The Cleveland Orchestra Summers @ Severance July 10 Concert
JULY 10, 2025
RICHARD STRAUSS IDOLIZED WOLFGANG
AMADEUS MOZART . Born over a century apart, Strauss fostered a love for the Classical master throughout his astonishingly prolific career that lasted nearly 80 years. He debuted as a concert pianist in 1885 with Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 24, composing his own cadenza for the occasion (see page 12). As a conductor, Strauss championed Mozart’s works and was hailed by Bruno Walter as one of the composer’s greatest interpreters. The admiration also occasionally crept into Strauss’s own compositions, particularly his late Sonatina No. 2, which he dedicated “To the spirit of the divine Mozart.”
Strauss once reflected on a particular aspect of Mozart’s music that resonated with him:
The most perfect melodic shapes are found in Mozart; he has the lightness of touch which is the true objective. ... Listen to the remarkable expansion of a Mozart melody. ... You think it is coming to an end, but it goes farther, even farther.
Plenty of these “perfect melodic shapes” abound in this evening’s program featuring music by both Mozart and Strauss (a pairing that would have undoubtedly thrilled the latter).
After an earth-shaking opening in D minor, the Overture to Mozart’s Don Giovanni crackles with an energy and anticipation that defies its brief duration (see page 6). Though famously composed in just one evening (and the night before its premiere, no less!), no sense of creative hurry can be detected in this music, which perfectly sets the tone for this treasured tragicomedy. The Violin Concerto No. 3 (see page 9) similarly showcases Mozart at his compositional best and offers tonight’s soloist — rising star Randall Goosby (see page 21) — ample opportunity to put his talents on display.
The program concludes with a local premiere, as guest conductor Marie Jacquot (see page 19) leads the first Cleveland Orchestra performance of Strauss’s Symphony in F minor. The work was a major success at its 1884 premiere, and though it has since been eclipsed in popularity by Strauss’s ensuing tone poems and operas, it is a fascinating gem of a piece that foreshadows great things on the horizon for the then-21-year-old composer. — Kevin McBrien
Kevin McBrien is The Cleveland Orchestra’s publications manager.
This photograph of a 22-year-old Richard Strauss was taken in October 1886, just under two years after the premiere of his Symphony in F minor.
THE MUSIC
MOZART & STRAUSS
Thursday, July 10, 2025, at 7 PM
Marie Jacquot, conductor
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791)
Overture to Don Giovanni, K. 527 5 minutes
Violin Concerto No. 3 in G major, 25 minutes
K. 216
I. Allegro
II. Adagio
III. Rondo: Allegro
Randall Goosby, violin
INTERMISSION
Richard Strauss (1864–1949)
20 minutes
Symphony in F minor, Op. 12 45 minutes
I. Allegro ma non troppo, un poco maestoso
II. Scherzo: Presto
III. Andante cantabile
IV. Finale: Allegro assai, molto appassionato
Total approximate running time: 1 hour 35 minutes
Thank you for silencing your electronic devices.
The Cleveland Orchestra would like to thank Presenting Sponsor Thompson Hine LLP for generously supporting Summers @ Severance.
Overture to Don Giovanni, K. 527
by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
BORN : January 27, 1756, in Salzburg
DIED : December 5, 1791, in Vienna
▶ COMPOSED: 1787
▶ WORLD PREMIERE: October 29, 1787, conducted by the composer
▶ CLEVELAND ORCHESTRA PREMIERE : November 7, 1935, led by Music Director Artur Rodziński
“DON GIOVANNI! You invited me to supper — and I have come.” These words introduce one of the most dramatic scenes in the history of opera: the entrance of the Stone Guest (the statue of the Commendatore, or Governor). Don Giovanni killed the Commendatore in the very first scene of the opera, and at the end, his statue appears at the Don’s house to carry him off to Hell. It is fitting that this protagonist should be punished by a supernatural being. No ordinary womanizer, Don Giovanni is an almost mythical figure, symbolizing the boundless ambition of modern man who challenges the traditional world order and conventional morality.
The full title of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s opera contains the phrase II dissoluto punito (The Libertine Punished); Don Giovanni must pay for his transgressions with his life. Yet he is still
a domineering presence compared to the other characters. The men — his servant Leporello and his rivals Don Ottavio and Masetto — are all powerless in their attempts to bring him down. The women — Donna Anna, Donna Elvira, and Zerlina — fall under his spell but ultimately resist his influence. In the end, it takes a transcendent power to defeat him.
The overture to Don Giovanni opens with an evocation of the Don’s damnation. The slow introduction (in Mozart’s most dramatic key, D minor) anticipates the moment where the Stone Guest enters the dining room. The main section of the overture (now in D major) does not return in the opera, yet the unusually high energy seems to justify those who hear it as the Don’s musical portrait. The strong rhythmic profile of its themes, the frequent dynamic
animates this character, one we can’t help but admire, no matter how reprehensible he is.
contrasts, and the close succession of imitative entries in the middle section all carry the same uncommon energy that
— Peter Laki
Peter Laki is a musicologist and frequent lecturer on classical music. He is a visiting associate professor of music at Bard College.
The statue of the Commendatore confronts Don Giovanni in the final scene from Mozart’s opera, as seen in this painting by artist Alexandre-Évariste Fragonard
Violin Concerto No. 3 in G major, K. 216
by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
BORN : January 27, 1756, in Salzburg
DIED : December 5, 1791, in Vienna
▶ COMPOSED: 1775
▶ WORLD PREMIERE : The date of the first performance is unknown.
▶ CLEVELAND ORCHESTRA PREMIERE : March 20, 1952, with Arthur Grumiaux as soloist and conducted by Music Director George Szell
▶ ORCHESTRATION : 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 horns, and strings, plus solo violin
▶ DURATION : about 25 minutes
WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART ’S FATHER, Leopold, was a composer and violinist. He was also author of the most important 18th-century book on the art of violin playing. His tome, Versuch einer gründlichen Violinschule (Attempt at a Thorough Violin Method), was published in 1756, the same year his son was born. Wolfgang, who played both violin and harpsichord by the time he was 7, was continually exhorted by his father to take the violin more seriously. On October 18, 1777, Leopold wrote to the now-21-year-old: “You yourself do not know how well you play the violin, if you will only do yourself credit and play with energy, with your whole heart and mind, yes, just as if you were the first violinist in Europe.”
(This was in response to an earlier letter by Wolfgang dated October 6, in which the young man, writing from Munich, was boasting of his performing prowess: “I played as though I were the finest fiddler in all Europe.”)
In the end, Wolfgang leaned more and more toward keyboard instruments. Once he had moved to Vienna and out of his father’s sphere of influence, he stopped performing on the violin altogether (when playing string quartets in private, he would choose the viola). Had it really been his ambition to become the “finest fiddler in all Europe,” he might have continued to write violin concertos in his Vienna years, and if he had done so, the entire history of the violin concerto would have been different. But since, in the last 10 years of his life, his performing ambitions were concentrated on the keyboard, we have a magnificent series
A young Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart sits at the harpsichord in this 1777 watercolor while his father, Leopold (left), and sister, Maria Anna (right), provide additional accompaniment.
of piano concertos from the Vienna years, but no comparable works for the violin.
Mozart’s five violin concertos (written either for himself or for the Italian violinist Antonio Brunetti) all date from his late teens, when he was living in his native Salzburg as concertmaster of Archbishop Colloredo’s orchestra. The first one (in B-flat major, K. 207) was written in 1773; the other four were composed in 1775.
[The] last movement, with its changes of meter and tempo and its unmistakable folk song quotations, is completely unprecedented in Mozart’s output.
Within the series, the Third Concerto (in G major) represents a quantum leap in Mozart’s evolution. The first two concertos were still heavily indebted to the conventions of the day, although those conventions were handled with a freshness and originality that only Mozart could muster. But in the Third Concerto, he broke new ground. Moving further away from the Baroque concerto idea heard in the earlier works, he began to use melodic contrast and development in novel ways, approaching what would later be known as “sonata form.”
In the second-movement Adagio, in particular, he achieved an entirely new level of emotional intensity. Finally, the last movement, with its changes of meter
and tempo and its unmistakable folk song quotations, is completely unprecedented in Mozart’s output. (He used the same devices again in the finales of the Fourth and Fifth concertos.)
In another letter from October 1777, Wolfgang had some new violinistic triumphs to report to his father. He performed, in Augsburg, a concerto by his contemporary Johann Baptist Wanhal, “which was unanimously applauded. … In the evening at supper I played my Strassburger concerto, which went like oil. Everyone praised my beautiful, pure tone.” Then, in the next sentence, we learn that Wolfgang immediately switched to the clavichord, playing some of his keyboard works and improvising for his audience.
The designation “Strassburger concerto” must have been a shorthand understood by father and son, for Leopold, too, had used it in a letter just a few weeks earlier: “Brunetti … played your Strassburger concerto most excellently.” For many years, it was not known which concerto was meant by this epithet until Hungarian musicologist Dénes Bartha solved the enigma in the 1960s. Bartha discovered the last movement’s folklike melody in an early 19th-century Hungarian song manuscript with the explicit identification: “Strassburger.” The tune, therefore, must have been widely known under that name, and was, in all probability, immediately recognized by most listeners, to their great surprise and delight.
— Peter Laki
JULY
Symphony in F minor, Op. 12
by Richard Strauss
BORN : June 11, 1864, in Munich
DIED : September 8, 1949, in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Bavaria
▶ COMPOSED: 1883 – 84
▶ WORLD PREMIERE : December 13, 1884, in New York City, with Theodore Thomas conducting the New York Philharmonic
▶ This concert marks the first Cleveland Orchestra performance of Richard Strauss’s Symphony in F minor.
AS THE SUMMER DAYS OF 1885 PASSED in Meiningen, Germany, Richard Strauss spent his time composing and practicing for a promising fall. The 21-year-old had secured a post as assistant to one of the greatest conductors in Europe at the time, Hans von Bülow, and had already begun a career as an esteemed composer. The year prior, he composed his Symphony in F minor, which had premiered in New York City in December. The work was well received and raised the youth’s international stature as a composer. The piece’s European premiere was set for October 18 under his baton with the prestigious Meiningen Court Orchestra.
However, while conducting his own work with one of the best orchestras in Europe would be enough to worry about, his attention was elsewhere. Strauss
spent the summer fretting over Mozart — specifically, the composer’s Piano Concerto No. 24, which he was set to perform as soloist on the same concert. As Strauss later remarked, “Although I had practiced busily all summer, the idea of playing the concerto with Bülow conducting filled me — by no means a fullytrained pianist — with fear and trembling.”
Beyond the jitters of Strauss’s debut as a concert pianist, he had another sword hanging over his head. Strauss wrote this symphony — his second of two — during a brief period of selfdescribed “Brahms infatuation,” spurred on by a hearing of the composer’s Third Symphony. Brahms would be in attendance at the concert in October, so while contending with performance anxiety, he was also premiering a work in the presence of his idol.
The symphony itself is structurally typical for such a work of this genre, comprising the usual four movements. Biographer Max Steinitzer has called it a “quotation or a portrait sketch” of Strauss’s many influences. For example, Strauss flips the order of movements as Beethoven did in his Ninth, putting the Scherzo second and the Andante third. The first two movements sound evocative of Mendelssohn, and the last two of Robert Schumann. Strauss’s use of tremolo and texture in the Finale sounds like his contemporary Bruckner. As for Brahms’s influence, Strauss’s
tendency to expand short ideas into full melodies is similar to the Brahmsian technique of the “developing variation.” The piece isn’t just looking back, however. Strauss aficionados will recognize the beginning of the first movement as near-identical to the opening of Strauss’s An Alpine Symphony, a piece he completed 31 years later.
Strauss’s preparation paid off. The concert went well in the eyes of critics, and Bülow was particularly effusive in his praise, noting in a letter to a friend that “Strauss’s Symphony is very important, original, mature in form … and [he is] a born conductor.” Brahms, unfortunately, was less complimentary, telling Strauss after the concert that the piece was “quite charming,” but
During his long career, Richard Strauss was not just a composer, but a skilled conductor as well, as demonstrated in these photographs from the 1917 book The Orchestra and Its Instruments
adding some slightly backhanded advice:
“Young man, take a close look at Schubert’s dances and practice inventing simple eight-bar melodies. … There’s too much thematic trifling in your symphony; all that piling-up of a large number of themes on a triad, with only rhythmic contrast between them, has no value whatsoever.”
Strauss’s Brahms infatuation was over. He abandoned staid Classicism in favor of a “totally new way” of composing inspired by Liszt and Wagner, turning to tone poems. A few years later, an orchestra was rehearsing his first tone poem, Macbeth. Strauss was pleased with the reception to his new style, noting that, “The Mannheim orchestra was very struck and astounded by the leap from my F-minor Symphony to Macbeth.”
Around the same time, he wrote Bülow a letter about his tone poem Don Juan, remarking that, “From the F-minor Symphony onwards I have found myself in a gradually ever increasing contradiction between the musical-poetic content that I want to convey and the ternary sonata form that has come down to
us from the classical composers. … I consider it [a] legitimate artistic method to create a correspondingly new form for every new subject.” For Strauss, only new paths forward remained.
However, leaving Brahms didn’t mean leaving the Symphony in F minor. Strauss embarked on a European tour, performing the work in Munich, Mannheim, Frankfurt (where Clara Schumann congratulated him personally), Leipzig (where he met Mahler for the first time), and Milan (where he experienced his first success as a composer-conductor outside Germany).
He even returned to the piece as late as 1935, recording the piece under his baton (a recording that is unfortunately lost).
And yet, despite this work becoming Strauss’s turnkey to a new style and newfound success, it is amusing to think that the 21-year-old had spent his entire summer of 1885 agonizing over Mozart.
— Tanner Cassidy
Tanner Cassidy is operations manager for the Four Seasons Chamber Music Festival. He holds a PhD in music theory from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and has written program notes for the Music Academy of the West.
Marie Jacquot
MARIE JACQUOT HAS PLAYED her way into the forefront of exciting young conductors through numerous outstanding debuts with top-class orchestras, her consistent musical work, and her interest in exploring a wide-ranging repertoire.
Jacquot was named chief conductor of the Royal Danish Theatre Copenhagen starting in the 2024 – 25 season, recently leading productions of Manfred Trojahn’s Orest and Puccini’s Il trittico as well as works by Richard Strauss, Mozart, Korngold, and Signe Lykke on the concert podium. She is also principal guest conductor of the Wiener Symphoniker and will be chief conductor of the WDR Symphony Orchestra starting in the 2026 – 27 season.
Recent guest conducting highlights include appearances with the Orchestre National de France, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Oslo Philharmonic, Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Dallas Symphony Orchestra, and Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra, among others.
Jacquot has conducted a wide repertoire at prominent opera houses, including the Semperoper Dresden (Eötvös’s The Golden Dragon, Carmen), Staatsoper Stuttgart (Medée, Don Giovanni), Deutsche Oper Berlin (La traviata), Komische Oper Berlin (Thomas’s Hamlet), Opéra National du Rhin Strasbourg (world premiere by Thierry Pécou), Flemish Opera Antwerp/ Gent (The Marriage of Figaro), and the
Opéra National de Lorraine in Nancy (Prokofiev’s The Love for Three Oranges).
After studying trombone in Paris, Jacquot studied conducting in Vienna and Weimar and held a scholarship from the Conductors’ Forum of the German Music Council. In 2016, she was assistant to Kirill Petrenko at the Bavarian State Opera for the world premiere of Miroslav Srnka’s South Pole and subsequently conducted two productions of her own at the Munich Opera Festival. Between 2016 and 2019, Jacquot was First Kapellmeister and deputy general music director in Würzburg. From 2019, she was Kapellmeister at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein Düsseldorf/Duisburg for three years.
Jacquot’s awards include the Ernst Schuch Prize in 2019. In February 2024, she won the “Révélation Chef d’orchestre” award at the 31st Victoires de la Musique Classique.
Randall Goosby violin
“FOR ME, PERSONALLY , music has been a way to inspire others.” American violinist Randall Goosby’s own words sum up perfectly his commitment to being an artist who makes a difference. Signed exclusively to Decca Classics in 2020 at age 24, Goosby is acclaimed for the sensitivity and intensity of his musicianship alongside his determination to make music more inclusive and accessible, as well as bringing the music of underrepresented composers to light. Goosby was recently appointed to The Juilliard School’s Preparatory Division and joins the Pre-College violin faculty beginning in fall 2025.
Highlights of Goosby’s 2025 – 26 season include debut performances with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre National de France, KBS Symphony Orchestra, and San Diego Symphony, alongside returns to the San Francisco Symphony, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, and New Jersey Symphony. He also appears in recital across North America and Europe with pianist Zhu Wang as well as with the Renaissance Quartet and joins clarinetist Anthony McGill and pianist Joshua Mhoon in a program presented by the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society.
As of 2024 – 25, Goosby is a member of Konzerthaus Dortmund’s series “Junge Wilde”. He was First Prize Winner in the 2018 Young Concert Artists
International Auditions, and in 2019, he was named the inaugural Robey Artist by Young Classical Artists Trust in partnership with Music Masters in London. In 2020, Goosby became an Ambassador for Music Masters, a role that sees him mentoring and inspiring students in schools around the United Kingdom.
A former student of Itzhak Perlman and Catherine Cho, Goosby received his bachelor’s, master’s, and artist diploma degrees from The Juilliard School. He is an alumnus of the Perlman Music Program and studied previously with Philippe Quint. Goosby plays the Antonio Stradivarius, Cremona, “ex-Strauss,” 1708, on generous loan from Samsung Foundation of Culture.
The Cleveland Orchestra rehearses under the baton of guest conductor Bernard Labadie
NOW FIRMLY IN ITS SECOND CENTURY , The Cleveland Orchestra, under the leadership of 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. In recent years, 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 the ensemble into one of the most admired around the world.
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.live and its own recording label. Together, they have captured the Orchestra’s unique artistry and the musical achievements of the Welser-Möst and Cleveland Orchestra partnership.
The 2025 – 26 season marks Franz Welser-Möst’s 24th year as Music Director, a period in which The Cleveland
Orchestra has 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 celebrated 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.
Franz Welser-Möst, Music Director
KELVIN SMITH FAMILY CHAIR
FIRST VIOLINS
Joel Link
CONCERTMASTER
Blossom-Lee Chair
Liyuan Xie FIRST ASSOCIATE CONCERTMASTER
Virginia M. Lindseth, PhD, Chair
Jung-Min Amy Lee
ASSOCIATE CONCERTMASTER
Gretchen D. and Ward Smith 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
Analise Handke
Gladys B. Goetz Chair
Zhan Shu
Youngji Kim
Paul and Lucille Jones Chair
Genevieve Smelser
SECOND VIOLINS
Stephen Rose*
Alfred M. and Clara T. Rankin Chair
Eli Matthews1
Patricia M. Kozerefski and Richard J. Bogomolny Chair
Jason Yu2
James and Donna Reid 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
Gawon Kim
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
Thomas Lauria and Christopher Lauria Chair
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
Charles Paul1
Mary E. and F. Joseph Callahan Chair
Derek Zadinsky2
Mark Atherton
Thomas Sperl
Henry Peyrebrune
Charles Barr Memorial Chair
Charles Carleton
Scott Dixon
Brandon Mason
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
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
Zubin Hathi*
Otto G. and Corinne T. Voss Chair
Peter Nichols2
Mr. and Mrs. Richard K.
Smucker Chair
PERCUSSION
Marc Damoulakis*
Margaret Allen Ireland Chair
Thomas Sherwood
Tanner Tanyeri
Peter Nichols
KEYBOARD INSTRUMENTS
Carolyn Gadiel Warner
Marjory and Marc L. Swartzbaugh Chair
LIBRARIAN
Michael Ferraguto*
Joe and Marlene Toot Chair
ENDOWED CHAIRS CURRENTLY UNOCCUPIED
Clara G. and George P. Bickford Chair
Sandra L. Haslinger Chair
Charles M. and Janet G. Kimball Chair
Sunshine Chair
Rudolf Serkin Chair
CONDUCTORS
Christoph von Dohnányi
MUSIC DIRECTOR LAUREATE
Taichi Fukumura
ASSISTANT CONDUCTOR
Elizabeth Ring and William Gwinn Mather Chair
James Feddeck
PRINCIPAL CONDUCTOR & MUSICAL ADVISOR OF THE CLEVELAND ORCHESTRA
YOUTH ORCHESTRA
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
^ Alum of The Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra
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.
FALL
SEP 26 – 28
RAVEL’S BOLÉRO
Franz Welser-Möst, conductor
The Cleveland Orchestra Chorus
BERND RICHARD DEUTSCH
Urworte
R. STRAUSS Salome’s Dance from Salome
RAVEL Boléro
OCT 2 & 5
MAHLER’S SONG OF THE EARTH
Franz Welser-Möst, conductor
Limmie Pulliam, tenor
Iurii Samoilov, baritone
HONEGGER Symphony No. 3, “Symphonie liturgique”
MAHLER Das Lied von der Erde
OCT 9 – 11
TRIFONOV PLAYS BRAHMS
Franz Welser-Möst, conductor
Daniil Trifonov, piano
PROKOFIEV Symphony No. 7
BRAHMS Piano Concerto No. 2
OCT 23 – 26
BEETHOVEN’S ODE TO JOY
Franz Welser-Möst, conductor
Joélle Harvey, soprano
Taylor Raven, mezzo-soprano
Miles Mykkanen, tenor
Dashon Burton, bass-baritone
The Cleveland Orchestra Chorus
SIBELIUS Tapiola
BEETHOVEN Symphony No. 9, “Choral”
RECITAL
OCT 29
BEATRICE RANA IN RECITAL
Beatrice Rana, piano
Works by Prokofiev, Debussy, and Tchaikovsky
OCT 30 & NOV 1 – 2
OHLSSON PLAYS MOZART
Franz Welser-Möst, conductor
Garrick Ohlsson, piano
TYLER TAYLOR Permissions
MOZART Piano Concerto No. 23
R. SCHUMANN Symphony No. 3, “Rhenish”
NOV 13 – 15
MAHLER’S SIXTH SYMPHONY
Tugan Sokhiev, conductor
Robert Walters, English horn
GEOFFREY GORDON Mad Song
MAHLER Symphony No. 6, “Tragic”
NOV 20 – 23
DVOŘÁK’S NEW WORLD SYMPHONY
Dalia Stasevska, conductor
REVUELTAS La Noche de los Mayas*
DVOŘÁK Symphony No. 9, “From the New World”
NOV 28 – 30
YUJA WANG PLAYS
RAVEL
Petr Popelka, conductor
Yuja Wang, piano
RAVEL Piano Concerto for the Left Hand
LIGETI Concerto for Piano and Orchestra
MUSSORGSKY/RAVEL Pictures at an Exhibition
DEC 4 – 6
HANDEL’S MESSIAH
Bernard Labadie, conductor
Liv Redpath, soprano
Tim Mead, countertenor
Andrew Haji, tenor
Philippe Sly, bass-baritone
The Cleveland Orchestra Chorus
HANDEL Messiah
WINTER
JAN 8 – 10
MOZART’S JUPITER SYMPHONY
Franz Welser-Möst, conductor
MOZART Symphony No. 41, “Jupiter”
SHOSTAKOVICH Symphony No. 11, “The Year 1905”
JAN 15, 17 & 18
VERDI’S REQUIEM
Franz Welser-Möst, conductor
Asmik Grigorian, soprano
Deniz Uzun, mezzo-soprano
Joshua Guerrero, tenor
Tareq Nazmi, bass
The Cleveland Orchestra Chorus
VERDI Requiem
FEB 5 – 7
HADELICH PLAYS
MENDELSSOHN
Antonello Manacorda, conductor
Augustin Hadelich, violin
MENDELSSOHN Violin Concerto
SCHOENBERG Chamber
Symphony No. 2
SCHUBERT Symphony No. 8, “Unfinished”
FEB 12 & 14
HANNIGAN CONDUCTS
GERSHWIN
Barbara Hannigan, conductor
Johanna Wallroth, soprano
CRUMB A Haunted Landscape
RUGGLES Sun-Treader
BARBER Knoxville: Summer of 1915
GERSHWIN Porgy and Bess: A Symphonic Picture (arr. Bennett)
RECITAL
FEB 17
MAO FUJITA IN RECITAL
Mao Fujita, piano
Works by Beethoven, Wagner, Berg, Mendelssohn, and Brahms
FEB 19 – 21
FRENZIED TANGO
John Adams, conductor
Aaron Diehl, piano
IVES From Greenland’s Icy Mountains*
TIMO ANDRES Made of Tunes
JOHN ADAMS Frenzy
PIAZZOLLA La Mufa (arr. Adams)*
PIAZZOLLA Oblivion (arr. Adams)*
PIAZZOLLA Libertango (arr. Adams)
FEB 26 – 28
STRAUSS’S DON JUAN
Alain Altinoglu, conductor
Alisa Weilerstein, cello
UNSUK CHIN Cello Concerto
R. STRAUSS Till Eulenspiegel’s
Merry Pranks
R. STRAUSS Don Juan
MAR 5, 7 & 8
BRAHMS’S THIRD SYMPHONY
Jakub Hrůša, conductor
BRAHMS Symphony No. 3
MARTINŮ Symphony No. 3
KAPRÁLOVÁ Military Sinfonietta
MAR 12 – 15
BEETHOVEN’S FATEFUL FIFTH
Elim Chan, conductor
Michael Sachs, trumpet
STRAVINSKY Suite from Pulcinella
HAYDN Trumpet Concerto
BEETHOVEN Symphony No. 5
RECITAL
MAR 17
THE KANNEH-MASONS IN RECITAL
Sheku Kanneh-Mason, cello
Isata Kanneh-Mason, piano
Works by Mendelssohn, N. Boulanger, R. Schumann, and Clarke
MAR 19 – 21
CHAN CONDUCTS
BARTÓK
Elim Chan, conductor
Patricia Kopatchinskaja, violin
DANIEL KIDANE Sun Poem*
BARTÓK Violin Concerto No. 1
BARTÓK Dance Suite*
SCRIABIN The Poem of Ecstasy
SPRING
APR 2 – 4
DEBUSSY’S LA MER
Daniele Rustioni, conductor
Paul Jacobs, organ
FAURÉ Suite from Pelléas et Mélisande
POULENC Concerto for Organ, Strings, and Timpani
CASELLA Italia
DEBUSSY La mer
APR 9 – 11
SCHUBERT & SHOSTAKOVICH
Santtu-Matias Rouvali, conductor
Sol Gabetta, cello
SHOSTAKOVICH Cello Concerto No. 2
SCHUBERT Symphony No. 9, “The Great”
RECITAL
APR 16
ALEXANDRE KANTOROW IN RECITAL
Alexandre Kantorow, piano
Works by J.S. Bach, Medtner, Chopin, Scriabin, and Beethoven
APR 23, 25 & 26
BRITTEN’S WAR REQUIEM
Daniel Harding, conductor
Tamara Wilson, soprano
Andrew Staples, tenor
Christian Gerhaher, baritone
The Cleveland Orchestra Chorus
The Cleveland Orchestra Children’s Chorus
BRITTEN War Requiem
APR 30 & MAY 2
MENDELSSOHN’S REFORMATION SYMPHONY
Jörg Widmann, conductor
JÖRG WIDMANN Fanfare for Ten Brass Instruments
JÖRG WIDMANN Con brio
JÖRG WIDMANN Danse macabre
MENDELSSOHN Symphony No. 5, “Reformation”
RECITAL
MAY 5
MARC-ANDRÉ HAMELIN & MARIA JOÃO PIRES IN RECITAL
Marc-André Hamelin, piano
Maria João Pires, piano
Program to be announced
MAY 7 – 9
WAGNER’S GÖTTERDÄMMERUNG
Franz Welser-Möst, conductor
Jörg Widmann, clarinet
PROKOFIEV Symphony No. 1, “Classical”
OLGA NEUWIRTH Zones of Blue*
WAGNER Excerpts from Götterdämmerung
MAY 16, 21 & 24
BEETHOVEN’S FIDELIO
Franz Welser-Möst, conductor
Malin Byström, soprano (Leonore)
David Butt Philip, tenor (Florestan)
Tomasz Konieczny, bass-baritone (Don Pizarro)
Martin Summer, bass (Rocco)
Dashon Burton, bass-baritone (Don Fernando)
Ashley Emerson, soprano (Marzelline)
Owen McCausland, tenor (Jaquino)
The Cleveland Orchestra Chorus BEETHOVEN Fidelio Opera presentation sung in German with projected supertitles
MAY 22
HERO’S SONG
Franz Welser-Möst, conductor
Leila Josefowicz, violin
Trina Struble, harp
ADOLPHUS HAILSTORK
Epitaph for a Man Who Dreamed BACEWICZ Symphony No. 4
JÜRI REINVERE Concerto for Violin, Harp, and Orchestra
DVOŘÁK Hero’s Song
* Not performed on the Friday matinee concert
Generous support for the 2025 – 26 Recital Series provided by the Art of Beauty Company, Inc.
YOUR VISIT
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.
CELL PHONES, WATCHES & OTHER DEVICES
As a courtesy to others, please silence all electronic 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 sub-
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Download today for instant, secure, and paperless access to your concert tickets.
For more information and direct links to download, visit clevelandorchestra.com/ticketwallet or scan the code with your smartphone camera to download the app for iPhone or Android.
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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.
scription 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).
FOOD & MERCHANDISE
Beverages and snacks are available at bars throughout Severance Music Center. For Cleveland Orchestra apparel, recordings, and gift items, visit the Welcome Desk in Lerner Lobby.
TELL US ABOUT YOUR EXPERIENCE
We are so glad you joined us! Want to share about your time at Severance? Send your feedback to cx@clevelandorchestra.com Hearing directly from you about what we are doing right and where we can improve will help us create the best experience possible.
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.
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.
