The Cleveland Orchestra Announces 100th Season; Returns to Carnegie Hall; Continues Youth Free Programs

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Category: Fine Arts, Dance, Symphony

Published on Monday, 20 March 2017 08:00

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Opera Presentations:   Janáček and Wagner
To deliver on Welser-Möst and the Orchestra's ongoing commitment to present inspiring opera at Severance Hall, the 2017-18 season features performances of two different operas. 

At the start of the season, September 23, 24 and 26, 2017, the Orchestra presents encore performances of its innovative and revolutionary production of Janáček's The Cunning Little Vixen.  Premiered in 2014, the production created by Yuval Sharon was described by The New York Times as "… ingenious …." In it, the story is brought to life through state-of-the-art digital animation, juxtaposed and interacting directly with live singers.  Originally presented as a unique made-for-Severance Hall production, the opera will now also be performed as part of the Orchestra's European tour during the 2017-18 season.  Details of the 2017-18 tours will be announced in the coming months.

On April 21, 26 and 29, 2018, Franz Welser-Möst leads The Cleveland Orchestra in concert performances of Wagner's groundbreaking opera Tristan and Isolde.  Soprano Nina Stemme stars as Isolde, with tenor Gerhard Siegel as Tristan.  Commenting on this opera, Welser-Möst said:  "Wagner's Tristan und Isolde represents a milestone, the ultimate high point of musical Romanticism.  In this score, Wagner broke apart the harmonic tonal system to create a sense of longing, a search for rest and peace and home, for the ultimate fulfillment of love.  With this opera, Wagner unleashed music from the past and announced the start of our modern world.  This season, I programmed Tristan und Isolde, Beethoven's "Eroica" Symphony, and Stravinsky's Rite of Spring because they are all influential works that were so powerful, the music world was not the same after they premiered."

In the festival The Ecstasy of Tristan and Isolde, a special two-week series of concerts centered around performances of Wagner's ultra-Romantic opera, Welser-Möst explores the depths and wonder of ecstasy — in a journey toward transcendence and understanding, through music, art, and belief.  In Tristan and Isolde the 19th century's Romantic Era reached its climax.  Wagner wrote powerful music of unending longing (and unresolved harmony) — of a doomed love that reaches its full potential only through death.  The Ecstasy of Tristan and Isolde festival also includes concerts led by Welser-Möst on April 25 and 28 as well as a screening of Lars von Trier's Melancholia in collaboration with the Cleveland Institute of Art Cinematheque.  April 25 features Messiaen's Turangalîla-Symphonie for Piano, Ondes Martenot, and Orchestra with pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet and ondes Martenot player Cynthia Millar.  On April 28 the program includes the Cleveland Orchestra Chorus and the Orchestra performing select choral and brass works and Bach's Cantata No. 170 with countertenor Iestyn Davies, plus Liszt's Fantasy and Fugue on the chorale "Ad nos, ad salutarem undam" performed by organist Paul Jacobs.  

Festival:  The Prometheus Project 
In May 2018, concluding the Centennial Season is a Festival titled "The Prometheus Project" that takes place over two weekends and is devoted to the music of Ludwig van Beethoven.  Franz Welser-Möst offers a renewed point of view on these groundbreaking works, rooted in a studied understanding of the composer's philosophy of politics and art, and presented within the context of his thoughts and beliefs. Leading up to the concerts, Welser-Möst will host a "Prometheus Project" discussion in Reinberger Chamber Hall at Severance Hall.

"The Prometheus Project" will examine Beethoven's music through the metaphor of Prometheus, a daring Greek Titan who defied Zeus to bestow on humanity the gift of fire.  For Beethoven, this gifting of fire represented the beginning of human civilization, the spark of creativity that has powered the imagination of generations, the warmth of justice and goodness, the fight for right, and individual freedoms.

Welser-Möst said, "In recent years I've been studying Beethoven's music with the Prometheus concept particularly in my mind.  This 'fiery core' is not just central to Beethoven's only opera, Fidelio, but, I believe, also permeates his entire creative output.  And I am convinced that this provides a robust and insightful window toward understanding Beethoven's intended meaning within his art.  With an exceptional figure like Beethoven, it is essential that we constantly look at new approaches to his work, to enliven and deepen our understanding of his genius."

Featuring all nine of Beethoven's symphonies, paired with important overtures, these programs represent Beethoven's musical genius in all its glory — as a full-throated cry for humanity's heroic "fight for good over evil."

Commissions and Premieres in 2017-18
The Cleveland Orchestra continues its commitment to commissioning new works to expand and extend the repertoire.  During this season, two former Cleveland Orchestra Daniel R. Lewis Young Composer Fellows' works are featured.

On January 11-13, 2018, the Cleveland premiere of Johannes Maria Staud's Stromab (co-commissioned by The Cleveland Orchestra, Carnegie Hall, Vienna Konzerthaus, and Royal Danish Orchestra) will be led by Welser-Möst.  Staud was The Cleveland Orchestra's Lewis Young Composer Fellow, 2007-09.  The Orchestra will give the New York premiere of Stromab at Carnegie Hall in January 2018.  In Staud's words, Stromab is " … inspired by Algernon Blackwood's short story The Willows. One of the most beautiful and timeless tales of horror of all time, the novella details a canoe trip down the Danube River … I wanted to explore the incredible vibrations that emanate from Blackwood's musically visionary prose and make literal musical sense of this image of a journey down the Danube."

The season also features the Cleveland premiere of a new piano concerto by Salvatore Sciarinno, a co-commission by The Cleveland Orchestra, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, and Ensemble Intercontemporain.  It will be performed under the direction of Fabio Luisi with pianist Jonathan Biss (November 30 and December 2.)

Music Director Laureate Christoph von Dohnányi leads the first Cleveland Orchestra performances of Julian Anderson's IncantesimiDecember 8 and 9.  According to the composer, Incantesimi (meaning 'spells' or 'enchantments' in Italian) is based on five musical ideas that circle around each other, sometimes accompanying in the background, sometimes rising to the foreground.  Anderson was a Young Composer Fellow from 2005-07.

On November 24-26, the season features the first Cleveland Orchestra performances of Stephen Paulus's Grand Concerto for Organ and Orchestra with organist Paul Jacobs and conductor Giancarlo Guerrero.

Cleveland Orchestra Choral Ensembles Featured
The Cleveland Orchestra Chorus, one of the few professionally trained, all-volunteer choruses sponsored by a major American orchestra, will be featured in a variety of performances throughout the season.  Its members hail from nearly fifty Cleveland-area communities and together contribute more than 15,000 volunteer hours to the Orchestra's music-making each year.

On September 23, 24, and 26, the Cleveland Orchestra Chorus and Cleveland Orchestra Children's Chorus are part of performances of Janáček's The Cunning Little Vixen.  The Cleveland Orchestra Chorus is also featured January 18 and 20 in Haydn's The Seasons and February 22, 23, and 24 in Ravel's Daphnis and Chloé (complete ballet music).  April 21, 26, and 29 the Men of The Cleveland Orchestra Chorus are part of performances of Wagner's Tristan and Isolde.  As part of The Ecstasy of Tristan and Isolde festival, the Cleveland Orchestra Chorus performs choral works of Gabrieli as well as Bach's Cantata No. 170.  At the conclusion of the Severance Hall season in May, as part of the Prometheus Project, the Cleveland Orchestra Chorus performs in Beethoven's Ninth Symphony.

Cleveland Orchestra Family of Artists
The 2017-18 season features conductors and guest artists who have strong collaborative connections with the Orchestra.  They include pianists Emanuel Ax, Yefim Bronfman, Daniil Trifonov, and Mitsuko Uchida; organist Paul Jacobs; and cellist Alisa Weilerstein (who is a former member of the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra now fully acclaimed in her career as an international soloist).

Distinguished Guest Conductors
Guest conductors in the 2017-18 season include Cleveland Orchestra Music Director Laureate Christoph von Dohnányi, Vladimir Ashkenazy (Cleveland Orchestra Principal Guest Conductor, 1987-94), Charles Dutoit (Principal Conductor and Artistic Director, London's Royal Philharmonic Orchestra), Alan Gilbert (current Music Director, New York Philharmonic), Fabio Luisi (Music Director, Zurich Opera/Principal Conductor, Metropolitan Opera), and Michael Tilson Thomas (Music Director, San Francisco Symphony.)

The Cleveland Orchestra 2017-18 Tours
During the 2017-18 season, The Cleveland Orchestra will embark on two international tours, which will be their seventeenth and eighteenth international tours with Franz Welser-Möst.  Serving as an ambassador for the Cleveland community, the Orchestra first toured in 1919 to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and Youngstown, Ohio with then music director Nikolai Sokoloff, and their first international tour took place in 1922 with Sokoloff when they traveled to Canada.  The tours in 2017-18 mark the Orchestra's 50th and 51st international tours.

In October 2017 the Orchestra will travel to Europe for performances in Austria, France, Germany, and Luxembourg with programs featuring works by Beethoven, Stravinsky, Mahler, and Janáček.  Details of tour dates and venues will be announced in the coming months. 

On January 23 and 24, the Orchestra makes its 223rd and 224th appearances at Carnegie Hall.  The Orchestra first performed at Carnegie Hall in 1922 and last performed there in 2016.  The January 23 performance features the New York premiere of Johannes Maria Staud's Stromab, which was co-commissioned by Carnegie Hall.  Also on the January 23 program is Mahler's Symphony No. 9.  On January 24, the Orchestra performs Haydn's The Seasons with the Cleveland Orchestra Chorus, soprano Golda Schultz, tenor Maximilian Schmitt, and baritone Thomas Hampson.

In spring 2018, the Orchestra returns to Europe for performances in Vienna for five consecutive nights to perform all-Beethoven programs. They will also travel to Japan for a series of all-Beethoven programs.  Details of the spring tour will be announced in the coming months.

2017 Gala Concert – Second Century Kick-off celebration
The Cleveland Orchestra's Gala Concert on October 7, 2017 will serve as the celebratory kick-off to launch Second Century initiatives at the start of the ensemble's 100thseason.  Franz Welser-Möst will lead the Orchestra in a program showcasing the Orchestra's virtuosity in a series of orchestral showpieces: Verdi's Ballet Music from Don Carlo and Respighi's The Birds, as well as works by Johann Strauss, Johann Strauss Jr., and Tchaikovsky. 

Other Concert Series at Severance Hall
Fridays@7 started in October 2009 with Franz Welser-Möst conducting and continues with three concerts in the 2017-18 season on November 17, January 19, and March 23 – each with a 7:00 p.m. start time, no intermission, and an after-party following each Orchestra concert.

The 2017 Holiday Festival features The Cleveland Orchestra's annual Christmas Concerts exploring the music of Christmas with the Cleveland Orchestra Chorus, Cleveland Orchestra Children's Chorus, Cleveland Orchestra Youth Chorus, and guest choruses.

At the Movies concerts continue in the 2017-18 season.  Following the popularity of film showings with live music the past five seasons, the Orchestra's concerts will feature movies projected on a screen above the Severance Hall stage, with music performed live. Details of the 2017-18 At the Movies series will be announced in the coming months.