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The Miraculous Mandarin JANUARY 11–13, 2024
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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
The Miraculous Mandarin Thursday, January 11, 2024, at 7:30 PM Friday, January 12, 2024, at 7:30 PM Saturday, January 13, 2024, at 8 PM
Franz Welser-Möst, conductor Ernst Krenek (1900–1991)
Kleine Symphonie, Op. 58
15 minutes
I. Andante sostenuto; Allegro energico ma non troppo II. Andantino (poco lento) III. Allegretto, poco grave
Adagio from Symphony No. 10 in F-sharp major
25 minutes
I N TERMIS SI ON
20 minutes
Béla Bartók (1881–1945)
String Quartet No. 3
20 minutes
Béla Bartók
Suite from The Miraculous Mandarin
Gustav Mahler (1860–1911)
arranged for double string orchestra by Stanley Konopka 20 minutes
COVER: PHOTO BY ROGER MASTROIANNI
Total approximate running time: 1 hour 40 minutes
Saturday’s concert will be livestreamed on adella.live and medici.tv.
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AN I N TRO DU C TION by Franz Welser-Möst
IMAGE COURTESY OF THE TATE
THE YEARS OF THE WEIMAR REPUBLIC ,
from the end of World War I in 1918 to the rise of Hitler in 1933, were perhaps the wildest 15 years of artistic creation in European history. Up until that time, the evolution of art and culture had progressed somewhat gradually. Then came the First World War, a war that should never have been fought and yet caused cataclysmic destruction on a scale never-before seen. How could artists and musicians respond to such meaningless death and suffering? We see their response in the sheer amount of experimentation and innovation produced during the Weimar Republic, when the order and logic of previous eras gave way to a flurry of different, inventive, and exciting new ideas. This evening’s program refers to that period in history. It opens with two works connected to Ernst Krenek that exemplify the rupture from pre- to postWorld War I years. As a young composer, Krenek idolized Gustav Mahler, and in fact, Alma Mahler asked Krenek (then her son-in-law) to complete her husband’s unfinished Tenth Symphony. We will perform its Adagio, the only movement from the symphony that Mahler composed and orchestrated. After the lush, late romanticism of Mahler with its prolonged compositions requiring upwards of 100 musicians, we see figures such as Krenek turn in the opposite direction and begin reducing music to its essential elements. The Kleine Symphonie has neither violas, clevelandorchestra.com
In Carnival (1920) painter Max Beckmann depicts this festive season in Germany from the early years of the Weimar Republic. Beckmann’s work would later be labeled “degenerate” by the Nazis.
cellos, oboes, nor horns, but it takes an old form, inspired by the Baroque, and fills it with new, modern sounds. The second half of the program pairs two of Béla Bartók’s most challenging and ingenious works, both written during this time. In the String Quartet No. 3, which we play in an arrangement for string orchestra, and The Miraculous Mandarin Suite, Bartók creates a new musical path forward by masterly combining influences from folk tunes and elements of the avant-garde to create works of lasting power. | 3
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Kleine Symphonie, Op. 58 by Ernst Krenek BORN : August 23, 1900, in Vienna DIED: December 22, 1991, in Palm Springs, California
▶ COMPOSED: 1928 ▶ WORLD PREMIERE: November 3, 1928, in Berlin with Otto Klemperer conducting ▶ This weekend’s concerts, conducted by Music Director Franz Welser-Möst, mark the first performances of Ernst Krenek’s Kleine Symphonie by The Cleveland Orchestra. ▶ ORCHESTRATION: 2 flutes, 3 clarinets (1st doubling E-flat clarinet, 2nd doubling E-flat clarinet and bass clarinet), 2 bassoons (2nd doubling contrabassoon), 3 trumpets, 2 trombones, tuba, harp, 2 mandolins, guitar, 2 banjos, timpani, percussion (bass drum, snare drum, field drum, cymbals), violins, and basses ▶ DURATION: about 15 minutes
tions, ranging from operas and ballets to IT ’S FITTING THAT A COMPOSER of symphonies, string quartets, and solo classical music born at the dawn of the 20th century, in August 1900, would come piano music, one hears Krenek moving in lockstep with the musical evolution of each to embrace nearly all its major musical styles. Over Ernst Krenek’s astonishingly passing decade. Although he was never part of the avant-garde at any moment in prolific seven-decade career, the Austrian his career, he consistently adapted his composer produced a body of work style to align with the latest innovations. that emerged from the hyper-expressive But Krenek didn’t foresee becoming world of fin de siècle romanticism before exploring more radical paths of atonality, such a chameleonic composer at the beginning of his career. In his early 20s he serialism, electronic music, and the had one mission in mind: to write in the aleatoric style that fascinated artists style of the late Gustav Mahler, whose during the second half of the century. titanic, heaven-storming symphonies Unlike many contemporaries who composed with an eye toward posterity — proved a major milestone in the development of the Austro-German symphony. Zukunftsmusik, or music of the future, “I put it down as a note in a diary,” Krenek as Richard Wagner coined it — Krenek recalled, “to become the successor of was consistently an artist of his time. Mahler in the field of the symphony.” From a survey of his 200-plus composi4 | 2023/2024 SEASON
PHOTO COURTESY OF THE ERNST KRENEK INSTITUTE/WIEN MUSEUM
His quest to assume the mantle of Mahler began in a blaze of glory, with Krenek composing three large-scale symphonies before the age of 23. Encompassing more than two hours of dissonant, expressionistic music, these works fused the jarring parody and banality of Mahler’s symphonies with the kinetic rhythms and vivid orchestral colors of another composer Krenek revered, Béla Bartók. clevelandorchestra.com
After completing the Kleine Symphonie in 1928, Krenek, depicted in 1930, began experimenting with twelve-tone technique.
Performances of these early works positioned Krenek as the enfant terrible of contemporary music in Vienna, and he quickly became part of the city’s musical elite. He sparred with Arnold Schoenberg on the future of tonality in music. He antagonized his teacher Franz | 5
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Schreker by producing reams of scores the elder composer found too extreme. He grew close to Alma Mahler, Gustav’s widow, and the couple’s youngest daughter Anna, whom Ernst wedded in early 1924 — a tumultuous marriage that ended before their first anniversary. Just as quickly as Krenek’s marriage to Anna had dissolved, so too would his desire to uphold her father’s writing style. Emotionally distraught by his impending divorce and caught at a crossroads in his burgeoning career, Krenek embarked on a journey to Paris in the fall of 1924 that would transform his approach to composition. During his trip, Krenek got to know Igor Stravinsky and was charmed by the members of Les Six, a Parisian composer collective championed by the cultural maven Jean Cocteau. Les Six merged the worlds of the concert hall and the dance hall, producing music that mixed elements of Baroque and Classical style with those of cabaret, vaudeville, and — most intriguing of all to Krenek — American jazz. Krenek’s immersion in this hothouse of artistic innovation prompted, in his words, “a complete about-face in my artistic outlook.” “I was fascinated by what appeared to me the happy equilibrium, perfect poise, grace, elegance, and clarity I perceived in the French music of that period, as well as in the relations of French musicians with their public,” he later wrote. “I decided that the tenets which I had followed so far in writing ‘modern’ music were totally wrong. Music, according 6 | 2023/2024 SEASON
to my new philosophy, had to fit the well-defined demands of the community for which it was written. It had to be useful, entertaining, practical.” Krenek’s epiphany mirrored that of many European artists during the 1920s. From the smoldering ashes of World War I emerged a new wave of musical thought, neoclassicism, which traded in romanticism’s excessive emotionality and highbrow complexity for a style that prized objectivity, accessible musical language, and a cool, even whimsical sensibility. Neoclassicism became Krenek’s musical focus for the next five
I decided that the tenets which I had followed so far in writing ‘modern’ music were totally wrong. ... [Music] had to be useful, entertaining, practical. years, culminating in his raucous, jazzy Kleine Symphonie (Little symphony). Completed in 1928, Kleine Symphonie marks the last of Krenek’s neoclassical works and stands in stark contrast to the primal screams woven throughout his early symphonies. As opposed to the large orchestras required of those works, here Krenek guts the orchestra considerably, removing the oboes, horns, violas, and cellos. The entire string body is
composed of just violins, basses, harp, and — in a nod to the instruments so beloved by Cocteau and the Parisian bohemians — a group of mandolins, banjos, and guitar. But rather than eschew every element of the symphonic tradition he was distancing himself from, Krenek attempts to reconcile past and present. Kleine Symphonie follows the threemovement structure of the 18th-century symphony, but Krenek turns this traditional form on its head by introducing hallmarks of 1920s music: a saucier approach to harmonic dissonance, the spiky rhythmic distortions he admired in Stravinsky and Bartók’s music, and iridescent rainbows of instrumental color that speak to European culture’s feverish obsession with le Jazz Hot. Krenek’s playful mixing of old and new begins in the first bars of the introduction, where he introduces three elements that will drive the first movement’s action: a series of Mozartean fanfares; a jagged melody that emerges from the gravelly contrabassoon; and jaunty dance rhythms that quickly accelerate, plunging us into the main body of the movement. Melodic fragments fly across every corner of the orchestra, where dizzying changes in character abound — from jazzy woodwind syncopations to sinister martial figures in the trumpets and drums, and the quivering hum of mandolin and banjo. Oom-pah figures in the low brass and percussion evoke the raucous music of the dance hall, rushing the music clevelandorchestra.com
along as Krenek’s harmonic tricks tickle the ear. Rather than give listeners the ecstasy of a bright, brassy finish, the music quietly disappears like the final plume of smoke from a cigarillo. The central movement is built around an obsessive ostinato in the guitar and harp, written in a set of changing asymmetrical meters that prevent the music from ever finding a stable groove. Over this foundation a series of instruments take turns singing a minor-key aria teeming with bluesy arabesques — first in the clarinet, followed by trumpet, bassoon, and finally, the captivating combination of flute and trombone. For the finale, Krenek delivers a deliriously spirited rondo, in which the primary melody — first introduced in the bassoons — is repeated throughout, always giving the ear clear anchor points as the rowdy music traverses new territories of harmony and rhythm. Dominated throughout by the repetition of hammerlike chords that call to mind the fierce dissonance of Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring, the music builds to a fury of sound. Strings and percussion persist with their ferocious ostinato, flutes and clarinets spit out rapid-fire scales that act like galeforce winds swirling around the orchestra, as this little symphony marches headfirst into its cheeky, high-octane conclusion. — Michael Cirigliano II Michael Cirigliano II is a freelance writer who has worked with The Cleveland Orchestra, Oregon Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Minnesota Orchestra, Lincoln Center, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. His newsletter, Shades of Blue, explores the human stories behind classical music’s most melancholy moments as a means to cultivate calm, connection, and healing.
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Adagio from Symphony No. 10 in F-sharp major by Gustav Mahler BORN : July 7, 1860, in Kalischt, Bohemia (now Kalištì in the Czech Republic) DIED: May 18, 1911, in Vienna
▶ COMPOSED: 1910 ▶ WORLD PREMIERE: On October 12, 1924, Franz Schalk led a performance of the Adagio and Purgatorio movements of Mahler’s Symphony No. 10, arranged by Schalk and Ernst Krenek. ▶ CLEVELAND ORCHESTRA PREMIERE: George Szell led The Cleveland Orchestra in Mahler’s Symphony No. 10, (the Ernst Krenek edition, published in 1951) on October 30, 1958. Pierre Boulez was the first to lead the Orchestra in just the Adagio, on April 6, 1972. ▶ ORCHESTRATION: 3 flutes (3rd doubling piccolo), 3 oboes, 3 clarinets, 3 bassoons, 4 horns, 4 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, harp, and strings ▶ DURATION: about 25 minutes
IN THE DECADE FOLLOWING Gustav Mahler’s death in 1911, many considered the hushed, ethereal beauty that closes his Ninth Symphony to be the composer’s farewell to the world. Aspiring to “embrace everything” in his symphonies, Mahler had spent three decades penning riveting poetic journeys from heaven to hell and back that mirrored his own turbulent voyage through life. And in the Ninth, infused with many elements of that personal history — from the pastoral folk dances he loved as a child to his all-consuming anxiety following the diagnosis of his fatal heart disease in 1907 — Mahler appeared to confess to each listener: Here are the experiences I’ve lived, the joys and sorrows, the love and loss I’ve carried with me for 50 years. When called upon, I am prepared to go gently into that good night.
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But despite having come to terms with his mortality, Mahler’s life carried on. In the summer of 1910 — a year after completing the Ninth — in between having finished his first grueling season as music director of the New York Philharmonic and preparing to conduct the September premiere of his Eighth Symphony, he was back in Europe for a few months. Relieved of the superstitious fear that he would die before completing his Ninth Symphony, Mahler traveled in June to his summer home at Toblach in the Austrian countryside, ready to begin constructing the universe of his next symphony. But by late July, fate brought a new crisis to his front door. Gustav Mahler photographed at Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw in 1909, the year he finished his Ninth Symphony.
PHOTO BY W. A . VAN LEER FOR WEEKBLAD VOOR MUZIEK
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Mahler learned that his wife of eight years, Alma, was having an affair with the German architect Walter Gropius. The composer had received a piece of mail addressed to Herr Direktor Mahler — inside was a statement of love from Gropius to Alma, imploring her to leave her husband and start life anew with him. Overcome with grief, Mahler demanded his wife decide between the two men. Alma confirmed she would stay married to Mahler (though in secret, she continued her affair with Gropius). Despite the paralyzing shock Alma’s infidelity had on Mahler, the writing had been on the wall for some time. The Mahlers’ marriage wasn’t a fulfilling one for Alma. She had been forced to set aside her own work as a composer and was constantly sidelined by her husband’s taxing schedule. The couple was still grieving the 1907 death of their youngest daughter, Maria Anna, and the move to New York only exacerbated Alma’s feelings of grief and isolation. Caught in a tailspin of guilt, Mahler genuinely acknowledged his wife’s sufferings for the first time. Through streams of tears, he resolved to rededicate himself to their marriage and penned love poems to Alma throughout the summer — one of which foretold the mission of his new symphony: Let me condense the tremors of my yearning The eternity of bliss divine in your embrace Into one great song. Mahler kept his promise. Having navigated the summer’s emotional storms, 10 | 2023/2024 SEASON
he left Toblach in September with his Tenth Symphony fully sketched — a manuscript he never touched again before his death the following May. Rumors regarding the condition of his final symphonic score began to swirl immediately after his death. Some friends claimed Mahler had requested the manuscript be burned, while others assumed any existing drafts were likely the delirious scribblings of a tortured soul. After keeping the Tenth’s manuscript under lock and key for 13 years, Alma decided in 1924 to release it into the world through two actions. First, she authorized a Viennese publisher to release a facsimile edition of Mahler’s manuscript. And second, she requested that her son-in-law, the composer Ernst Krenek, complete the work ahead of a performance in Vienna later that year. The facsimile pages of Mahler’s manuscript confirmed that he had indeed laid the foundation for the Tenth, a five-movement work similar in form to his Fifth and Seventh symphonies. He had even completed the full orchestral score of the vast opening Adagio. But the newly published score also showed the world the emotional crisis Mahler endured as he worked on the symphony. Throughout, he had etched phrases that spoke to the searing pain and suffering he experienced in his final summer, including: O Lord, why hast thou forsaken me? ... Madness, take hold of me, the accursed one ... To live for you! To die for you! Almschi!
In many ways, Krenek was an ideal choice to complete the Tenth’s score. Aside from being married to Mahler’s younger daughter, Krenek had expressed a desire “to become the successor of Mahler in the field of the symphony.” His first three symphonies, composed in 1921 and 1922, were steeped in the musical and psychological languages of Mahler’s work. But when called upon to complete the final symphony of a composer he revered, Krenek ultimately declined. He deemed only the opening Adagio and the central movement, titled Purgatorio, ready for performance, as both movements would require only light edits and a bit of fleshing out of the orchestration using passages Mahler had already completed as an example. Realizing the sketches for the two scherzos and finale would involve, in Krenek’s words, “guesswork pure and simple ... paraphrasing upon the ideas of a departed master.” Incomplete movements aside, the opening Adagio offers a roadmap for the new avenues Mahler was forging in his symphony. As the sentimental style of late romanticism bled into the steely sounds of 20th-century modernism, Mahler looked to follow that drumbeat of change. The Tenth anticipates the complex rhythms and annihilation of tonality a new generation of composers would begin to employ as they navigated tectonic cultural shifts throughout the 1910s and ’20s. Returning to the shadowy world with which he ended the Ninth Symphony — clevelandorchestra.com
that liminal space between life and death — Mahler frames his Adagio around three alternating ideas: a searching, otherworldly melody whispered by unaccompanied violas; a song of radiant intensity dominated by the burnished tones of violins and horns; and a sly, sardonic dance tune that scurries about the orchestra as woodwinds cast spells with fluttered tongues and trembling trills. After Mahler has captured our attention with the nostalgic sweep and sway of this familiarly romantic material, he plunges us into uncharted territory. A terrifying maelstrom erupts from the full orchestra: broken chords swirl about in the strings and harp as winds and brass intone a mournful chorale. The dance tune tries to re-emerge, only to be cast aside by grisly shrieks from the violins and trumpet and a layering of ear-shattering dissonances — the ninetone wall of sound often referred to as the symphony’s “chord of catastrophe.” Having come so close to the existential abyss, the music quickly takes a step back and attempts to regain its original strength. The violin’s opening melody returns in fragmented form, but the warmth and vitality heard at the beginning of the movement have been replaced by a sense of wary, breathless relief. As the gentle, major-key chord that closes the movement evaporates in the ether, Mahler shows us that life must go on. Crisis has been averted — for now. — Michael Cirigliano II
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String Quartet No. 3, arranged for double string orchestra by Béla Bartók BORN : March 25, 1881, in Nagyszentmiklós, Hungary (now Sânnicolau Mare, Romania) DIED: September 26, 1945, in New York
▶ WORLD PREMIERE: December 30, 1928, in Philadelphia with violinists Mischa Mischakoff and David Dubinsky, violist Samuel Lifschey, and cellist William Van der Berg ▶ This weekend’s concerts mark the first performances of an arrangement for string orchestra of Bartók’s String Quartet No. 3 by The Cleveland Orchestra ▶ ORCHESTRATION: double string orchestra ▶ DURATION: about 20 minutes
Arranger’s Note DURING THE SUMMER before I entered seventh grade, I would often stay up until three or four in the morning listening to WFMT, the classical music station in Chicago, where I grew up. With my tape deck and a stack of blank cassettes at the ready, I would record works off the broadcast. Later, I would find the scores to the music so I could study the inner workings of these pieces — so I too could become a composer one day. One night I heard something unlike anything I had ever heard before: the pizzicato movement of Béla Bartók’s Fourth String Quartet. The harmonic language was like nothing I’d ever encountered, the interaction of the lines was so interesting and complex,
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and the fourth movement was as wild as any of the heavy metal my friends were listening to at that time. The next morning, I ran straight to our local library — I arrived before the doors were unlocked — I had to verify that music like this really existed. I found the 1940 Juilliard String Quartet mono recording of Bartok’s Third and Fourth string quartets and quickly began to wear out the vinyl. It was like an alien language, but somehow, I intuitively knew what everything meant in detail. While my middle-school peers listened to Iron Maiden and Judas Priest, Bartók was my Metallica. One of the reasons that it resonated with me profoundly was that these discordant and often brutal sounding works accurately reflected what I was witnessing in my life. My parents were
1064631_Cleveland Orchestra_Week 9_sw
▶ COMPOSED: 1927, arranged for double string orchestra by Stanley Konopka, 2023
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IImade madeaabold boldchoice choiceto tofollow followthis this IIproposed proposedthe theidea ideato toFranz FranzWelserWelser- model modelas asaameans meansof ofcapturing capturingthese these Möst Möst— —he hehad hadbeen beenmusic musicdirector director two twocharacters. characters.At Atthe thesame sametime, time,IItried tried for foraafew fewseasons seasonsat atthat thatpoint point— —and andhe he to tobe beas asfaithful faithfulto tothe theoriginal originalscore score was wasinterested interestedin inthe theidea. idea.After Aftergoing going as asIIcould. could.Compositionally, Compositionally,ititshowcases showcases through throughthe theproper properchannels channelsto tocomplete complete Bartók’s Bartók’sgenius geniusand andhis hisability abilityto totake take such suchaaproject, project,we weencountered encounteredaasudden sudden aatiny, tiny,little littlemusical musicalidea ideaand andrun runitit disappointment: disappointment:Peter PeterBartók, Bartók,the the through throughevery everypermutation: permutation:forwards, forwards, composer’s composer’sson, son,had hadheard heardabout aboutour our backwards, backwards,inverted, inverted,and andrecapitulated. recapitulated. undertaking, undertaking,and andhe hewould wouldhave havenone none — —Stanley StanleyKonopka Konopka of ofit! it!We Wesuspended suspendedour ourefforts. efforts. 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Suite from The Miraculous Mandarin by Béla Bartók
▶ COMPOSED: 1918–24, suite 1927 ▶ WORLD PREMIERE: The ballet premiered in Cologne on November 27, 1926. The suite was first performed by the Budapest Philharmonic Orchestra on October 15, 1928, led by Ernő Dohnányi. ▶ CLEVELAND ORCHESTRA PREMIERE: March 31, 1966, under the direction of Louis Lane ▶ ORCHESTRATION: 3 flutes (2nd and 3rd 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, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion (bass drum, cymbals, snare drum, tenor drum, triangle, tam-tam, xylophone), harp, celesta, piano, organ, and strings ▶ DURATION: about 20 minutes
THE ONE-ACT PLAY The Miraculous Mandarin by Menyhért (Melchior) Lengyel struck a deep nerve in Béla Bartók, who decided to set it to music as soon as he had read it in the literary magazine Nyugat (The Occident). Lengyel was a successful Hungarian playwright who later worked in Hollywood (writing screenplays for Greta Garbo, among others). The Miraculous Mandarin abounded in gruesome details that instigated adverse consequences for the performance history of Bartók’s pantomime ballet. Its premiere in the predominantly Catholic city of Cologne sparked a major scandal, leading the city’s mayor to ban the work. However, this should not prevent us from recognizing the intense drama that arises from the fatal conflict between trivial everyday experience and something that transcends it.
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The action of the pantomime is summarized in the score as follows: In a shabby room in the slums, three tramps, bent on robbery, force a girl to lure prospective victims from the street. A down-at-heel cavalier and a timid youth, who succumb to her attractions, are found to have thin wallets and are thrown out. The third “guest” is the eerie Mandarin. His impassivity frightens the girl, who tries to thaw him by dancing — but when he feverishly embraces her, she runs from him in terror. After a wild chase he catches her, at which point the three tramps leap from their hiding place, rob him of everything he has, and try to smother him under a pile of cushions. But he gets to his feet, his Béla Bartók, here in 1922, composed The Miraculous Mandarin in 1919 but had to wait seven years before its premiere was mounted in Cologne, Germany.
PHOTO COURTESY OF THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
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THE MUS I C
eyes fixed passionately on the girl. They run him through with a sword; he is shaken, but his desire is stronger than his wounds, and he hurls himself on her. They hang him up, but it is impossible for him to die. Only when they cut him down, and the girl takes him into her arms, do his wounds begin to bleed and he dies. The scenario is intentionally unappealing, typical of the expressionist dramas created during the Weimar era, a wild interwar period of artistic experimentation. In his harmonies, in his treatment of rhythm and orchestration, Bartók was at his most experimental here, coming closer than ever, as László Somfai states in The New Grove Dictionary, “to the aspirations of the Second Viennese School,” whose intentions were to create a new kind of music vocabulary. Bartók’s music depicts the successive stages of the action with great vividness. After a frenetic introduction, which portrays the hustle and bustle of a large city, the curtain rises. The three tramps appear, and order the girl to stand by the window and lure men from the street. The girl will play her “decoy game” three times, with her seductive motions rendered by a clarinet solo in rubato (free) rhythm. Each time, the clarinet solo gets more involved and more agitated. The first visitor, an old cavalier, enters. His awkward gestures are expressed in humorous trombone glissandos. He tries to woo the girl (mock-romantic English horn and cello solos) but the tramps
16 | 2023/2024 SEASON
seize the old man and throw him out, in a short Vivace section dominated by the repeated-note figures of the trumpets. The second “decoy game” lures a shy young man to the door. He is represented by a dreamy oboe solo; the dance begins with the entrance of the harp, with a theme played by bassoon and violin. Does the girl forget her role for a minute and become attracted to the youth? At any rate, the tramps set her straight and throw out the young man as before. The third “decoy game” leads to the appearance of the Mandarin in a menacing theme for trombones and tuba, set against woodwind tremolos and glissandos for violins and piano. The music hesitates before the girl begins her dance. Out of short melodic fragments played by solo woodwinds, a waltz theme gradually emerges. As the Mandarin begins his frenzied chase after the girl, a wild fugato starts in the orchestra, to the thudding accompaniment of the low winds and percussion. At the climactic point of the chase, the Mandarin catches the girl. The suite version, prepared by Bartók in 1927, ends at this point. The suite is in fact nothing but the first two-thirds of the original score, with a few concluding measures added for concert use. The rest of the action, including the threefold murder and final catharsis, was cut off to provide a rousing concert ending. — Peter Laki Peter Laki is a musicologist and frequent lecturer on classical music. He is a visiting associate professor of music at Bard College.
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Franz Welser-Möst Music Director KELVIN SMITH FAMILY CHAIR
PHOTO BY JULIA WESELY
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 clevelandorchestra.com
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. | 19
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THE BALDWIN WALLACE 23/24 BACH FESTIVAL
presents the Festival in three parts, or Inventions, with events in October, January and April.
INVENTION NO. II Lecture: Troubling Voices in Bach’s Sublime St. John Passion Thur, Jan 25 at 3:05pm Presented by Dr. Michael Marissen Free and open to the public. Partita Americana Fri, Jan 26 at 7pm Featuring Fire & Grace & Ash $
BACH52 in Concert Sat, Jan 27 at 7pm Nicholas Phan and Les Délices $ Reich-n-Bach Sun, Jan 28 at 2pm BWV: Cleveland’s Bach Choir; Prof. Rob Kovacs; and Dr. Dirk Garner, Artistic Director and Conductor $
$ Tickets available at bw.edu/tickets | Presented by the Kulas Foundation
I F YO U ’ R E LO O K I N G TO
create something magical. Contemporary Youth Orchestra ROBERT MULLER
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AB OU T THE CLE VEL AN D ORC HESTR 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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| 23
TH E CLEV EL A N D ORCHESTR A
Franz Welser-Möst, Music Director KELVIN SMITH FAMILY CHAIR FIRST VIOLINS
Eli Matthews1 Patricia M. Kozerefski and Richard J. Bogomolny Chair
Ralph Curry
ENGLISH HORN
Brian Thornton William P. Blair III Chair
Blossom-Lee Chair
Sonja Braaten Molloy
David Alan Harrell
Robert Walters Samuel C. and Bernette K. Jaffe Chair
Jung-Min Amy Lee
Carolyn Gadiel Warner
Martha Baldwin
ASSOCIATE CONCERTMASTER
Elayna Duitman
Dane Johansen
Gretchen D. and Ward Smith Chair
Ioana Missits
Paul Kushious
Jessica Lee
Sae Shiragami
BASSES
ASSISTANT CONCERTMASTER
Kathleen Collins
Maximilian Dimoff* Clarence T. Reinberger Chair
David Radzynski 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
Jeffrey Zehngut
Beth Woodside Emma Shook Dr. Jeanette Grasselli Brown and Dr. Glenn R. Brown Chair Yun-Ting Lee Jiah Chung Chapdelaine Liyuan Xie
VIOLAS
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
Wesley Collins* Chaillé H. and Richard B. Tullis 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
Jason Yu2 James and Donna Reid 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
BASS TROMBONE
LIBRARIANS
CONDUCTORS
Michael Sachs* Robert and Eunice Podis Weiskopf Chair
Luke Sieve
Michael Ferraguto Joe and Marlene Toot Chair
Christoph von Dohnányi
EUPHONIUM & BASS TRUMPET
Donald Miller
Daniel Reith
Lyle Steelman2 James P. and Dolores D. Storer Chair
Richard Stout
ENDOWED CHAIRS CURRENTLY UNOCCUPIED
Michael Miller
Yasuhito Sugiyama* Nathalie C. Spence and Nathalie S. Boswell Chair
Elizabeth Ring and William Gwinn Mather Chair
TIMPANI
Charles M. and Janet G. Kimball Chair
Jack Sutte
CORNETS Michael Sachs* Mary Elizabeth and G. Robert Klein Chair
vacant
Michael Miller
PERCUSSION
TROMBONES
Marc Damoulakis* Margaret Allen Ireland Chair
Brian Wendel* Gilbert W. and Louise I. Humphrey Chair PHOTO BY ROGER MASTROIANNI
TUBA
Richard Stout Alexander and Marianna C. McAfee Chair Shachar Israel2
clevelandorchestra.com
Thomas Sherwood Tanner Tanyeri
KEYBOARD INSTRUMENTS Carolyn Gadiel Warner Marjory and Marc L. Swartzbaugh Chair
MUSIC DIRECTOR LAUREATE
ASSISTANT CONDUCTOR
Virginia M. Linsdseth, PhD, Chair
Paul and Lucille Jones Chair Sunshine Chair Otto G. and Corinne T. Voss Chair Mr. and Mrs. Richard K. Smucker Chair Rudolf Serkin Chair
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.
| 25
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 JAN 11 – 13 THE MIRACULOUS MANDARIN Franz Welser-Möst, conductor
FEB 9 – 11 BEETHOVEN’S FATEFUL FIFTH
MAR 7 – 9 BRAHMS’S FOURTH SYMPHONY
Jukka-Pekka Saraste, conductor
Fabio Luisi, conductor Mary Kay Fink, piccolo
SCHUBERT Symphony No. 6 BEETHOVEN Symphony No. 5 Pre-concert lecture by James O’Leary
FEB 15 & 17 RAVEL’S MOTHER GOOSE George Benjamin, conductor Tim Mead, countertenor The Cleveland Orchestra Chorus
KRENEK Kleine Symphonie MAHLER Adagio from Symphony No. 10 BARTÓK String Quartet No. 3 (arr. for string orchestra) BARTÓK Suite from The Miraculous Mandarin
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 Kevin McBrien
Pre-concert lecture by James Wilding
JAN 17 & 18 PROKOFIEV 2 & 5
FEB 22 – 25 BEETHOVEN’S PASTORAL
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 BEETHOVEN Piano Trio, Op. 70, No. 1, “Ghost” BEETHOVEN/WOSNER Symphony No. 1 BEETHOVEN Piano Trio, Op. 70, No. 2
Philippe Herreweghe, conductor Jean-Guihen Queyras, cello BEETHOVEN Overture to Egmont HAYDN Cello Concerto No. 1 BEETHOVEN Symphony No. 6, “Pastoral”
WEBER Overture to Oberon ODED ZEHAVI Aurora BRAHMS Symphony No. 4 Pre-concert lecture by Francesca Brittan
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
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
For tickets & more information visit:
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* Not performed on the Friday matinee concert
SPRING
APR 14
MAR 21 – 23 SIBELIUS’S SECOND SYMPHONY
Schumann & Brahms
MAY 2 – 4 LANG LANG PLAYS SAINT-SAËNS
Evgeny Kissin, piano Matthias Goerne, baritone
Franz Welser-Möst, conductor Lang Lang, piano *
R . SCHUMANN Dichterliebe BRAHMS Four Ballades, Op. 10 BRAHMS Selected Songs
SAINT-SAËNS Piano Concerto No. 2 * BERLIOZ Symphonie fantastique
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 *
RECITAL
Pre-concert lecture by Caroline Oltmanns
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
JIMMY LÓPEZ BELLIDO Perú negro ELGAR Cello Concerto WALTON Belshazzar’s Feast *
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
Pre-concert lecture by James Wilding
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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.
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