H A L L AT S E V E R A N C E M U S I C C E N T E R
Mahler’s Fourth Symphony Thursday, November 30, 2023, at 7:30 PM Friday, December 1, 2023, at 7:30 PM Saturday, December 2, 2023, at 8 PM
Daniel Harding, conductor Betsy Jolas (b. 1926)
Ces belles années…
20 minutes
Lauren Snouffer, soprano US Premiere, co-commissioned by The Cleveland Orchestra
Gustav Mahler (1860–1911)
I N TERMIS SI ON
20 minutes
Symphony No. 4 in G major
55 minutes
I.
Bedächtig. Nicht eilen (Deliberately. Not rushed)
II. In gemächlicher Bewegung. Ohne Hast (In easy motion. Without haste) III. Ruhevoll (Serene) IV. Sehr behaglich (Very leisurely) Lauren Snouffer, soprano
COVER: PHOTO BY ROGER MASTROIANNI
Saturday’s concert will be livestreamed on adella.live.
Total approximate running time: 1 hour 35 minutes
Thank you for silencing your electronic devices. Thursday evening’s concert is sponsored by DLR Group. Thursday evening’s performance is dedicated to JoAnn and Robert Glick, and William T. and Katherine J. O’Neill in recognition of their generous support of music.
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PHOTO BY ROGER MASTROIANNI
AN I N TRO DU C TION
Conductor Daniel Harding returns to Severance THIS PAST SUMMER , composer Betsy to present the US premiere of Ces belles années... Jolas was interviewed about her most and Mahler’s Fourth Symphony. recent work, Ces belles années…, which receives its US premiere in this the second half of this program. The weekend’s concerts by The Cleveland Symphony also closes with a solo Orchestra. soprano voice, which evokes a child’s Describing it as a cross between “a vision of heaven where all feast, dance, deformed quotation of ‘Happy Birthday’” and “are quite merry together.” Both of and her “memories of Mozart operas,” these angelic images, sung by tonight’s Jolas supposes that a third influence may soloist Lauren Snouffer with conduchave been at play. “In recent programs tor Daniel Harding, offer unclouded I have often been paired with Gustav and guileless ideas of finding comfort Mahler. Maybe he influenced me from and joy in the company of others. afar,” she offers. Whereas the late-Romantic Mahler That Mahlerian reference comes (1860–1911) found inspiration in the primarily in the form of a solo soprano collection of German folk poem Des voice, which enters in the last quarter Knaben Wunderhorn, the 97-year-old of Ces belles années…. Described by Jolas French-American Jolas was reflective for as a “messenger angel,” she calls all what she has called her final composition, listeners to come and celebrate these saying that Ces belles années… presents beautiful years with her. “… a collection, no doubt, of beautiful The effect parallels — intentionally musical memories from a lifetime.” or not — Mahler’s Symphony No. 4 on — Amanda Angel
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TH E MUSI C
Ces belles années… by Betsy Jolas BORN : August 5, 1926, in Paris
▶ COMPOSED: 2023 ▶ WORLD PREMIERE: June 14, 2023, with the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Simon Rattle at the Barbican Centre in London ▶ This weekend’s performances mark the US and Cleveland Orchestra premieres of Betsy Jolas’s Ces belles années... , co-commissioned by the London Symphony Orchestra, Festival International d’art lyrique d’Aix-en-Provence, and The Cleveland Orchestra. ▶ ORCHESTRATION: 3 flutes (3rd doubling alto flute and piccolo), 3 oboes (3rd doubling English horn), 3 clarinets (3rd doubling bass clarinet), 3 bassoons, 3 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion (bass drum, tom-toms, guiro, cymbals, tam-tams, metal block, maracas, tubular bells, triangles, temple blocks, wood blocks, crotale, snare drum, tarole, vibraphone, bongos, hi-hat, gong), harp, and strings, plus solo soprano ▶ DURATION: about 20 minutes
See page 12 for sung texts and translations.
London Symphony Orchestra and the IN 2014, Betsy Jolas met Sir Simon Aix-en-Provence Festival, which turned Rattle at a dinner in London. The 75 this past summer, the piece is an encounter was auspicious. It led to a commission for the Berlin Philharmonic, anniversary celebration, and its titular “good years” refer to Jolas’s own A Little Summer Suite, and marked memories of attending. the beginning of a late-career period In fact, Jolas was at the first ever of striking productivity and overdue Aix-en-Provence Festival in 1948, where celebrity. she saw Austrian conductor Hans Now 97, Jolas insists that this weekend’s US premiere, Ces belles années…, Rosbaud lead Mozart’s Così fan tutte. She would return many times to marks her last symphonic work. But hear other Mozart operas and, from though its title (Those good years) 1966, her own works too. Ces belles suggests a general harking back, perhaps in the manner of Richard Strauss’s Now 97, composer Betsy Jolas, a student of Four Last Songs, the inspiration is more Darius Milhaud and Olivier Messiaen, has enjoyed specific. Co-commissioned with the renewed interest in her work. 4 | 2023/2024 SEASON
PHOTO BY JEAN-CHRISTOPHE MARMARA
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THE MUS I C
années… alludes to those “wonderful summers filled with music” in blurred musical quotations, while a “Happy Birthday”–shaped refrain, announced in strings and winds within the first minute, gives the piece its rondo-esque form. The jubilant mood reaches its climax in a short epilogue. Here, a solo soprano acts as “a kind of messenger angel.” She invites the orchestra to rejoice — “Let’s celebrate these beautiful days, all these beautiful years” — which it soon does, echoing her phrasing and enthusiasm before at last dissolving into laughter. Vocal music has always been important to Jolas. Surprising, then, that Ces belles années… is the first piece she has written for solo voice in a truly symphonic context. The setting of familiar exclamations, rather than a specific text,
is also unusual. Still, many hallmarks of her compositional style remain. The large orchestral force — with its healthy percussion section — is used with great economy, and each line is written to be enjoyable for the player (“I compose as though for a chamber ensemble”). Jolas’s wit and love of vocal expression can also be found in the raft of extended techniques given to both the orchestral players and solo soprano, from glissandos, claps, and excited whispers to the tutti stomp in the final bar. Jolas feels strongly that Sir Simon Rattle brings out the best in her music, and Ces belles années… was written on his request, with him very much in mind. Having helped launch Jolas’s late-career bloom, his role at the close of this symphonic chapter offers a satisfying symmetry.
… a solo soprano acts as “a kind of messenger angel.” She invites the orchestra to rejoice — “Let’s celebrate these beautiful days, all these beautiful years”— which it soon does, echoing her phrasing and enthusiasm before at last dissolving into laughter.
6 | 2023/2024 SEASON
ABOUT THE COMPOSER
Set in the Parisian Années folles (crazy years) of 1920s France, Betsy Jolas’s childhood was colored by the artistic circle that formed around transition, the magazine her American parents founded. Visitors included Ernest Hemingway and André Masson; James Joyce “was like a grandfather to me.” But it was music that Jolas chose to pursue. After a stint living in New York, where performances with the Dessoff Choirs instilled a lifelong passion for Renaissance repertoire, she returned to France and, with the encouragement of organist André Marchal, enrolled at the Paris Conservatoire. Her teachers there included Darius Milhaud and Olivier Messiaen; she would ultimately succeed the latter as professor of analysis (in 1975) and then composition (in 1978). Jolas began honing her compositional voice in the period following World War II, embracing the ascendant avant-garde. An encounter with Webern’s Five Pieces for Orchestra in the 1950s struck her “like a lightning bolt” and, despite Milhaud’s skepticism, she followed contemporaries such as Boulez and Stockhausen with interest. Certain aspects of their style — an enthusiasm for new and unusual timbres, meticulously wrought textures and forms — made a mark on her own. And her breakthrough work, Quatuor II for soprano and string trio (1964), was commissioned and premiered by the concert society Boulez established: Le Domaine Musical.
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But Jolas’s trajectory was serial-adjacent, rather than that of an unquestioning disciple. Her innate lyricism and love of vocal music guarded her from the era’s extremes (“I just borrowed whatever I needed but no more!”). Textural complexity in D’un opéra de voyage (1967) or Sonate à 12 (1970) never obscures musicality, and though her approach to rhythm and meter is fluid (see in particular 1966’s J.D.E.), the result isn’t fragmentary but flowing. Neither did Jolas reject the past. “My roots are in the entire history of music,” she said in 2016. Works such as Musique de jour (1976) and Letters from Bachville (2019) pay homage to Monteverdi and Bach. While working on her opera Schliemann (1983–93), Jolas took time to study her favorite works in the genre, from Mozart’s Don Giovanni to Berg’s Wozzeck, absorbing their models into her own unique means of expression. © Timmy Fisher Timmy Fisher is an editor with the BBC Proms publications team and co-host of The Classical Music Pod. He writes program notes for the London Symphony Orchestra, and contributed to BBC Culture, the i, Financial Times, Radio Times, and VAN.
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THE MUS I C
Composer’s Note I thought that Latest (2021) would be my last orchestral work when Sir Simon Rattle wrote to ask, “How about another piece?” How could I refuse? So, I set to work and soon the memories of those beautiful years of music started to return. There are more-orless disguised allusions to these memories in my new work, and throughout, as a sort of refrain, different fragments of good old “Happy Birthday.” Although the voice has always held a special place in my music, its introduction in the third part of Ces belles années… astonished those around me. Their reaction surprised me at first, but I soon understood when I realized that this was the first time that I had used a voice in a specifically symphonic context, in a nearly 90-musician orchestra. Some, moreover, were quick to suggest the influence of the great Mahler, with whom I had, it is true, the honor of sharing several recent programs. Perhaps his example encouraged me. Who knows? All the same, I think that this choice had a very musical reason from the beginning. After evoking my own memories in the first part, it was necessary to return to a more general present, to clearly reach out to people of all ages and horizons. My soprano then intervenes as a kind of messenger angel. She calls everyone to celebrate this important moment with her and her joy eventually spreads throughout the orchestra. I didn’t feel the need for a “real” text here. For the occasion, and without any literary pretention, I contented myself a collection of familiar exclamations that should be recognizable to all. JANUARY 2023
8 | 2023/2024 SEASON
PHOTO BY JEAN RADEL
— Betsy Jolas
Symphony No. 4 in G major by Gustav Mahler BORN : July 7, 1860, in Kalischt, Bohemia, the present-day Czech Republic DIED : May 18, 1911, in Vienna
▶ COMPOSED: 1899–1900 ▶ WORLD PREMIERE: November 23, 1901, in Munich, under the composer’s direction ▶ CLEVELAND ORCHESTRA PREMIERE: January 28, 1937, conducted by Artur Rodziński ▶ ORCHESTRATION: 4 flutes (3rd and 4th doubling piccolo), 3 oboes (3rd doubling English horn), 3 clarinets (2nd doubling E-flat clarinet, 3rd doubling bass clarinet), 3 bassoons (3rd doubling contrabassoon), 4 horns, 3 trumpets, timpani, percussion (bass drum, triangle, sleigh bells, glockenspiel, cymbals, tam-tam), harp, and strings, plus solo soprano ▶ DURATION: about 55 minutes
See page 13 for sung texts and translations. VENISON, ASPARAGUS, 11,000 VIRGINS …
who would have thought that these apparently un-symphonic items would have their special place in the best-loved and most frequently played of Gustav Mahler’s symphonies? The Fourth Symphony is about childhood, in the sense that most of Mahler’s music seems to be about profound issues of life and death. Perhaps we are more willing to identify with the child’s world than to face the numberless existential issues that haunted Mahler throughout his life. At all events, there is a directness and charm in the Fourth Symphony that is missing from the others, with their often-sprawling exploration of good and evil, heaven and hell. The Fourth Symphony adopts the standard classical four-movement clevelandorchestra.com
design and uses a modest orchestra heavy on woodwinds but light on brass (no trombones or tuba). There are no formidable thunderbolts and no tense musical arguments that defy the listener’s comprehension. We emerge from the symphony in a glow of serenity and peace. Its origin — and a clue to its understanding — lies in Mahler’s preoccupation with the folk world of Des Knaben Wunderhorn (The youth’s magic horn), a collection of poetry published nearly a hundred years earlier purporting to be German folk poetry, but often half genuine, half invented. Between 1888 and 1899, Mahler set over a dozen poems from this collection for voice and piano or orchestra, some of which found their way into the symphonies he was composing at the same time. | 9
THE MUS I C
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Gustav Mahler captured in 1898, a year before he started composing his Fourth Symphony.
Schindler. The child’s dreams were therefore largely drawn on his own. The opening movement, in traditional symphonic form, has a disarming tunefulness, occasionally colored by jingling sleigh bells. The clarity of Mahler’s orchestration, even when several counterpoints are heard at once, is amazing. One good tune follows another, all seeming to smile, never to grimace, and the close is exquisite. The second movement, a kind of scherzo, features a solo violin tuned higher than normal to suggest a country fiddler. There are ghostly shadows in this music, mildly threatening perhaps, but set aside by the gemütlich (pleasant or congenial) quality of the pulse. As so often in Mahler, he is never done until he has exhausted the implications of his material — if there are new permutations and combinations to discover, he will.
PHOTO COURTESY OF WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
Both the Second and Third Symphonies included settings of these verses, and in the long Third Symphony Mahler originally planned to include, as a seventh movement, a setting of a song he had written in 1892 to the Wunderhorn poem Der Himmel hängt voller Geigen (Heaven is full of violins). Before the Third Symphony was published (in 1898), this song was taken out and set aside as the basis of a symphony of its own. Mahler titled the song Das himmlische Leben (The heavenly life) and composed three new movements to precede the song, all creating an image of childhood sealed by the child’s vision of heaven in the song. When he began his Fourth Symphony, Mahler had been music director at the Vienna Opera for a little over a year, an intense commitment that allowed him freedom to compose only in the summer months. In 1899, he bought a plot of land at Maiernigg on Wörther Lake near the southernmost point of Austria for the express purpose of building a second home for his annual break far from the cutthroat musical politics of the capital. While his chalet was being built, Mahler began work on the Fourth Symphony at Altaussee, a similar lakeside resort in the Austrian province of Styria, where he spent the summer. By the time he resumed composition the following year, the chalet at Maiernigg was ready, and it was there that he finished the symphony on August 5, 1900. It was first performed in November 1901, at which time he had just met, but not yet married, Alma
The third movement is a calm Adagio, particularly generous to the cellos, who present the first theme. After a while, the tempo suddenly quickens, recalling the pulse of the scherzo, with the main theme dragged into new disguises. Just when the pace seems to be running out of control, the horns put on the brakes and calm returns. But a new surprise arrives in the form of a gigantic chord of E major, important for the harp and then the timpani, which casts an ambiguous shadow over the end of the movement. The musical implications of this chord are not made clear until the end of the symphony, which will eventually end in the key of E major, as if the child’s dream has led, like a yellow brick road, to that particular vision of heaven. The last movement entrusts the vision to the soprano soloist. The child imagines
a carefree life in heaven, full of dancing and playing, good music and good food (asparagus, beans, hare, fish, wine), and saints and martyrs, too. The child has no qualms about imagining King Herod butchering a lamb or St. Luke slaughtering an ox. St. Peter catches fish, of course, and St. Martha, the patron saint of cooks, serves the dish. Why Mahler retained the three lines that mention St. Ursula, martyred along with 11,000 virgins, is a mystery. After all, he did omit one verse of the poem, where it mentions St. Lawrence, another martyr who is also regarded as a patron saint of cooks because he was himself … cooked. — 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.
Gustav Mahler’s Autograph Manuscript of Symphony No. 2, “Resurrection” CLEVELAND MUSEUM OF ART On view through February 11, 2024 In September of 2022, The Cleveland Orchestra announced the gift of the only complete manuscript of Mahler’s Symphony No. 2, “Resurrection,” generously donated by Dr. Herbert G. Kloiber, a noted Austrian media executive and philanthropist. This month, the Cleveland Museum of Art, which has partnered with the Orchestra to house and preserve this invaluable document, will display it in the Museum’s Rotunda, next to the reinstallation of the Canova marble Terpsichore Lyran (The Muse of Lyric Poetry).
For more information, visit clevelandart.org. clevelandorchestra.com
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TH E S U NG TE XTS
Ces belles années... Oh la joie de ces beaux jours Célébrons sans cesse ces beaux jours, ces beaux jours, toutes ces belles années venez, venez amenez vos amis, tous vos amis.
Oh the joy of these beautiful days Let us celebrate these beautiful days on end, these beautiful days, all these beautiful years come, come bring your friends, all your friends.
Et toi le tout petit, dans ton berceau tu viendras aussi. Et vous là-bas qui passez, venez aussi
And you, little one, in your cradle you will come too. And you who pass by, come along too
Chantons tous ensemble Chantons la joie la joie
Let us sing together Let us sing of joy of joy
Ha ha ha ...
Ha ha ha ...
Jo Arnold ’24
Double Bass Performance Major
1062825_Cleveland Orchestra_Week 7_sw
Texts by Betsy Jolas
Symphony No. 4 in G major, Fourth movement Text adapted by Gustav Mahler from Des Knaben Wunderhorn collected and adapted by Achim von Arnim and Clemens Brentano. English translation by Eric Sellen
Das himmlische Leben
The heavenly life
Wir geniessen die himmlischen Freuden, D’rum thun wir das Irdische meiden. Kein weltlich’ Getümmel Hört man nicht im Himmel! Lebt alles in sanftester Ruh’! Wir führen ein englisches Leben! Sind dennoch ganz lustig daneben! Wir tanzen und springen, Wir hüpfen und singen. Sankt Peter im Himmel sieht zu!
We revel in heavenly pleasures And avoid the earthly ones. None of the world’s tumult Do we hear in heaven! All live in absolute peace! We lead an angelic life! But we are quite merry together! We dance and leap, We skip and sing. Saint Peter in heaven looks on!
Johannes das Lämmlein auslasset, Der Metzger Herodes drauf passet! Wir führen ein unschuldig’s, Unschuldig’s, geduldig’s, Ein liebliches Lämmlein zu Tod! Sankt Lukas den Ochsen tät schlachten Ohn’ einig’s Bedenken und Achten. Der Wein kost kein Heller Im himmlischen Keller, Die Englein, die backen das Brot.
Saint John releases the young lamb, Herod the Butcher is ready! We lead an innocent, Innocent, patient, A dear little lamb to its death! Saint Luke slaughters the oxen Without a thought or care. The wine costs not a penny In heaven’s cellar, The angels bake the bread. continued on next page ▶ ▶ ▶
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THE SU NG TE X TS continued ▶ ▶ ▶
Gut Kräuter von allerhand Arten, Die wachsen im himmlischen Garten! Gut Spargel, Fisolen, Und was wir nur wollen! Ganze Schüsseln voll sind uns bereit! Gut Apfel, gut Birn, und gut Trauben, Die Gärtner die alles erlauben! Willst Rehbock, willst Hasen, Auf offener Strassen Sie laufen herbei!
Good vegetables of all kinds Grow in heaven’s garden! Good asparagus, string beans, And whatever else we might desire! Whole platefuls are prepared for us! Good apples, good pears, and good grapes, The gardeners let us have anything! If you want roebuck, or rabbit, Out in the streets They come running!
Sollt ein Fasttag etwa kommen Alle Fische gleich mit Freuden angeschwommen! Dort läuft schon Sankt Peter Mit Netz und mit Köder Zum himmlischen Weiher hinein. Sankt Martha die Köchin muss sein.
Should a fasting day arrive All the fish come joyfully swimming to us! There goes Saint Peter running With his net and bait To the heavenly fishpond. Saint Martha must be the cook.
Kein’ Musik ist ja nicht auf Erden, Die uns’rer verglichen kann werden. Elftausend Jungfrauen Zu tanzen sich trauen! Sankt Ursula selbst dazu lacht!
No music on earth Can be compared to ours. Eleven thousand maidens Dare to dance together! Even Saint Ursula has to laugh at this!
Cäcilia mit ihren Verwandten Sind treffliche Hofmusikanten! Die englischen Stimmen Ermuntern die Sinnen, Das alles für Freuden.
Cecilia and her kin Are splendid court musicians! The angelic voices Gladden the senses, So that everything awakens with joy.
14 | 2023/2024 SEASON
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TH E CO N DU C TOR
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Daniel Harding Daniel Harding is the music and artistic director of the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra. He previously was music director of the Orchestre de Paris (2016–19) and principal guest conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra (2007–17). He is conductor laureate of the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, with whom he has worked for more than 20 years. In 2024, he will become music director of both the Youth Music Culture The Greater Bay Area (YMCG), and the Orchestra and Chorus of the Academia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia. He is a regular visitor to the world’s foremost orchestras, including the Wiener Philharmoniker, Berliner Philharmoniker, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Dresden Staatskapelle, London Symphony Orchestra, and the Orchestra Filarmonica della Scala. In the US, he has appeared with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, The Cleveland Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic, and the San Francisco Symphony. A noted conductor of opera, he has frequently led productions at La Scala in Milan, the Salzburg Festival, the Royal Opera House (Covent Garden), and the Aix-en-Provence Festival, among many others. The 2023–24 season sees Harding return to conduct the Berliner Philharmoniker, The Cleveland Orchestra, clevelandorchestra.com
Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra Filarmonica della Scala, Orchestre de Paris, Staatskapelle Dresden, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, and Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks. He will embark on major tours of Europe with the Wiener Philharmoniker, Munich Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra. On the opera podium, he will lead Turandot at Teatro alla Scala, Milan. In 2002, Harding was awarded the title Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French government, and in 2017, was nominated to the position Officier Arts et Lettres. In 2012, he was elected a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Music. In 2021, he was awarded a CBE in the New Year Honours. He is a qualified airline pilot. | 19
TH E ARTIST
Lauren Snouffer
PHOTO BY ANJA SCHÜTZ
soprano Recognized for her artistic curiosity in world-class performances spanning the music of Claudio Monteverdi and Johann Adolph Hasse to Missy Mazzoli and George Benjamin, American Lauren Snouffer is celebrated as one of the most versatile and respected sopranos on the international stage. Snouffer celebrates two high-profile operatic debuts this season. With the Royal Swedish Opera she sings the lead role in the world premiere of Mikael Karlsson and Royce Vavrek’s Melancholia (based on the film by Lars von Trier), and she makes a Glyndebourne debut as Pamina in Die Zauberflöte. An admired guest of The Cleveland Orchestra, she returns to Severance Music Center this season, joining Daniel Harding for Mahler’s Fourth Symphony paired with Ces belles années…, a new work by Betsy Jolas. Other highlights include a concert performance of Benjamin’s Written on Skin with the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Stravinsky’s Les noces with the San Francisco Symphony, Brahms’s Ein deutsches Requiem with the Houston Symphony, Bach’s St. John Passion with the Seattle Symphony, and Handel’s Messiah with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. Past symphonic collaborations include performances with James Conlon and the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Alan Gilbert and the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester, clevelandorchestra.com
Manfred Honeck and the Pittsburgh Symphony, Raphaël Pichon and the Handel and Haydn Society, Masaaki Suzuki and the San Francisco Symphony, and many others. She has performed on the opera stage with with Houston Grand Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Opernhaus Zürich, Opéra national du Rhin, Santa Fe Opera, and Seattle Opera, among many others. A Grammy Award–nominated artist, her recording catalog includes Hasse’s Siroe and Handel’s Ottone with George Petrou for Decca, Gottschalk’s Requiem for the Living with Vladimir Lande on Novona Records, Grantham’s La cancíon desesperada conducted by Craig Hella Johnson on Harmonia Mundi, and Feldman’s Rothko Chapel with Steven Schick for ECM. An alumna of the Houston Grand Opera Studio, Snouffer graduated from Rice University and The Juilliard School. | 21
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TH E CLEV EL AN D ORCHESTR A 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.
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TH E CLEV EL A N D ORCHESTR A
Franz Welser-Möst, Music Director KELVIN SMITH FAMILY CHAIR FIRST VIOLINS
Sonja Braaten Molloy
Ralph Curry
ENGLISH HORN
David Radzynski
Carolyn Gadiel Warner
CONCERTMASTER
Elayna Duitman
Brian Thornton William P. Blair III Chair
Ioana Missits
David Alan Harrell
Robert Walters Samuel C. and Bernette K. Jaffe Chair
Jeffrey Zehngut
Martha Baldwin
Sae Shiragami
Dane Johansen
Kathleen Collins
Paul Kushious
Beth Woodside
BASSES
Emma Shook Dr. Jeanette Grasselli Brown and Dr. Glenn R. Brown Chair
Maximilian Dimoff* Clarence T. Reinberger Chair
Blossom-Lee Chair
Jung-Min Amy Lee ASSOCIATE CONCERTMASTER
Gretchen D. and Ward Smith Chair
Jessica Lee ASSISTANT CONCERTMASTER
Clara G. and George P. Bickford Chair
Yun-Ting Lee
Stephen Tavani
Jiah Chung Chapdelaine
ASSISTANT CONCERTMASTER
Liyuan Xie
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
VIOLAS Wesley Collins* Chaillé H. and Richard B. Tullis Chair
Derek Zadinsky2 Charles Paul1 Mary E. and F. Joseph Callahan Chair Mark Atherton Thomas Sperl Henry Peyrebrune Charles Barr Memorial 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
Lynne Ramsey1 Charles M. and Janet G. Kimball Chair
Charles Carleton
BASS CLARINET
Scott Dixon
Amy Zoloto Myrna and James Spira Chair
Stanley Konopka2
HARP
Mark Jackobs Jean Wall Bennett Chair
Trina Struble* Alice Chalifoux Chair
Lisa Boyko Richard and Nancy Sneed Chair Richard Waugh Lembi Veskimets The Morgan Sisters Chair
BASSOONS John Clouser* Louise Harkness Ingalls Chair
FLUTES
Gareth Thomas
Joshua Smith* Elizabeth M. and William C. Treuhaft Chair
Barrick Stees2 Sandra L. Haslinger Chair
Saeran St. Christopher
Jonathan Sherwin
Jessica Sindell Austin B. and Ellen W. Chinn Chair
CONTRABASSOON
Mary Kay Fink
HORNS
William Bender
PICCOLO
Gareth Zehngut
Nathaniel Silberschlag* George Szell Memorial Chair
CELLOS
Mary Kay Fink Anne M. and M. Roger Clapp Chair
Michael Mayhew§ Knight Foundation Chair
Mark Kosower* Louis D. Beaumont Chair
OBOES
Richard Weiss1 The GAR Foundation Chair
Frank Rosenwein* Edith S. Taplin Chair
Hans Clebsch
Genevieve Smelser
SECOND VIOLINS
Charles Bernard2 Helen Weil Ross Chair
Meghan Guegold Hege
Stephen Rose* Alfred M. and Clara T. Rankin Chair
Bryan Dumm Muriel and Noah Butkin Chair
Corbin Stair Sharon and Yoash Wiener Chair
Eli Matthews1 Patricia M. Kozerefski and Richard J. Bogomolny Chair
Tanya Ell Thomas J. and Judith Fay Gruber 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
24 | 2023/2024 SEASON
Eliesha Nelson Anthony and Diane Wynshaw-Boris Chair Joanna Patterson Zakany
2
Jeffrey Rathbun2 Everett D. and Eugenia S. McCurdy Chair Robert Walters
Jonathan Sherwin
Jesse McCormick Robert B. Benyo Chair Richard King
TRUMPETS Michael Sachs* Robert and Eunice Podis Weiskopf Chair
Richard Stout
LIBRARIANS
CONDUCTORS
Michael Ferraguto Joe and Marlene Toot Chair
Christoph von Dohnányi
Donald Miller
Daniel Reith
Jack Sutte
TUBA
Lyle Steelman2 James P. and Dolores D. Storer Chair
Yasuhito Sugiyama* Nathalie C. Spence and Nathalie S. Boswell Chair
ENDOWED CHAIRS CURRENTLY UNOCCUPIED
Michael Miller
TIMPANI
Elizabeth Ring and William Gwinn Mather Chair
CORNETS Michael Sachs* Mary Elizabeth and G. Robert Klein Chair Michael Miller
PHOTO BY ROGER MASTROIANNI
EUPHONIUM & BASS TRUMPET
vacant
PERCUSSION Marc Damoulakis* Margaret Allen Ireland Chair Thomas Sherwood
TROMBONES
Tanner Tanyeri
Brian Wendel* Gilbert W. and Louise I. Humphrey Chair
KEYBOARD INSTRUMENTS
Richard Stout Alexander and Marianna C. McAfee Chair Shachar Israel2
clevelandorchestra.com
Carolyn Gadiel Warner Marjory and Marc L. Swartzbaugh Chair
MUSIC DIRECTOR LAUREATE
ASSISTANT CONDUCTOR
Virginia M. Linsdseth, PhD, Chair
Sidney and Doris Dworkin Chair
Lisa Wong DIRECTOR OF CHORUSES
Frances P. and Chester C. Bolton Chair
Paul and Lucille Jones Chair James and Donna Reid Chair Sunshine Chair Otto G. and Corinne T. Voss Chair Mr. and Mrs. Richard K. Smucker Chair Rudolf Serkin 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.
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TH E 2023/2024 SEAS ON
CALE N DAR Pre-concert lectures are held in Reinberger Chamber Hall one hour prior to the performance.
WINTER
FALL
Franz Welser-Möst, conductor
NOV 30 – DEC 2 MAHLER’S FOURTH SYMPHONY Daniel Harding, conductor Lauren Snouffer, soprano BETSY JOLAS Ces belles années… MAHLER Symphony No. 4 Pre-concert lecture by Michael Strasser
DEC 7 & 9 TCHAIKOVSKY’S ROMEO & JULIET Semyon Bychkov, conductor Katia Labèque, piano Marielle Labèque, piano JULIAN ANDERSON Symphony No. 2, “Prague Panoramas” MARTINŮ Concerto for Two Pianos TCHAIKOVSKY Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture Pre-concert lecture by Caroline Oltmanns
JAN 11 – 13 THE MIRACULOUS MANDARIN KŘENEK Kleine Symphonie MAHLER Adagio from Symphony No. 10 BARTÓK String Quartet No. 3 (arr. for string orchestra) BARTÓK Suite from The Miraculous Mandarin Pre-concert lecture by Kevin McBrien
JAN 17 & 18 MODERN CLASSICIST: WELSER-MÖST CONDUCTS PROKOFIEV 2 & 5 Franz Welser-Möst, conductor PROKOFIEV Symphony No. 2 WEBERN Symphony PROKOFIEV Symphony No. 5 Pre-concert lecture by Eric Charnofsky
FEB 1 RECITAL
Beethoven for Three Leonidas Kavakos, violin Yo-Yo Ma, cello Emanuel Ax, piano
DEC 13 – 23 HOLIDAY CONCERTS Brett Mitchell, conductor Capathia Jenkins, vocalist The Cleveland Orchestra Choruses Wooster Chorus and CSU Chorale A FESTIVE SELECTION OF SEASONAL FAVORITES
BEETHOVEN Piano Trio, Op. 70, No. 1, “Ghost” BEETHOVEN/WOSNER Symphony No. 1 BEETHOVEN Piano Trio, Op. 70, No. 2
FEB 9 – 11 BEETHOVEN’S FATEFUL FIFTH Herbert Blomstedt, conductor SCHUBERT Symphony No. 6 BEETHOVEN Symphony No. 5
FEB 15 & 17 RAVEL’S MOTHER GOOSE George Benjamin, conductor Tim Mead, countertenor The Cleveland Orchestra Chorus DIETER AMMANN glut GEORGE BENJAMIN Dream of the Song KNUSSEN The Way to Castle Yonder RAVEL Ma mère l’Oye (complete ballet) Pre-concert lecture by James Wilding
FEB 22 – 25 BEETHOVEN’S PASTORAL Philippe Herreweghe, conductor Jean-Guihen Queyras, cello BEETHOVEN Overture to Egmont HAYDN Cello Concerto No. 1 BEETHOVEN Symphony No. 6, “Pastoral” Pre-concert lecture by David Rothenberg
FEB 29 – MAR 2 KANNEH-MASON PLAYS SCHUMANN Susanna Mälkki, conductor Isata Kanneh-Mason, piano J.S. BACH/WEBERN Ricercare from Musical Offering * C. SCHUMANN Piano Concerto HINDEMITH Mathis der Maler Symphony Pre-concert lecture by Eric Charnofsky
MAR 7 – 9 BRAHMS’S FOURTH SYMPHONY Fabio Luisi, conductor Mary Kay Fink, piccolo WEBER Overture to Oberon ODED ZEHAVI Aurora BRAHMS Symphony No. 4 Pre-concert lecture by Francesca Brittan
Pre-concert lecture by James O’Leary
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MAR 10 RECITAL
Chopin & Schubert Yefim Bronfman, piano SCHUBERT Piano Sonata No. 14 R . SCHUMANN Carnival Scenes from Vienna ESA-PEKKA SALONEN Sisar CHOPIN Piano Sonata No. 3
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
MAY 2 – 4 LANG LANG PLAYS SAINT-SAËNS
Klaus Mäkelä, conductor Sol Gabetta, cello Thomas Hampson, baritone * The Cleveland Orchestra Chorus *
Franz Welser-Möst, conductor Lang Lang, piano *
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
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
* Not performed on the Friday matinee concert
Pre-concert lecture by James O’Leary
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YOU R V IS IT 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.
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IN THE EVENT OF AN EMERGENCY
As a courtesy to others, please silence all devices prior to the start of the concert.
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.
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.
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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.
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.
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