The Cleveland Orchestra

January 11
Mahler’s Resurrection

Some pieces of music are so stirring, so electrifying that audiences are transfixed by their inherent emotional power. Mahler’s passionate and tempestuous Second Symphony – about humanity’s search for meaning in life and death – is such a work. Composed for a massive orchestra, choir, and soloists, it is riveting from its darkly ferocious opening to its exhilarating, ecstatic finale.

January 18
Welser-Möst Conducts Schubert

Written in the final year of his life, Schubert’s Mass in E Flat is a work of uncommon power and poignant reflection from a composer facing his own mortality. It is preceded by his “Unfinished” Symphony, presented in between movements of Berg’s Lyric Suite. Through this fascinating juxtaposition, spanning more than a century, Schubert’s pioneering artistry and Berg’s latent romanticism are brought into illuminating relief.

January 25
Dreams We’ve Dreamed; Songs We’ve Sung; Hopes We’ve Held

Daniel Reith leads The Cleveland Orchestra in a program featuring works by Scott Joplin, Julia Perry, William Grant Still, Bernard Herrmann, Raven Chacon, and Edgard Varèse, representing a multiplicity of backgrounds, experiences, and viewpoints.

An Event in the American Dream Festival

February 1
Marsalis and the New World

Dvořák traveled to America in the 1890s, and this wild, new country thrilled him. He admired the beauty of African American spirituals and was fascinated by Native American traditions. When describing his “New World” symphony, he said, “I tried to write only in the spirit of those national American melodies,” but his Ninth is clearly an expression of both the Old World and the new. It is joined by Eastman’s Second Symphony, and the world premiere of a new concerto by Wynton Marsalis, written for principal trumpet Michael Sachs.

February 8
Weilerstein Plays Barber

Cleveland-born cellist Alisa Weilerstein joins Music Director Franz Welser-Möst to perform Barber’s “lyric and romantic” Cello Concerto, a piece praised for its “Brahms-like grandeur.” Written while Barber was serving in the U.S. military during World War II, the concerto is bookended by the world premiere of Allison Loggins-Hull’s Can You See? and Prokofiev’s Symphony No. 4 (revised 1947 version), a fascinating work that was premiered in Boston before Prokofiev reworked it upon return to the Soviet Union.

February 15
Shostakovich’s Fifth Symphony

In 1937 at the height of the Stalinist purges, Shostakovich was in disgrace – an outcast who feared for his life. (He slept in the stairwell outside his apartment so that his family might be spared if he were arrested.) In these darkest moments, he somehow found the courage to write his Fifth Symphony, publishing it with the ironic subtitle “A Soviet Artist’s Reply to Just Criticism.” It’s unsettling opening movement captures the shifting, uncertain mood of the time, and leads to an exultant finale proclaiming that all is heroic, bright, and beautiful. The work was both critical and political salvation for the composer.

February 22
Trifonov Plays Brahms

Winner of the 2011 Tchaikovsky International Piano Competition and Cleveland favorite, Daniil Trifonov excites critics and audiences worldwide. His not-to-be-missed performance of Brahms’s well-loved concerto is paired with a late symphony by Prokofiev, filled with powerful atmospheric writing and dark, thrilling melodic lines.

“Without question the most astounding pianist of our age.”—The Times 

March 1
Tchaikovsky’s Second Symphony

Tchaikovsky considered Ukraine a second home and refuge, and he began work on this symphony while staying just outside of Kyiv. One of his most joyful compositions, this symphony creatively incorporates Ukrainian folk songs. The concert features a percussion concerto commissioned for Christoph Sietzen, who has been praised as an outstanding talent, “a refreshingly natural musician notable for his technical mastery and powerful stage presence.”

March 8
Mahler’s Song of the Night

Simon Keenlyside is one of the world’s most sought-after and charismatic singers, noted for his versatility and highly charged performances on stage. He joins music director Franz Welser-Möst for an evening of Mahler, featuring the moody, enigmatic Seventh Symphony, sometimes called Song of the Night.

“Armed with his dark, handsome baritone he unveiled multiple layers of meaning in every song, every stanza and occasionally, in a single line”— The Financial Times

March 15
Hannigan Conducts Strauss

Embodying music with an unparalleled dramatic sensibility, soprano and conductor Barbara Hannigan is an artist at the forefront of creation. Her much-anticipated Severance conducting debut features a fascinating juxtaposition of works by Haydn, Ligeti – marking the centenary of the composer’s birth – and Vivier. The program concludes with Richard Strauss’s exploration of the most universal of questions: what lies waiting ahead for all of us?

March 22
Mahler’s Fourth Symphony

Mahler’s Fourth Symphony paints an uplifting picture of the afterlife, a child’s vision of heaven as a place filled with earthly delights and tuneful melodies. Here it is paired with Ces belles années… (Those good years), a new work by esteemed French-American composer Betsy Jolas, which reveals hidden allusions to the classic “Happy Birthday” tune within its sparkling and wondrous soundworld.

March 29
The Miraculous Mandarin

Bartók’s The Miraculous Mandarin tells of a girl forced to lure a wealthy mandarin to his tragic fate. Its theme of the tragic, dark passions between men and women is equally as gripping and powerful – and controversial – as when it first premiered. It’s paired with a striking arrangement for string orchestra of Bartók’s String Quartet No. 3, by Orchestra violist Stanley Konopka. Krenek’s eclectic Kleine Symphonie and the opening movement of Mahler’s uncompleted final symphony provide a bridge from late Romanticism to the no-holds-barred sounds of interwar Europe. 

April 5
Sibelius’s Second Symphony

With its rich, sweeping melodies and dynamic brass chorales, Sibelius’s Second Symphony vividly evokes the beauty of his native Finland. Icy Nordic landscapes are also heard in Rautavaara’s Cantus Arcticus, a haunting “concerto for birds and orchestra” that weaves recordings of birdsong into the orchestral tapestry. Julia Perry’s setting of the 13th-century Stabat Mater hymn adds a powerful complement to this program that highlights two rising stars: conductor Dalia Stasevska and mezzo-soprano Josefina Maldonado.