The Cleveland Orchestra Summers@Severance

JULY-AUGUST 2015

Proud to support those

who bring the arts to life

Thompson Hine LLP

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3Summers@Severance

Welcomefrom the Executive Director

Welcome to our second season of Summers@Severance concerts, sponsored by Thompson Hine. We started this series in the heart of University Circle last August, presenting a regular summer concert series at Severance Hall for the rst time. We were delighted for The Cleveland Orchestra to become an active part of what makes this neighborhood so vibrant and welcoming to people from all over Cleveland all year round.

University Circle is, in fact, entering a new golden age. Recently listed by USA Today as one of the ten best city arts districts in the country, University Circle has a tremendous number of cultural experiences to offer — and I hope you’ll return to the area many times to experience great art and history, exceptional food, and, of course, great per-formances of the nest classical music right here at Severance Hall.

The rich cultural experiences and vivid energy you’ll nd right here in our neighborhood are representative of a new period of growth and revitalization for all of Northeast Ohio. Cleveland is attracting new attention as host of the 2016 Republican National Convention — an honor that is driving new construction downtown for the future. Our valiant Cava-liers put our city in the spotlight this past spring. The Cleveland food scene is drawing national attention. And our local arts offerings have never been more vibrant.

The Cleveland Orchestra is proud to play its own role in bringing praise to Cleveland — most recently with news of our surging popularity among young people. And to add ever greater value to our city, by serving Northeast Ohio with community programs, music education initiatives, and, above all, great music. In performing the world’s best music at the highest level of quality and in offering programs for people throughout the region, The Cleveland Orchestra is committed to making an ongoing contribution to what makes Cleveland great, today, tomorrow, and through our next century.

We are so glad you are here to celebrate great music in the summertime with us, and hope you’ll stay after the concert to take in the sunset on the terrace, enjoy a glass of wine, and engage in lively conversation with friends and neighbors.

P.S. Cleveland’s arts community is as vibrant and strong as it is in part because of ongo-ing funding from residents of Cuyahoga County through Cuyahoga Arts & Culture. Established by voters in 2007, CAC has provided more than $125 million in public fund-ing to more than 300 organizations based in our county. Cleveland Orchestra audi-ences have bene ted from more than $15 million in support for performances, educa-tion programs, and free concerts like the annual Star-Spangled Spectacular downtown. Please join with the Arts & Culture Action Committee in supporting this in-credible community asset when we vote to renew the Arts & Culture levy in Novem-ber. Your vote will help renew a tax on cigarettes, and continue critical support for the arts and cultural groups for another ten years. To learn more, visit www.acac2015.org.

Gary HansonExecutive Director

Welcome

4 The Cleveland Orchestra

5Summers@Severance

NATIONAL ENDOWMENTFOR THE ARTS

JULY-AUGUST 2015

July 10August 7August 21 at 7 p.m.

Copyright © 2015 by The Cleveland Orchestra

Eric Sellen, Program Book Editor E-MAIL: [email protected]

Program books for Cleveland Orchestra concerts are produced by The Cleveland Orchestra and are distrib-uted free to attending audience members.

Program book advertising is sold through Live Publishing Company at 216-721-1800.

The Cleveland Orchestra is grateful to the following organizations for their ongoing generous support of The Cleveland Orchestra: National Endowment for the Arts, 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 partner-ship 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, Sever-ance Hall, located on the campus of Case Western Reserve University, with whom it has a long history of collabora-tion and partnership.

Table of Contents 3 Welcome Welcome . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 About the Orchestra . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 The Cleveland Orchestra . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 About Summers@Severance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 By the Numbers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 News: Cleveland’s Pride Makes Perfect . . . . . . . . 28 Building Future Audiences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 Musical Arts Association . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54 Get Involved — Volunteering, Make Music, and More . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 Guest Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60 Violins of Hope . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61

15 Franz, Beethoven & Strauss Concert Program: July 10 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Music Director: Franz Welser-Möst . . . . . . . . . . . 17 About the Music . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Soloist: Igor Levit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

31 Shostakovich’s Fifth Concert Program: August 7 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 Conductor: Stanisław Skrowaczewski . . . . . . . 32 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 About the Music . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

45 Handel’s Water Music Concert Program: August 21 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 Conductor: Nicholas McGegan . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 About the Music . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48 Soloist: Mark Kosower . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

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Your Role . . . in The Cleveland Orchestra’s Future Genera ons of Clevelanders have supported the Orchestra and enjoyed its concerts. Tens of thousands have learned to love music through its educa on programs, celebrated im-portant events with its music, and shared in its musicmaking — at school, at Severance Hall, at Blossom, downtown at Public Square, on the radio, and with family and friends. Ticket sales cover less than half the cost of presen ng The Cleveland Orchestra’s season each year. To sustain its ac vi es here in Northeast Ohio, the Orchestra has undertaken the most ambi ous fundraising campaign in our history: the Sound for the Centennial Cam-paign. By making a dona on, you can make a crucial di erence in helping to ensure that future genera ons will con nue to enjoy the Orchestra’s performances, educa on pro-grams, and community ac vi es and partnerships. To make a gi to The Cleveland Orches-tra, please visit us online, or call 216-231-7562.

clevelandorchestra.com

7Summers@Severance

A S I T N E A R S T H E C E N T E N N I A L of its founding in 2018, The Cleveland Orch-estra is undergoing a new transformation and renaissance. Under the leadership of Franz Welser-Möst, entering his fourteenth year as the ensemble’s music direc-tor with the upcoming 2015-16 season, The Cleveland Orchestra is acknowledged among the world’s handful of best orchestras. With Welser-Möst, the ensemble’s musicians, board of directors, staff , volunteers, and hometown are working together on a set of enhanced goals for the 21st century — to continue the Orchestra’s leg-endary command of musical excellence, to renew its focus on fully serving the com-munities where it performs through concerts, engagement, and music education, to develop the youngest audience of any orchestra, to build on its tradition of commu-nity support and fi nancial strength, and to move forward into the Orchestra’s next century with an unshakeable commitment to innovation and a fear-less pursuit of success. The Cleveland Orchestra divides its time each year across concert seasons at home in Cleveland’s Severance Hall and each summer at Blossom Music Center. Additional portions of the year are de-voted to touring and to a series of innovative and intensive performance residencies. These include an annual set of concerts and education programs and partnerships in Florida, a recurring residency at Vienna’s Musikverein, and regular appearances at Switzerland’s Lucerne Festival, at New York’s Lincoln Center Festival, and at Indiana University. Musical Excellence. The Cleveland Orchestra has long been committed to the pursuit of musical excellence in everything that it does. The Orchestra’s ongoing collaboration with Welser-Möst is widely-acknow ledged among the best orchestra-conductor partnerships of today. Performances of standard repertoire and new works are unrivalled at home, in residencies around the globe, on tour across North America and Europe, and through recordings, telecasts, and radio and internet broadcasts. Its longstanding championship of new compos-ers and commissioning of new works helps audiences experience music as a living language that grows and evolves with each new generation. Recent performances with Baroque specialists, recording projects of varying repertoire and in diff erent locations, fruitful re-examinations and juxtapositions of the standard repertoire,

The Cleveland Orchestra

Each year since 1989, The Cleveland Orchestra has presented a free concert in downtown Cleveland. The 26th free performance downtown took place on July 1 this summer in partnership with Cuyahoga Arts & Culture, kicking off celebrations throughout the region of America’s 239th birthday.

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8 The Cleveland OrchestraAbout the Orchestra

and acclaimed collaborations in 20th and 21st century masterworks together enable The Cleveland Orchestra the ability to give musical performances second to none in the world. Serving the Community. Programs for students and community engagement activities have long been part of the Or-chestra’s commitment to serving Cleve-land and surrounding communities, and have more recently been extended to its touring and residencies. All are designed

to connect peo-ple to music in the concert hall, in classrooms, and in everyday lives. Recent seasons have seen the launch of a unique “At Home” neigh-borhood resi-dency program, designed to bring the Or-

chestra and citizens together in new ways. Additionally, a new Make Music! initiative is being developed, championed by Franz Welser-Möst in advocacy for the benefi ts of direct participation in making music for people of all ages. Future Audiences. Standing on the shoulders of more than nine decades of presenting quality music education pro-grams, the Orchestra made national and in-ternational headlines through the creation of its Center for Future Audiences in 2010. Established with a signifi cant endowment gift from the Maltz Family Foundation, the Center is designed to provide ongoing funding for the Orchestra’s continuing work

to develop interest in classical music among young people. The fl agship “Under 18s Free” program has seen unparalleled suc-cess in increasing attendance and interest — with 20% of attendees now comprised of concertgoers aged 25 and under. Innovative Programming. The Cleveland Orchestra was among the fi rst American orchestras heard on a regular series of radio broadcasts, and its Sever-ance Hall home was one of the fi rst concert halls in the world built with recording and broadcasting capabilities. Today, Cleve-land Orchestra concerts are presented in a variety of formats for a variety of audiences — including popular Friday night concerts (mixing onstage symphonic works with post-concert entertainment), fi lm scores performed live by the Orchestra, collabora-tions with pop and jazz singers, ballet and opera presentations, and standard reper-toire juxtaposed in meaningful contexts with new and older works. Franz Wels-er-Möst’s creative vision has given the Orchestra an unequaled opportunity to explore music as a universal language of communication and understanding. An Enduring Tradition of Com-munity Support. The Cleveland Orches-tra was born in Cleveland, created by a group of visionary citizens who believed in the power of music and aspired to having the best performances of great orchestral music possible anywhere. Generations of Clevelanders have supported this vision and enjoyed the Orchestra’s concerts. Hun-dreds of thousands have learned to love music through its education programs and celebrated important events with its music. While strong ticket sales cover just under half of each season’s costs, it is the generos-ity of thousands each year that drives the

Franz Welser-Möst

9Summers@Severance About the Orchestra

Franz Welser-Möst leads a concert at John Adams High School. Through such In-School Performances and Education Concerts at Severance Hall, The Cleveland Orchestra has introduced more than 4 million young people to symphonic music over the past nine decades.

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Orchestra forward and sustains its extraor-dinary tradition of excellence onstage, in the classroom, and for the community. Evolving Greatness. The Cleveland Orchestra was founded in 1918. Over the ensuing decades, the Orch estra quickly grew from a fi ne regional organization to being one of the most admired sympho-ny orchestras in the world. Seven music directors have guided and shaped the ensemble’s growth and sound: Nikolai Soko loff , 1918-33; Artur Rodzinski, 1933-43; Erich Leins dorf, 1943-46; George Szell, 1946-70; Lorin Maazel, 1972-82; Christoph von Dohnányi, 1984-2002; and Franz Wels-er-Möst, since 2002. The opening in 1931 of Severance Hall as the Orchestra’s permanent home, with later acoustic refi nements and remod-eling of the hall under Szell’s guidance,

brought a special pride to the ensemble and its hometown, as well as providing an enviable and intimate acoustic environ-ment in which to develop and refi ne the Orch estra’s artistry. Touring performances throughout the United States and, begin-ning in 1957, to Europe and across the globe have confi rmed Cleveland’s place among the world’s top orchestras. Year-round per-formances became a reality in 1968 with the opening of Blossom Music Center, one of the most beautiful and acoustically admired outdoor concert facilities in the United States. Today, concert performances, com-munity presentations, touring residencies, broadcasts, and recordings provide access to the Orchestra’s acclaimed artistry to an enthusiastic, generous, and broad constitu-ency around the world.

10 The Cleveland OrchestraThe Musicians

T H E C L E V E L A N D

FIRST VIOLINSWilliam PreucilCONCERTMASTER

Blossom-Lee ChairYoko MooreASSISTANT CONCERTMASTER

Clara G. and George P. Bickford Chair

Peter OttoFIRST ASSOCIATE CONCERTMASTER

Jung-Min Amy LeeASSOCIATE CONCERTMASTER

Gretchen D. and Ward Smith Chair

Alexandra PreucilASSISTANT CONCERTMASTER

Dr. Jeanette Grasselli Brownand Dr. Glenn R. Brown Chair

Takako MasamePaul and Lucille Jones Chair

Wei-Fang GuDrs. Paul M. and Renate H. Duchesneau Chair

Kim GomezElizabeth and Leslie Kondorossy Chair

Chul-In ParkHarriet T. and David L.Simon Chair

Miho HashizumeTh eodore Rautenberg Chair

Jeanne Preucil RoseDr. Larry J.B. and Barbara S. Robinson Chair

Alicia KoelzOswald and Phyllis Lerner Gilroy Chair

Yu YuanPatty and John Collinson Chair

Isabel TrautweinTrevor and Jennie Jones Chair

Mark DummGladys B. Goetz Chair

Katherine BormannAnalisé Denise Kukelhan

SECOND VIOLINSStephen Rose*

Alfred M. and Clara T. Rankin Chair

Emilio Llinas 2

James and Donna Reid ChairEli Matthews 1

Patricia M. Kozerefski and Richard J. Bogomolny Chair

Elayna DuitmanIoana MissitsCarolyn Gadiel WarnerStephen WarnerSae ShiragamiVladimir DeninzonSonja Braaten MolloyScott WeberKathleen CollinsBeth WoodsideEmma ShookJeffrey Zehngut

Yun-Ting Lee

VIOLASRobert Vernon*

Chaillé H. and Richard B. Tullis Chair

Lynne Ramsey1

Charles M. and Janet G. Kimball Chair

Stanley Konopka 2

Mark JackobsJean Wall Bennett Chair

Arthur KlimaRichard WaughLisa BoykoLembi VeskimetsEliesha NelsonJoanna Patterson ZakanyPatrick Connolly

CELLOSMark Kosower*

Louis D. Beaumont ChairRichard Weiss1

Th e GAR Foundation ChairCharles Bernard2

Helen Weil Ross ChairBryan Dumm

Muriel and Noah Butkin ChairTanya Ell

Th omas J. and Judith Fay Gruber Chair

Ralph CurryBrian Thornton

William P. Blair III ChairDavid Alan HarrellPaul KushiousMartha Baldwin

BASSESMaximilian Dimoff *

Clarence T. Reinberger ChairKevin Switalski 2

Scott Haigh1

Mary E. and F. Joseph Callahan Chair

Mark AthertonThomas SperlHenry Peyrebrune

Charles Barr Memorial ChairCharles CarletonScott DixonDerek Zadinsky

HARPTrina Struble*

Alice Chalifoux Chair

FRANZ WELSER-MÖST MUSIC DIRECTORKelvin Smith Family Chair

11Summers@Severance The Musicians

O R C H E S T R AFLUTESJoshua Smith*

Elizabeth M. andWilliam C. Treuhaft Chair

Saeran St. ChristopherMarisela Sager 2

Austin B. and Ellen W. Chinn ChairMary Kay Fink

PICCOLOMary Kay Fink

Anne M. and M. Roger Clapp Chair

OBOESFrank Rosenwein*

Edith S. Taplin ChairCorbin StairJeffrey Rathbun 2

Everett D. and Eugenia S. McCurdy Chair

Robert Walters

ENGLISH HORNRobert Walters

Samuel C. and Bernette K. Jaff e Chair

CLARINETSFranklin Cohen*

Robert Marcellus ChairRobert WoolfreyDaniel McKelway 2

Robert R. and Vilma L. Kohn Chair

Linnea Nereim

E-FLAT CLARINETDaniel McKelway

Stanley L. and Eloise M. Morgan Chair

BASS CLARINETLinnea Nereim

BASSOONSJohn Clouser *

Louise Harkness Ingalls ChairGareth ThomasBarrick Stees2

Sandra L. Haslinger ChairJonathan Sherwin

CONTRABASSOONJonathan Sherwin

HORNSRichard King *

George Szell Memorial ChairMichael Mayhew §

Knight Foundation ChairJesse McCormick

Robert B. Benyo ChairHans ClebschAlan DeMattia

TRUMPETSMichael Sachs*

Robert and Eunice Podis Weiskopf Chair

Jack SutteLyle Steelman2

James P. and Dolores D. Storer Chair

Michael Miller

CORNETSMichael Sachs*

Mary Elizabeth and G. Robert Klein Chair

Michael Miller

TROMBONESMassimo La Rosa*

Gilbert W. and Louise I. Humphrey Chair

Richard StoutAlexander andMarianna C. McAfee Chair

Shachar Israel2

BASS TROMBONEThomas Klaber

EUPHONIUM AND BASS TRUMPETRichard Stout

TUBAYasuhito Sugiyama*

Nathalie C. Spence and Nathalie S. Boswell Chair

TIMPANIPaul Yancich*

Otto G. and Corinne T. Voss ChairTom Freer 2

PERCUSSIONMarc Damoulakis*

Margaret Allen Ireland ChairDonald MillerTom Freer

KEYBOARD INSTRUMENTSJoela Jones*

Rudolf Serkin ChairCarolyn Gadiel Warner

Marjory and Marc L. Swartzbaugh Chair

LIBRARIANSRobert O’Brien

Joe and Marlene Toot ChairDonald Miller

ORCHESTRA PERSONNELRebecca VineyardINTERIM DIRECTOR

Christine HonolkeMANAGER

ENDOWED CHAIRS CURRENTLY UNOCCUPIEDSidney and Doris Dworkin ChairSunshine Chair

* Principal § Associate Principal 1 First Assistant Principal 2 Assistant Principal

CONDUCTORSChristoph von DohnányiMUSIC DIRECTOR LAUREATE

Giancarlo GuerreroPRINCIPAL GUEST CONDUCTOR,CLEVELAND ORCHESTRA MIAMI

Brett MitchellASSISTANT CONDUCTOR

Elizabeth Ring and William Gwinn Mather Chair

Robert PorcoDIRECTOR OF CHORUSES

Frances P. and Chester C. Bolton Chair


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13Summers@Severance

About Summm SevA gentle and warm summer evening . . . a sublime night of music hand-selected just for you . . . great drinks and conversation on the beautiful Front Terrace of Severance Hall. Join The Cleveland Orchestra for a great sum-mertime experience hand-crafted for the enjoyment of all the senses. A casual come-as-you-are atmosphere surrounded by the stunning visual charm of “America’s most beautiful concert hall.” The evening starts early (if you wish) with a special Happy Hour — meet your friends or family before the concert to relax and start to unwind. Then feel the inspiration of great music performed by the incomparable Cleveland Orchestra in the per-fect intimacy of Severance Hall. Afterwards, the Front Terrace beckons with a one-of-a-kind sunset, along with drink and dessert options, plus cooler evening breezes and DJ’d musical off erings. The perfect ending for a great eve-ning. Set amidst the growing excitement of University Circle, the best “new” neighborhood in Northeast Ohio!

What It’s All About

THE BEFORE

Happy Hour5:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.Socializationwith drink specialsand special drinks

THE CONCERT

The Cleveland Orchestra7 p.m.

THE AFTER

Terrace at Sunsetbeginning immediatelyafter the concert— music, drinks,and facetime withfriends (new and old)

MORE MUSIC

Before and Afterwith DJ MisterBradleyP(www.mehimher.com)

JULY-AUGUST 2015

July 10August 7August 21 at 7 p.m.


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96,408Likes on Facebook (as of July 1, 2015)

B Y T H E N U M B E R S

The Orchestra was founded in 1918 and performed its

fi rst concert on December 11.

Seven music directors have led the Orchestra, including George Szell,Christoph von Dohnányi, and Franz Welser-Möst.

52%

The 2015-16 season will mark Franz Welser-Möst’s 14th

year as music director.

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130,000 young people have attended Cleveland Orch-estra symphonic concerts via programs funded by the Center for Future Audiences since 2011, through stu-

dent programs and Under 18s Free ticketing.

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Over half of The Cleveland Orchestra’s funding each year

comes from thousands of generous donors and spon-

sors, who together make possible our concert presen-

tations, community programs, and education initiatives.

SEVERANCE HALL, “America’s most beautiful concert hall,” opened in 1931

as the Orchestra’s permanent home.

15Summers@Severance

July 10

Severance Hall — Cleveland, Ohio Friday evening, July 10, 2015, at 7:00 p.m.

T H E C L E V E L A N D O R C H E S T R A FRANZ WELSER-MÖST , conductor

OLIVIER MESSIAEN Hymne(1908-1992)

LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN Piano Concerto No. 4 in G major, Opus 58(1770-1827) 1. Allegro moderato 2. Andante con moto 3. Rondo: Vivace

IGOR LEVIT, piano

INTERMISSION

RICHARD STRAUSS Symphonia domestica, Opus 53(1864-1949) 1. Introduction and Development of the Main Themes: The Husband’s Themes: Easy-going, Dreamy, Fiery — The Wife’s Themes: Lively and Free-spirited, Grazioso — The Child’s Theme: Tranquil — 2. Scherzo: Happiness of the Parents — Childish Games — Cradle Song (Lullaby) — The Clock Strikes Seven in the Evening — 3. Adagio: Doing and Thinking — Love Scene — Dreams and Worries — The Clock Strikes Seven in the Morning — 4. Finale: Awakening and Merry Dispute (Double Fugue) — Joyous Confusion

July 10: Beethoven & Strauss

Fr a n z , B e e t h o v e n & S t r a u s s

2 0 1 5

The Cleveland Orchestra’sSummers@Severance series is sponsoredby Thompson Hine LLP, a Cleveland Orchestra Partner in Excellence.


M U S I C C A R R I E S M E A N I N G . Sometimes it is direct and obvious, while at other times the “meaning” is more abstract or personal. This evening’s concert, led by music director Franz Welser-Möst, features three contrasting musical works by three very diff erent composers, two German and one French. One work is a serious and profoundly ambitious musical portrait of the composer and his family. One is a very personal statement of a pianist’s changing soundworld. And the third is a refl ection on re-ligious faith, poured into a personal musical form. The evening opens with Olivier Mes-siaen’s Hymne, created in 1932 and “remem-bered onto paper” in 1947. This work off ers a refl ective and nuanced view of music as a language through which Messiaen could ex-press his strong Catholic faith and belief in God, and ultimate good. Beethoven’s Fourth Piano Concerto is his most confessional. Written as his hearing was fading away, it is a unique exploration of what a soloist and orchestra can do together — and apart. This is Romanticism in full swing, classi-cally contained, perfectly proportioned, unexpectedly elegant and daring. Igor Levit makes his Cleveland Orchestra debut as the soloist. To close the concert — but not the evening; join us afterwards for good company and conversation — Franz leads the Orchestra in Richard Strauss’s big tone poem of a symphony, Symphonia domestica. Here, Strauss portrayed his family life, in the small and exposed details of a typical evening, night, and morning. That that was his inspiration and concept for the work, and that some details are pretty obvious (chiming clocks, crying baby, lovemaking in the night), does not, however, mean that Strauss didn’t also build it into a masterful (and masterfully organized) piece of symphonic music. Some listeners will take glee in the storytelling, while others may prefer to enjoy the music as . . . music. Either choice works. Great art is a personal statement — for the artist and each audience member, too. —Eric Sellen

Introducing the Music

I N T R O D U C I N G T H E C O N C E R T

Musical Contrasts, Personal Statements

July 10

CARICATURE OF RICHARD STRAUSS CONDUCTING, BY THEO ZASCHE

17Summers@Severance

Franz Welser-Möst Music Director Kelvin Smith Family Endowed Chair The Cleveland Orchestra

T H E U P C O M I N G 2 01 5 -1 6 S E A S O N marks Franz Welser-Möst’s fourteenth year as music director of The Cleveland Orchestra, with the future of this acclaimed partner-ship now extending into the next decade. Under his direction, the Orchestra is hailed for its continuing artistic excellence, is broadening and enhancing its community programming at home in Northeast Ohio, is presented in a series of ongoing residen-cies in the United States and Europe, and has re-established itself as an important operatic ensemble. With a commitment to music educa-tion and the Northeast Ohio community, Franz Welser-Möst has taken The Cleveland Orchestra back into public schools with performances in collaboration with the Cleveland Metropolitan School District. He has championed new programs, such as a community-focused Make Music! initiative and a series of “At Home” neighborhood residencies designed to bring the Orchestra and citizens together in new ways. Under Mr. Welser-Möst’s leadership, The Cleveland Orchestra has established a recurring biennial residency in Vienna at the famed Musikverein concert hall and appears regularly at Switzerland’s Lucerne Festival. Together, they have also appeared in resi-dence at Suntory Hall in Tokyo, Japan, and at the Salzburg Festival. In the United States, an annual multi-week Cleveland Orch estra residency in Florida was inaugurated in 2007 and an ongoing relationship with New York’s Lincoln Center Festival began in 2011. To the start of this season, The Cleve-land Orchestra has performed fourteen

world and fi fteen United States premieres under Franz Welser-Möst’s direction. In partnership with the Lucerne Festival, he and the Orchestra have premiered works by Harrison Birtwistle, Chen Yi, Hanspeter Kyburz, George Benjamin, Toshio Hosoka-wa, and Matthias Pintscher. In addition, the Daniel R. Lewis Young Composer Fellow program has brought new voices to the repertoire, including Pintscher, Marc-André Dalbavie, Susan Botti, Julian Anderson, Jo-hannes Maria Staud, Jörg Widmann, Sean

Shepherd, and Ryan Wigglesworth. Franz Welser-Möst has led annual opera performances during his tenure in Cleveland. Following six seasons of opera-in-concert presentations, he brought fully staged opera back to Severance Hall with a three-season cycle of Zurich Opera produc-tions of the Mozart-Da Ponte operas. He led concert performances of Strauss’s Salome at Severance Hall and at Carnegie Hall in 2012 and in May 2014 led an innovative made-for-Cleveland production of Leoš Janáček’s

Music Director

July 10


The Cunning Little Vixen at Severance Hall. He conducted performances of Richard Strauss’s Daphne in May 2015 and will pres-ent a Bartók doublebill in April 2016. As a guest conductor, Mr. Welser-Möst enjoys a close and productive relationship with the Vienna Philharmonic. Recent per-formances with the Philharmonic include a critically-acclaimed production of Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier at the 2014 Salzburg Fes-tival and a tour of Scandinavia, as well as appearances at New York’s Carnegie Hall, at the Lucerne Festival, and in concert at La Scala Milan. This summer, he leads them in a new production of Beethoven’s Fidelio at the 2015 Salzburg Festival. He conducted the Philharmonic’s celebrated annual New Year’s Day concert in 2011 and 2013, viewed by tens of millions by telecast worldwide. Mr. Welser-Möst also maintains re-lationships with a number of other Euro-pean orchestras, and the 2015-16 season includes return engagements to Munich’s Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and Zurich’s Tonhalle Orchestra. He also makes his long-anticipated debut with Amster-dam’s Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra for two weeks of concerts, and conducts the Filarmonica of La Scala Milan in a televised Christmas concert. He will also conduct the Vienna Philharmonic in two weeks of subscription concerts, lead the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic in the Nobel Prize concert in Stockholm, and conduct a new production of Strauss’s Die Liebe der Danae at the 2016 Salzburg Festival. From 2010 to 2014, Franz Welser-Möst served as general music director of the Vienna State Opera. His partnership with the company included an acclaimed new production of Wagner’s Ring cycle and a series of critically-praised new productions,

as well as performances of a wide range of other operas, particularly of works by Wag-ner and Richard Strauss. Prior to his years with the Vienna State Opera, Mr. Welser-Möst led the Zurich Opera across a decade-long tenure, leading more than forty new productions and culminating in three sea-sons as general music director (2005-08). Franz Welser-Möst’s recordings and videos have won major awards, includ-ing a Gramophone Award, Diapason d’Or, Japanese Record Academy Award, and two Grammy nominations. With The Cleveland Orchestra, he has created DVD recordings of live performances of fi ve of Bruckner’s sym-phonies, and is in the midst of a new project recording major works by Brahms. With Cleveland, he has also released a record-ing of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony and an all-Wagner album. DVD releases on the EMI label have included Mr. Welser-Möst leading Zurich Opera productions of The Marriage of Figaro, Così fan tutte, Don Giovanni, Der Rosenkavalier, Fierrabras, and Peter Grimes. For his talents and dedication, Mr. Welser-Möst has received honors that include the Vienna Philharmonic’s “Ring of Honor” for his longstanding personal and artistic relationship with the ensemble, as well as recognition from the Western Law Center for Disability Rights, honor-ary membership in the Vienna Singverein, appointment as an Academician of the European Academy of Yuste, a Gold Medal from the Upper Austrian government for his work as a cultural ambassador, a Deco-ration of Honor from the Republic of Aus-tria for his artistic achievements, and the Kilenyi Medal from the Bruckner Society of America. He is the co-author of Cadences: Observations and Conversations, published in a German edition in 2007.

Music Director

19Summers@Severance About the Music

At a Glance

July 10

H Y M N E is one of the less frequently performed of Messiaen’s orchestral works. It was the last of three works for orchestra on sacred subjects composed soon after he completed his Con-servatoire studies and then became organist at Paris’s Trinité church (a position he held for over forty years). Les Off randes oubliées (1930) and Le Tombeau resplendis-sant (1931) were followed by Hymne au Saint-Sacrement in 1932. This latter piece was performed the following year and again in 1936 when it was included in a concert at the Salle Gaveau that brought together the four composers in the group named “La Jeune France” [Young France]: André Lesur, Yves Baudrier, An-dré Jolivet, and Messiaen (whose fame has far outstripped that of his three colleagues). The group’s aim was to reestablish the dignity and seriousness of music, in protest against the frivolity and nihilism that they saw in the music of Erik Satie and “Les Six” (including Darius Milhaud, Francis Poulenc, and Arthur Honeg-ger). Messiaen’s commitment to elevated spiritual concerns was a clear signal in this campaign. In 1944 the score and parts of the Hymne au Saint-Sacre-ment were lost, perhaps in the upheaval of the liberation of Paris. Messiaen therefore had to reconstruct it from memory, which he did for a performance by Leopold Stokowski in New York in 1947, under the shorter title Hymne. How far the new version diff ered from the original is impossible to know. The opening, according to Messiaen, is like a gust of wind, ushering in a passage of “impassioned melancholy.” The sec-tion where a solo violin is supported by muted strings is a se-rene contemplation of the gift of the Eucharist, succeeded by a passionate representation of the ensuing state of grace. The music in eff ect enacts the Catholic ritual of Holy Communion, and ends in brilliant orchestral sound, like so many of Messiaen’s pieces. Messiaen’s view of the world was wholly optimistic, in keeping with his profound faith in the comforts of Heaven.

—Hugh Macdonald © 2015

Hymnecomposed 1932, reconstructed 1947

by OlivierMESSIAENborn December 10, 1908Avignon, France

diedApril 28, 1992Paris

Messiaen composed Hymne au Saint-Sacrement (the title was later simplifi ed to Hymne) in 1932. It was pre-miered on March 23, 1933, at the Théâtre des Champs-Ély-sées in Paris, conducted by Walther Straram. The score and all orchestral parts were lost during World War II, but Messiaen reconstructed the piece from memory in 1947. This was premiered by the New York Philharmonic under Leopold Stokowski’s direction in March 1947. Hymne runs a little over 10 minutes in performance.

20 The Cleveland OrchestraSoloist

July 10

Igor LevitHailed among the best musicians of his generation, Russian-German pianist Igor Levit is making his Cleveland Orchestra debut with tonight’s concert. Born in Nizhny Novgorod in 1987, Igor Levit began playing piano at age three. He moved with his family to Germa-

ny in 1995, and studied from 1999 to 2000 at Salzburg’s Mo-zarteum before graduating from the Hannover Academy of Mu-sic, Theater & Media in 2009, with the highest academic and performance scores in the

institution’s history. His teachers include Bernd Goetze, Hans Leygraf, Karl-Heinz Kämmerling, Matti Raekallio, and Lajos Ro-vatkay. As the youngest participant in the 2005 Arthur Rubinstein Competition, Igor Levit won Silver Prize, as well as chamber music, audience favorite, and contempo-rary music prizes. He was also fi rst prize winner at Japan’s International Hama-matsu Piano Academy Competition. In concert, Mr. Levit has appeared with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Danish National Symphony Orchestra, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Ber-lin, Konzerthausorchester Berlin, London Philharmonic Orchestra, NDR Radiophil-harmonie Hannover, Orchestre Philharmo-nique du Luxembourg, Royal Scottish

National Orchestra, Staatskapelle Dresden, Vienna Symphony Orchestra, and the WDR Sinfonieorchester. In recital, he has per-formed in Amsterdam, Berlin, Birmingham, Brussels, Copenhagen, Frankfurt, London, Munich, New York, Stockholm, Vienna, and Zurich. Among Igor Levit’s chamber music partners are Lisa Batiashvili, Simon Bode, Ning Feng, Julia Fischer, Sol Gabetta, Chris-tiane Karg, Maxim Vengerov, Jörg Wid-mann, and Tabea Zimmermann. Highlights of Igor Levit’s current and upcoming engagements are debuts with the orchestras of Cincinnati and San Fran-cisco, with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and Hessischer Rundfunk Sinfo-nieorchester. This past spring, he served as artistic director of the chamber music academy at the Heidelberger Frühling, and this summer he performs at several of Germany’s summer festivals and Austria’s Schubertiade. Composer Frederic Rzewski has dedicated eight sonatas from his Nano Sonaten to Mr. Levit and is composing a world premiere for him. An exclusive Sony Classical artist, Igor Levit has recorded albums of works by Bach and Beethoven. The latter won the BBC Music Magazine Newcomer of the Year 2014 Award, the Royal Philharmonic Society’s Young Artist Award 2014, and the ECHO 2014 for Solo Recording of the Year (19th Century Music)/Piano. In Hannover, where he makes his home, Igor Levit performs on a Steinway D grand piano kindly loaned to him by the trustees of Independent Opera at Sadler’s Wells.


Piano Concerto No. 4 in G major, Opus 58composed 1805-06

LIKE MANY COMPOSERS before (and after), Beethoven wrote his concertos for piano and orchestra as vehicles for displaying his own dazzle as a performer. In those times — before radio and recordings and copyright, and when public concerts were less frequent than today — new music was all the rage. Compos-ing your own ensured that you had fresh material to perform. Your biggest hits, from last year or last week, were meanwhile quickly appropriated by others through copied scores and with the best tunes arranged for street organ grinders and local wind ensembles. It is little wonder, then, that Mozart kept some scores under lock and key, and left the cadenzas for many of his con-certos blank, so that only he could fi ll them in authentically with his own brand of extemporaneous perfection. Beethoven moved to Vienna at the age of 22 in 1792. He’d hoped to get to Europe’s musical capital sooner and to study with Mozart, but family circumstances had kept him at home in Bonn helping raise his two younger brothers (while tempering the boys’ alcoholic father). It was as a performer that Beethoven forged his reputation in Vienna, and within a year he was widely known as a red-hot piano virtuoso. This set the stage for writing his own concertos. For the fi rst three, written between 1795 and 1802, he followed very much in Mozart’s footsteps with the form. In the 1780s, Mozart had turned the concerto into a fully-realized and independent genre, sometimes churning out three or four each season. But whereas Mozart, over the course of thirty or more works for solo piano or violin, had developed the concerto into sublime products, Beethoven (ultimately creating just fi ve works for piano and one for violin) strived to make the form individ-ual and handmade again. Mozart created the molds and set the standards, and only occasionally over-fi lled or over-fl owed them. Beethoven at fi rst worked within and around those ear-lier defi nitions, but the thrust of his musical creativity eventually shattered tradition in order to off er up the fi rst magnifi cently over-charged concertos of the Romantic 19th century. The Fourth Piano Concerto begins unexpectedly, with piano alone. While today we recognize this as unusual, it is prob-ably impossible for us to understand how totally shocking it was for audiences at the premiere. Even though Mozart’s concertos

by Ludwig vanBEETHOVENborn December 16, 1770Bonn

diedMarch 26, 1827Vienna

July 10


Beethoven composed his Fourth Piano Concerto in 1805-06 and served as both soloist and conductor in the work’s fi rst performances, in March 1807 at a semi-private concert in the home of his patron Prince Lobkowitz, fol-lowed by the public premiere at the Vienna Akademie on December 22, 1808. The concerto was published in 1808 with a dedication to Beethoven’s pupil, the Arch-duke Rudolph. This concerto runs about 35 minutes in performance. Beethoven scored each of the movements diff erently: the fi rst movement calls for fl ute, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bas-soons, 2 horns, and strings, plus the solo piano; the second movement utilizes only piano and strings; and the fi nale augments the fi rst-movement ensemble with 2 trumpets and timpani. The Cleveland Orchestra fi rst played Beethoven’s Concerto No. 4 in Novem-ber 1923, with soloist Josef Hofmann and music director Nikolai Sokoloff . The most recent performances were given in January 2014 at Severance Hall, with Franz Welser-Möst leading per-formances featuring pianist Yefi m Bronfman.

At a Glance

had crystallized the form only twenty years earlier, musical au-diences of the time knew the conventions and were expecting creativity within those boundaries. A concerto always started with an orchestral introduction. The beginning might be lon-ger or shorter, noisy or quiet, but the concerto was ultimately an orchestral genre, with soloist as an invited guest. Here, with Beethoven’s Fourth Concerto, the soloist is instead placed fully in charge of the form — not just in the au-dience’s minds as the expected center of attention, but as full equal to the entire orchestra. Thus is the heroic 19th-century concerto born, in which the soloist became protagonist rather than mere dialogue partner, and the “conversation” between soloist and orchestra takes on a sense of combative clashing and argument far beyond the good-natured sparring that ear-lier concertos had off ered as musical entertainment. Not only does the piano begin the concerto, but it starts with unusual gentleness and grace, and “warms up” only gradu-ally. Indeed, the entire concerto seems much more of a personal statement from Beethoven, as soloist and overall composer, than any of his preceding concertos. The opening movement continues at length — at twenty minutes, it is at least a third longer than any that Mozart or Beethoven had previously cre-ated — alternating across the sections of sonata form between a deceptive, gentle playfulness and a more robust outlook. Then in the second movement, the orchestra and soloist almost seem to wander off into diff erent concertos. The orches-tra off ers forceful stabs of sound, to which the piano repeatedly responds with introspective musings, as if thinking about some-thing else entirely. Once the bewildered orchestra backs off , however, Beethoven allows the piano to be more or less alone onstage, as if deep in thought. Some sublimely heart-wrenching solo piano passages follow, including a cadenza for right hand alone, before the movement withers to silence. Without pause, we are suddenly in the third-movement fi nale. Finally, the orchestra and soloist are ready to enjoy play-ing together, and this joyful movement is a delightful rondo of invention and variations built around an initial short march tune. Beethoven carefully varies the lengths of each statement and its response, building up a wonderfully vibrant sense of fun and excitement. A brief cadenza allows a momentary spotlight on the soloist and then, just as at the beginning of the concerto, Beethoven also breaks convention at the end, with the solo part

About the Music

23Summers@Severance

written through to the fi nal chord in the fi nal bar. Traditionally, the orches-tra would have closed out the piece without the soloist, or with the soloist merely playing along with the tune at the end. (Beethoven’s Fourth isn’t entirely cutting edge in this respect, however, as Mozart had tried a “dual ending” in his last piano concerto.) In the context of listening to any of Beethoven’s fi ve piano concertos and contemplating his innovations and evolution of the artform, it is occa-sionally worthwhile noting that there is a sixth piano concerto by Beethoven. This is an arrangement that he made (or helped supervise) of his own Violin Concerto, Opus 61, for a generous Italian publisher. Known as Opus 61a, it is infrequently programmed, few soloists have bothered to learn the part, and, admittedly, some portions of it don’t really work. It is, nonetheless, a strangely interesting work to hear in performance or recording — and one sure way for many modern listeners who feel too well-acquainted with Beethoven’s concertos to be startled again, as his audiences were, on hearing something unexpectedly familiar but diff erent.

—Eric Sellen © 2015

Eric Sellen serves as program book editor for The Cleveland Orchestra.

About the Music

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24 The Cleveland OrchestraAbout the Music

July 10

T H E PA R A D O X at the heart of this great work is this — mar-riage, parenthood, and the intimacies of family life, for most of us, are of consuming importance, permanent and inescapable. They are usually also private, personal matters, and the source of happiness or misery, or both. Painters and novelists have explored domestic subjects for centuries, and the self-portrait is an honored form of art. Why, then, was Richard Strauss regu-larly ridiculed for portraying himself and his family in his music? How can the subject of domestic life be deemed unworthy of a composer’s creative eff orts, condemned as in bad taste, when other artists and artforms have plunged its secrets and intimacy and emotional depth to the fullest? Horace and Shakespeare boasted that their verse would outlive the ages. Strauss boasted that his life was a hero’s life in his tone poem Ein Heldenleben (literally “A Hero’s Life”), review-ing his work and penning his own musical memoir at the age of 34, with obvious self-satisfaction. If a symphony can be pas-toral, or fantastique, or Italian, or Rhenish, or pathétique, why not domestic? This was what the composer was thinking when he attempted to portray — and celebrate — the everyday pri-vate world he shared with his wife and child. He had married his wife Pauline in 1894 and their son Franz was born in 1897. Their Domestic Symphony was composed six years later. This work belongs to the series of tone poems Strauss had been composing steadily since the stunningly successful Don

Symphonia domestica, Opus 53composed 1902-03

by RichardSTRAUSSborn June 11, 1864Munich

diedSeptember 8, 1949Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Bavaria

Richard Strauss and Pauline Strauss with their

son, Franz, in 1910.


Juan of 1889, each more ambitious than the last. The new one was to be called a “symphonic” poem, not a “tone” poem (and it has recognizable scherzo and adagio sections, not unlike symphonic movements). Yet it is far from being a symphony and is much more of a narrative with three principal characters, each with their own themes. Two of them, his wife and himself, featured prominently in the previous tone poem, Ein Heldenleben. They are now joined by the baby, known as “Bubi,” whose squeals and tantrums are represented in the music as well as his heavenly repose. The listener may prefer to know no more than that and let each section suggest what it will. Strauss originally explained events in considerable detail, then later removed most of the tags and cues, sensing the embarrassment that over-descriptive music can cause. Suffi ce it to draw attention to the neatness of giving himself and his wife basic themes that are a refl ection of each other in diametrically opposing keys, F and B:

Each of these shows only the opening notes of the fi rst of many themes, but they reappear constantly — his not always gently, hers not always angrily, although Strauss lays his cards on the table early on. His own themes at the opening are in turn “com-fortable” (cellos), “dreamy” (oboe), “morose” (clarinets), “fi ery” (violins), “joyful” (trumpet), and “fresh” (rushing scales). Her themes follow immediately, but without labels. Pau-line was a shrewish woman (in an era when one could say that without repercussions) who did not always make her husband’s life easy and even sometimes sneered at his music. One of their rows became the basis of his opera Intermezzo of 1924. Never-theless, he remained devoted to her and recognized that he needed her, as the closing pages of the Symphonia domestica celebrate. Their marriage lasted more than half a century, until his death in 1949; she died ten months later. A folksy passage suggests bourgeois comforts (interrupted of course by passionate exchanges) before a sudden hush in-troduces the baby. He is represented by an important theme played by the oboe d’amore, an instrument familiar to Bach but not otherwise found in Strauss’s time. The baby is, of course,

If a sym-

phony can

be pastoral,

or fantastique,

or Italian, or

Rhenish, or

pathétique,

why not domes-

tic? This was

what Strauss

was thinking

when he

attempted

to portray —

and celebrate

— the everyday

private world

he shared with

his wife and

child.


sweet when quiet but capable of screams too, and for his play-time his theme is transformed into a gentle scherzo somewhat in Mahler’s manner. As the baby gets drowsy, father looks on with pride. A gen-tly rocking lullaby is called for, and as the two parents each say “good night” [“gute Nacht”] to their own themes, a clock chimes seven in the evening. All is calm (mostly woodwinds) and father settles down to his desk (the adagio, or third movement). The rich sound of horns introduces his thoughts taking shape and, although he is interrupted by his wife (which we know was not uncharacteristic of Pauline), the music fl ows freely and leads di-rectly into the love scene as the “camera” moves from the study to the bedroom. Strauss is at his descriptive best here, and why not? He did not need to apologize for any lack of delicacy since no words are needed and nothing is said. The couple are soon asleep, although their sleep is troubled by worried thoughts about the child in a surreal passage scored mostly for high instruments. They are woken by the clock again striking 7 (a.m.). The new day provides material for the extensive fi nal scene (or movement). The baby’s theme, speeded up, is the subject of a vigorous fugue, with the wife’s theme as a second subject, also treated as a fugue. In the course of this energetic music, tension grows between husband and wife, leading to a blazing row — but then ending in reconciliation and the return of “normal” life. And, as far as Strauss was concerned, it was normal for him to devise endless variations and permutations on his themes; his sheer joy in composing and his unstoppable invention take over, well beyond the point where any storytelling is needed. This is no dirge on the miseries of home life — it is the triumphant celebration of a good and ideal life, brilliantly expressed. Once again Strauss shows himself the master of the mod-ern orchestra, in this case an orchestra larger than any he had called for before. A horn section of eight (as in Wagner’s Ring of the Nibelung operas) was established in Ein Heldenleben, but here he adds the oboe d’amore to represent the baby. And also a full quartet of saxophones, although Strauss is strangely cautious in their use, for they only play in sections for full orchestra and are never heard on their own. Indeed, in his own performances he did not use saxophones. But they have been excellent am-munition for critics who want to ridicule the enormity of these “extra-terrestrial” saxophones being applied to describing the

Strauss wrote his Sympho-nia domestica [“Domestic Symphony”] between April 1902 and the end of Decem-ber 1903. He conducted the fi rst performance on March 21, 1904, while on tour in the United States, leading a “Strauss Festival” assembled in his honor at Carnegie Hall. (On March 10 of that year, he had appeared on tour in Cleveland, leading the Pitts-burgh Symphony Orchestra in performance at Grays’ Armory; his wife, Pauline, was the vocal soloist for the evening.) This symphony runs about 45 minutes in per-formance. Strauss scored it for a large orchestra of 3 fl utes, piccolo, 2 oboes, oboe d’amore, english horn, 3 clarinets, small clarinet in D, bass clarinet, 4 bassoons, contrabassoon, 4 optional saxophones (soprano, alto, baritone, and bass), 8 horns, 4 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, percus-sion (bass drum, cymbals, triangle, tambourine, glock-enspiel), 2 harps, and strings. The Cleveland Orchestra fi rst performed Strauss’s Symphonia domestica in November 1939 under Artur Rodzinski. It has been played occasionally since that time, most recently in May 2015, led by Franz Welser-Möst.

At a Glance

About the Music

27Summers@Severance

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trivialities of everyday life. It is merely facetious to observe that there are apparently no servants in Strauss’s household, and no meals. His later score for Molière’s Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme [“The Middle-Class Aris-tocrats”] proves that he could serve up a four-course meal in music. He once boasted he could portray a teaspoon in music, and compose the diff erences between a knife and a fork, yet somehow we prefer not to . . . have the teaspoon pointed out. If Strauss had wanted a scene for servants, too, he could easily have written one. That’s what he did in the operas Der Rosen-kavalier and Capriccio, where their exchanges merely underline the sublimity of what follows. Music can transform the trivial into the sublime, and the Sinfonia domestica proves it quite ad-mirably.

—Hugh Macdonald © 2015

Hugh Macdonald is Avis H. Blewett Professor Emeritus of Music at Washington University in St. Louis. He has written books

on Beethoven, Berlioz, Bizet, and Scriabin.

About the Music

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A M E R I C A got its fi rst orchestra in 1842 and waited almost 40 years for another. The New York Philharmonic, a players’ co-operative, struggled to cope with capital-ism in the raw and a fl ood of unchecked immigration. It did not begin to thrive until Andrew Carnegie opened his glittering hall. America’s fourth-largest city was next, in 1880. The St Louis Symphony, rolling in Mississippi river profi ts, really got things going. It was swiftly followed by the Boston Symphony (1881), Detroit (1887), Chicago (1891), Cincinnati (1895), and Philadelphia (1900) — by which time St Louis, preparing to host the Olympic Games, had proved that an orchestra was a prime emblem of civic prosperity, ambi-tion and civilisation. Soon, every town wanted one. By the middle of the 20th century, the United States accounted for half the world’s symphony orchestras, decked out in more fl avours than Heinz (who paid for Pitts-burgh’s). There was shameless razzmatazz from “the fabulous Philadelphians,” surgi-cal precision at George Szell’s Cleveland Orchestra, modern music commissioned by Boston and Louisville, rampant charisma from Bernstein’s New York and naked pow-er from Solti’s Chicago. On tour, American orchestras took Europe by storm. But by the end of the century the boom went bust. The subscription audi-ence greyed and died; the next generation found other distractions. America’s grow-ing minorities resented European culture and shunned the concert hall. Program-ming got safe and stale, managers were stubbornly white, and musicians, fearful of a shrinking future, demanded greater se-curity. . . . The writing could be read on my

E V E L A N D O R C H E S T R A I N T H E N E W S T H E C L E V E L A N D O R C H E S T R A

Cleveland’s Pride Makes Perfect by Norman Lebrecht

(Excerpted from Standpoint, July/August 2015, London, England)

Art Deco plus acoustics: Severance Hall, home of The Cleveland Orchestra. (Photo by James G. Milles via Flickr)

In the News

29Summers@Severance

wall (though hardly at all in U.S. media). The crash of 2008 drove several or-chestras out of business and prompted others to resort to the raw capitalist reme-dy of locking out musicians without wages or health insurance until they accepted lower compensation. . . . So when the League of American Orch estras went into its annual convention in Cleveland this spring, it was in subdued and introspective mood, concerned not to rock a listing boat, exercising a fl ummery of euphemisms by which every problem is a challenge, every steep decline a tempo-rary setback. . . . At night, I attended The Cleveland Orchestra, an irrational extravagance. Cleveland, a rustbelt town deserted by one-fi fth of its population in the past de-cade, sinking below 400,000, has no right to own an orchestra of world quality and renown — or so the industry wisdom goes. After 2008, insiders foretold its demise. Since then, the orchestra has gone from strength to strength, with winter residen-cies in Miami and summers at Europe’s elite festivals. Abroad, Cleveland has out-shone every other U.S. orchestra, bar per-haps the LA Phil. How it has survived is by bucking the trend. In 2002, Cleveland took on a 40-year-old music director when other orchestras wouldn’t look at a conductor under 60. Franz Welser-Möst, with rocky London beginnings behind him, set about building symbiosis. He recently renewed his contract until 2022, and I have never seen this sensitive, fi ne-tuned musician happier anywhere on earth (last summer he quit overnight as music director of the Vienna Opera).

The secret, Franz believes, is pride. Musicians in The Cleveland Orchestra can be seen on stage a full hour before the concert begins, rehearsing tricky passag-es, showing the audience how much they care. The woodwind and brass principals are swagger players, big personalities. You would not want to catch a scolding from the concertmaster: William Preucil looks as if he runs a double marathon before break-fast, yet his solos are sweet as day-old kit-tens. Like many top soloists, he studied with Joseph Gingold, a former Cleveland concertmaster. Tradition here runs as deep as in Vienna. . . . The Cleveland Orchestra played three programmes without a trace of fri-volity: a semi-staging of Richard Strauss’s rarely-seen opera Daphne, a pairing of Beethoven’s Pastoral and Strauss’s Domestic symphonies, and a Messiaen-Dvořák triple bill. In the pianissimo before the Pastoral fi nale, the strings played at a mere hint of a whisper, daringly confi dent of the audi-ence’s motionless, coughless attention. The hall helps: Severance Hall, built in 1931, has not just the fi nest acoustic in America but the most gorgeous art deco ambience, no cent spared of an iron-ore mogul’s generosity. Pride glows from ev-ery gold-leaf wall. The orchestra plays the hall like an extra instrument. Rather than grooming social lead-ers for big donations, Cleveland asks them to meet young professionals who join its under-40s Circle. You want to get ahead in Cleveland? Go to a concert. The orchestra has reinvented itself as a high-achieving social network. . . .

To read the entire article, visit www.standpointmag.co.uk.

I N T H E N E W S T H E C L E V E L A N D O R C H E S T R A I N T H E N E W S T H E C L E

In the News

30 Blossom Music Festival

There can be no music without ideology. The old composers, whether they knew it or not, were upholding a political theory. Most of them, of course, were bolstering the rule of the upper classes. Only Beethoven was a forerunner of the revolutionary movement. If you read his letters, you will see how often he wrote to his friends that he wished to give new ideas to the public and rouse it to revolt against its masters.

—Dmitri Shostakovich

Dmitri Shostakovich, circa 1952.

31Summers@Severance

August 7

WOLFGANG AMADÈ MOZART Overture to Don Giovanni(1756-1791)

DMITRI SHOSTAKOVICH Symphony No. 5 in D minor, Opus 47 (1906-1975) 1. Moderato 2. Allegretto 3. Largo 4. Allegro non troppo

Severance Hall — Cleveland, Ohio Friday evening, August 7, 2015, at 7:00 p.m.

T H E C L E V E L A N D O R C H E S T R A STANIS AW SKROWACZEWSKI , conductor

August 7: Shostakovich’s Fifth Symphony

S h o s t a k o v i c h ’ s F i f t h

2 0 1 5



Stanis aw SkrowaczewskiFor nearly seven decades, Stanisław Skrowaczewski has worked as both a con-ductor and composer. At age 36, he became the fi rst conductor from behind the Iron Curtain appointed music director of a major American orchestra, leading the Minneapo-lis Symphony (today called the Minnesota

Orchestra) for 19 years (1960-79). Mr. Skrowaczew-ski went on to become princi-pal conductor (1984-1991) of the Hallé Orchestra, the oldest profes-sional symphonic ensemble in the United Kingdom, and of Japan’s Yomiuri Nippon

Symphony Orchestra (2007-10). Throughout his career, he has been in demand as a guest conductor, leading nearly every major orchestra in the world, including those of Berlin, Boston, Cleve-land, Chicago, London, New York, Phila-delphia, and Vienna. He made his United States debut in 1958 with The Cleveland Orchestra in a program that featured Shostakovich’s Fifth Symphony. Although his life has centered on conducting, Mr. Skrow a czewski believes his soul is very much that of a composer — proudly continuing a duality of career in the tradition of Mendelssohn, Wagner, and Mahler. Today at age 90, he stands alone as the oldest living musician leading the world’s foremost orchestras while still ac-

tive and successful as a composer. Born in 1923 in Lwów, Poland, Stanisław Skrowaczew ski began piano and violin studies at the age of four, com-posed his fi rst symphonic work at seven, gave his fi rst public piano recital at eleven, and two years later played and conducted Beethoven’s Third Piano Concerto. Sur-viving three occupations of his home city during World War II, Mr. Skrowaczewski spent the immediate post-war years in Paris studying with Nadia Boulanger. Over the next decade, he became an active com-poser of orchestral, chamber, and fi lm mu-sic. Decades later, his Concerto for Orchestra (1985) and Passacaglia Immaginaria (1995) were both nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. He wrote a chamber work for cellist Lynn Harrell, which was premiered at the compos-er’s own 90th birthday celebration held at Orchestra Hall in Minneapolis. He is current-ly working on a requiem. Mr. Skrowaczewski’s extensive dis-cography includes his complete record-ings of Bruckner’s symphonies with the Deutsche Radio Philharmonie, which were widely acclaimed and won the 2002 Cannes Classical Award for orches-tral works of the 18th and 19th centuries. OehmsClassics recently released Stanisław Skrow aczewski: The Complete OehmsClas-sics Recordings, 90th Birthday Collection. This 28-CD box set includes the complete symphonies of Beethoven, Brahms, Bruck-ner, and Schumann, both Chopin piano concertos, and music of Bartók, Berlioz, and Skrowaczewski. A comprehensive biography was published in 2011, titled Seeking the Infi nite: The Musical Life of Stanisław Skrowaczewski, by Frederick Harris Jr.

Conductor

August 7

33Summers@Severance Introducing the Music

N E A R I N G A H A L F C E N T U RY after his death, Dmitri Shostakovich remains among the most enigmatic composers. Arguably the 20th century’s greatest symphonist — he penned fi fteen — his life and career (and music) were embroiled in the challenging politics of Russia as a Soviet-Communist state. Still a boy when the Bolsheviks came to power under Lenin in 1917, he lived through waves of public hope, wiped out and turned to grim realism (and mas-

sacred deaths) by an inconsistent, totalitarian government. Shostakovich’s youthful aim at daring and avant-garde compositions brought him atten-tion, both good and bad. The government — whose idea of good music was simple-minded patriotic bombast — turned against him (and almost every one of his compatriot writers) for musical acts against the state, without ever quite stating what the musical sins really were. For the problem, always, was attempting to be too individual and real, instead of purposefully and happily pro-government (which, despite its rhetoric, wasn’t pro-proletariat). Shostakovich’s Fifth Symphony from 1937, led for this Summers@Severance concert by a conductor who knew the composer personally, is a famous case of veiled meaning and un-knowns. Said at the time to be the composer’s “reaction to just criticism,” all indications are that it was merely a coded message of defi -ance, understood by many — and just as easily misunderstood as simply . . . great music. Lis-ten for yourself, and choose your own answer. The concert opens with a thrilling and short overture by Mozart, a great curtain-raiser to the confusion and evil in the tale of his op-era Don Giovanni, or before a masterful sym-phony of intriguing meaning and defi ance.

—Eric Sellen


Shostakovich’s Fifth!

August 7

Shostakovich made international headlines and news with his work as a fi reman during the siege of Leningrad in 1942 — and for the composition of his Seventh Symphony celebrating the bravery of the city's defenders. The politics in his other symphonies was often more subtle and less in line with the government's ideals.


Q U I T E A N U M B E R of musical or stage works have been writ-ten over the years about the life (and loves) of Don Juan, a man better known in fi ction than fact. The original 17th-century Spanish tale of a man who seduces women for sport — and who kills the father of one without remorse — has been expanded, fi ctionalized, and portrayed in all kinds of art forms over the centuries. Paintings, motion pictures, sculpture, poetry, novels, music, stage plays, and even psychological diagnoses have been created around Don Juan’s tempestuous lifestyle — sometimes described as caring and creative, but more often portrayed as heartless, callous, and careless. His attributes have been mixed together with those of Jacques Casanova (who lived a century later, and was, perhaps, less brutal in his loving) so that today the terms Don Juan and Casanova are nearly interchangeable. The Overture to Mozart’s Don Giovanni (Don Juan in Ital-ian) gives us only a glimpse at one of Mozart’s most acclaimed operatic masterpieces. It’s a powerful glimpse, however, and a great curtain-raiser for the opera or for this evening’s concert. In one respect, Mozart’s Overture to Don Giovanni was relatively unusual for its time. Rather than merely setting the mood for the action to follow, as he did so skillfully for other operas (such as The Magic Flute and Così fan tutte), here Mozart actually uses music that will be heard in the opera itself. While such practice became quite common in the 19th century and later, it was pretty rare in the 18th. (Five years earlier, Mozart had included the tune of an aria in the Overture to his Abduc-tion from the Seraglio, but as a rule overtures continued to be primarily “mood” pieces — famously demonstrated by Rossini’s reuse of an overture from one opera for a diff erent one, on more than one occasion.) Not only does Mozart feature music from the opera in the overture, he actually begins the overture with the music that will bring the opera (and Don Giovanni himself) to an end three hours later. In the opera house, this foreshadowing is quite dramatic, and can set up a strong sense that the story of Don Giovanni, far from being a once-told tale, portrays instead the inevitabil-ity of Don Giovanni’s death, as the price for his indiscretionary life. How fi rmly Mozart and his librettist, Lorenzo da Ponte, in-tended the opera’s story to be a moral lesson is a challenging

Overture to Don Giovannicomposed 1787

August 7

About the Music

by Wolfgang Amadè MOZARTborn January 27, 1756Salzburg

diedDecember 5, 1791Vienna


question to answer. The composer entered Don Giovanni into his catalog of works as an “opera buff a,” which usually denotes a type of comedy, but more generally designates a work that will genuinely entertain. Don Giovanni’s death at the end, when he is pulled down into Hell through the stage fl oor by the concrete ghost of a man he killed (whose daughter he callously wooed), may have been included as much for its dramatically exciting stagecraft as for its “rightness.” Mozart and da Ponte spent the months of September and October 1787 in Prague completing large sections of the opera for its premiere on October 29th. Stories circulated at the time that Mozart wrote the overture literally overnight and just in time for the last rehearsals. His wife later added credence to this story by relating how she helped keep him awake as he wrote, by telling him stories until 3 o’clock in the morning. If this is true, what Mozart was doing was the laborious task of writing out the Overture’s music, which was already fully realized inside his head. And it was most probably “completed” inside his head some days or weeks previously. Mozart was a famous procrasti-nator who didn’t really enjoy committing to paper what he had already fi nished so clearly in his mind. The Overture to Don Giovanni opens with the dramatic chords that will later announce Giovanni’s impending death. Next comes some “creeping” music, as if things are on the move in the darkness, followed by more chords and then ominous series of notes running both up and down against the chords. Suddenly, the mists part, and the overture bursts forth into a cheerful Allegro section as Mozart works to soothe our ears with pleasantly symphonic music. This, too, runs into some ominous chords before bursting cheerfully forth once more and then scurrying toward a fast fi nish. In the opera, the overture blends directly into the opening scene, but Mozart provided a simple concert ending for whenever the overture is played separately.

—Eric Sellen © 2015

Eric Sellen serves as program book editor for The Cleveland Orchestra.

Mozart wrote his opera Don Giovanni in 1787 to a libretto by Lorenzo da Ponte. It was fi rst performed on October 29, 1787, in Prague. The overture was probably the last part of the score to be written, and was most likely composed in Prague in the weeks just before the premiere. This overture runs just over 5 minutes in perfor-mance. Mozart scored the overture for 2 fl utes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, 2 trumpets, timpani, and strings. The Cleveland Orches-tra fi rst performed the Overture to Don Giovanni at Severance Hall subscrip-tion concerts in November 1935 under the direction of Artur Rodzinski. It has been programmed with some fre-quency since that time, and was most recently heard in 1999 at Blossom, conducted by Jahja Ling, and at Sever-ance Hall concerts in March 2011, when Franz Welser-Möst conducted staged performances of the entire opera, and in April 2014 at weekday Education Concerts led by Kelly Corcoran.

At a Glance


O N E O F T H E M O S T frequently performed symphonies from the 20th century, Shostakovich’s Fifth has achieved the status of a modern classic. Western audiences have long admired its great dramatic power and melodic richness. But the history of the work and its deeply ambiguous Rus-sian context reveal additional layers of meaning that, more than 75 years after the premiere, we are still learning to understand. Shostakovich wrote the Fifth Symphony in what was cer-tainly the most diffi cult year of his life. On January 28, 1936, an unsigned editorial in Pravda, the daily paper of the Communist Party, brutally attacked his opera Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District, denouncing it as “muddle instead of music.” This con-demnation resulted in a sharp decrease of performan ces of Shostakovich’s music in the ensuing months. What was worse, Shostakovich, whose fi rst child was born in May 1936, lived in constant fear of further reprisals, denunciations, and . . . possibly even more dire acts. The Communist Party, however, soon realized that the Soviet Union’s musical life couldn’t aff ord to lose its greatest young talent, and Shostakovich was granted a comeback. Less than a year after being forced to withdraw his Fourth Symphony, Shostakovich heard his Fifth premiered with resounding success in Leningrad on November 21, 1937. But by that time, it should be noted, the “Great Terror” had begun, with political show trials resulting in numerous death sentences and mass deportations to the infamous labor camps. The Great Terror claimed the lives of some of the country’s greatest artists — including the poet Osip Mandelshtam, the novelist Isaac Babel, and the theater director Vsevolod Meyerhold — but Shostakovich was miraculously spared. Could it be that the qualities in the Fifth Symphony that are so admired today were the very same ones that saved the com-poser’s life at the time? Shostakovich clearly made a major eff ort to write a “classical” piece here, one that would be acceptable to the authorities and was as far removed from his avant-garde Fourth Symphony as possible. Whether that makes this new symphony into “A Soviet Artist’s Creative Response to Just Criticism,” as it was offi cially designated at the time, is another question. The music is so profound and sincere as to transcend any kind of political expediency. The symphony was, without ques-

Symphony No. 5 in D minor, Opus 47composed 1937

About the Music

August 7

by DmitriSHOSTAKOVICHborn September 25, 1906St. Petersburg(later Leningrad)

died August 9, 1975Moscow


tion, a response to something, but not in the sense of a chastised schoolboy mending his ways. Rather, this is a great artist react-ing to the cruelty and insanity of the times.

M E A N I N G B E H I N D T H E M U S I C ?

A lot of ink has been spilled over the “meaning” of this symphony. That Shostakovich had a special message to commu-nicate becomes clear at the very beginning, when what would usually be a fast-paced “Allegro” fi rst movement is replaced by a brooding opening that stays in a slow tempo for half its length. (In fact, Shostakovich opened several of his later symphonies — Nos. 6, 8, and 10 — in a similar way, making a habit of avoiding fast fi rst movements.) The third and fourth movements are equally telling, with what seems to be completely transparent memorial music fol-lowed by an ambiguously triumphant ending. An offi cial Soviet interpretation of the Fifth Symphony was propounded by the novelist Alexey Tolstoy (a relative of Leo Tolstoy, the author of War and Peace), who, even though he was a royal count, was loyal to the Soviet regime. In an infl uential article, Alexey Tolstoy viewed the symphony as a kind of musi-cal Bildungsroman — a particular genre of writing that traces a person’s evolution in terms of education, experience, social consciousness, etc. This interpretation was echoed in an often-quoted article, published under Shostakovich’s name (but most probably not written by him): “The theme of my symphony is the formation of a personality. At the center of the work’s conception I envisioned just that: a man in all his suff ering. . . . The symphony’s fi nale resolves the tense and tragic moments of the preceding move-ments in a joyous, optimistic fashion.”

Yet critics — even Soviet ones — have had a hard time rec-onciling this with what they actually heard. The famous passage in Testimony, Shostakovich’s purported memoirs as edited (and possibly tampered with) by Solomon Volkov, refl ects a radically diff erent view: “It’s as if someone were beating you with a stick and saying, ‘Your business is rejoicing, your business is rejoicing,’ and you rise, shaky, and go marching off , muttering, ‘Our business is rejoicing, our business is rejoicing’.” As musicologist Richard Taruskin has noted, this interpreta-tion was actually shared by many people present at the premiere, who had serious doubts about the “optimism” of the fi nale. To some, this emotional ambiguity was a fl aw in the work, while

The Fifth Symphony was, with-out question, Shostakovich’s response to something. But, with the Soviet govern-ment repre-manding the composer for his earlier mu-sic, we should not think of a chastised schoolboy mending his ways. Rather, here is a great artist reacting to the cruelty and insanity of the times surrounding him.


others saw it as a sign of a hidden message. On both sides of the political fence, it was felt that the fi nale did not entirely dis-pel the devastating eff ects of the third-movement Largo. As a matter of fact, writing a tri umphant fi nale has never been an easy thing to do, especially after Beethoven managed it so well in his Fifth Symphony. That masterpiece inspired later composers to devote their fi fth symphonies to human tragedies on a large scale, as in the case of Tchaikovsky, Mahler, and Si-belius. Yet none of the fi nales in those symphonies can be de-scribed as unambiguously “triumphant” as Beethoven’s, a fact that obviously cannot be blamed on politics alone. Rather, it has more to do with the pessimistic side of these composers’ Romantic mindsets and the increasing complexity of the world surrounding them. In Shostakovich’s case, at any rate, politics made an already diffi cult artistic issue even more complicated. The “meaning” of the music can rarely be put into words, and under normal circumstances, there would be no need to even try. Shostakovich, however, wrote his Fifth Symphony in a con-text and with a level of public examination far from normal. The Soviet government demanded triumphant optimism in all the arts, and failure to deliver it could result in severe criticism, or worse. Nevertheless, Shostakovich’s music resists simple black-and-white labels.

Composer Dmitri Shostakovich talks with

conductor Stanisław Skrowaczewski,

circa 1960s.

About the Music

39Summers@Severance

The generation that came of age after the back-to-back Russian Revolutions of 1917 (when Shostakovich was just 11 years old) knew no political reality other than Communism. Many Russians in the 1920s believed that the new world that the Communists promised was sure to be an improvement over the Czarist regime. Yet by the time of the Stalinist purges of the 1930s, many of the country’s best minds had become profoundly disillusioned, especially in view of the enormous sacrifi ces in human lives that the Party was trying to pass off as the price of progress. Even though they were facing a horrible situation, they saw no viable political alternatives for their country. Voic-ing even the slightest dissent with the regime could result in in-stant deportation, disappearance, or death. This irreconcilable confl ict between hopes and realities was a fundamental fact of life. With its ambiguous ending, Shostakovich’s Fifth stands as a gripping monument to that confl ict and all whose voices were silenced by force or threat.

T H E M U S I C

A dramatic and ominous opening motif sets the stage for the Symphony’s fi rst movement; a second theme, played by the violins in a high register, is warm and lyrical but at the same time eerie and distant. The music seems to hesitate for a long time, until the horns begin a march theme that leads to some intense motivic development and a speeding up of the tempo. It is not a funeral march, but neither is it exactly triumphant. Reminis-cent perhaps of some of Gustav Mahler’s march melodies but even grimmer, its harmonies modulate freely from key to key, giving this march an oddly sarcastic character. At the climactic moment, the two earlier themes return. The dotted rhythms from the opening are even more powerful than before, but the second lyrical theme, now played by the fl ute and the horn to the soothing harmonies of the harp, has lost its previous edge and brings the movement to a peaceful, almost otherworldly close. The brief Scherzo second movement brings some relief from the preceding drama. Its Ländler-like melodies again bear witness to Mahler’s infl uence, both in the Scherzo proper and the ensuing Trio section, whose theme is played by a solo violin and then by the fl ute. The special tone color of the third movement is due to the absence of brass instruments, as well as to the fact that the violins are divided not into the usual two groups, but into three. This

About the Music

The symphony’s third movement was widely understood as a memorial for the Soviet Army Marshal Mikhail Tuk-hachevsky, who fell vic-tim to Stalin’s “Great Terror” as Shostakovich was writing this symphony. At the fi rst per-formance, many people wept openly during this movement.


heart-wrenching music turns the march of the fi rst movement into a lament, also incorporating a theme resembling a Russian Orthodox funeral chant. The tension gradually increases and fi nally erupts about two-thirds of the way through the move-ment. The opening melody then returns in a rendering that is much more intense than the fi rst time. To the end, the music preserves the unmistakable character of a lament. This movement, marked in the score as Largo (“extremely slow”), was widely understood as a memorial for the Soviet Army Marshal Mikhail Tuk hachevsky, who fell victim to the Great Ter-ror at the very time Shostakovich was working on his symphony. (Tukhachevsky had been a benefactor and a personal friend of the composer’s.) At the fi rst performance, many people wept openly during this movement, perhaps thinking of their own loved ones who had disappeared. The last movement attempts to resolve the enormous tension that has built up in the course of the symphony by in-troducing a march tune that is much more light-hearted than a majority of the earlier themes. Yet after an exciting devel-opment, the music suddenly stops on a set of harsh fortissimo chords, and a slower, more introspective section begins with a haunting horn solo. Musicologist Richard Taruskin has shown that this section quotes from a song for voice and piano on a Pushkin poem (“Vozrozhdenie” or “Rebirth,” Opus 46, No.1), which Shostakovich had written just before the Fifth Symphony. The Pushkin poem intones: “Delusions vanish from my wearied soul, and visions arise within it of pure primeval days.” This quiet inter-mezzo ends abruptly with the entrance of timpani and snare drum, ushering in a recapitulation of the march tune, played at half its original tempo. Merely a shadow of its former self, the melody is elaborated contrapuntally until it suddenly alights on a bright D-major chord in full orchestral splendor — remaining unchanged for more than a minute to end the symphony.

—Peter Laki © 2015Copyright © Musical Arts Association

Shostakovich wrote his Fifth Symphony in 1937. The fi rst performance was given on November 21 of that year as part of the celebration of the 20th anniversary of the October Revolution, with the Leningrad Philharmonic conducted by Yevgeny Mravinsky. The work was introduced to the U.S. by Artur Rodzinski and the NBC Symphony on April 9, 1938. This symphony runs about 45 minutes in per-formance. Shostakovich scored it for piccolo, 2 fl utes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, small clarinet in E-fl at, 2 bassoons, contrabassoon, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion (bass drum, snare drum, tam-tam, cymbals, triangle, glock-enspiel, and xylophone), 2 harps, piano, and strings. The Cleveland Orchestra fi rst presented Shostako-vich’s Fifth Symphony in October 1941 at Severance Hall concerts led by music director Artur Rodzinski. In December 1958, a week-end of performances was conducted by Stanisław Skrowaczewski, who was making his U.S. debut. In August 1985, Maxim Shosta-kovich, the composer’s son, led a performance as part of that summer’s Blossom Music Festival.

At a Glance

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Vladimir Jurowski, conductor

Jean-Efflam Bavouzet, piano

RAVEL Piano Concerto in G majorDEBUSSY Images

RAVEL & DEBUSSY

FEB 5 — Friday at 7 p.m.


Jane Glover, conductor

Joshua Smith, flute

Yolanda Kondonassis, harp

MOZART Concerto for Flute and HarpMOZART Symphony No. 39

ALL MOZART

APR 15 — Friday at 7 p.m.


Andrés Orozco-Estrada, conductor

Kirill Gerstein, piano

RACHMANINOFF Piano Concerto No. 1STRAVINSKY Suite from The Firebird

STRAVINSKY’S FIREBIRD

MAY 6 — Friday at 7 p.m.

3-CONCERTSERIES

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T H R EE G R E AT F R I DAYS AT S E V E R A N C E H A L L

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2015-16 Severance Hall Season

43Summers@Severance

Building Audiences for the Future . . . Today!The Cleveland Orchestra is committed to developing interest in classical music among young people. To demonstrate our suc-cess, we are working to have the youngest audience of any orchestra. With the help of generous contributors, the Orch estra has expanded its discounted ticket off erings through several new programs. In recent years, student attendance has nearly dou-bled, now representing over 20% of those at Cleveland Orchestra concerts. Since inaugu-rating these programs in 2011, over 130,000 young people have participated.

UNDE R 18s FRE E FOR FAMiLIE S

Introduced for Blossom Music Fes-tival concerts in 2011, our Under 18s Free program for families now includes select Cleveland Orchestra concerts at Sever-ance Hall each season. This program of-fers free tickets (one per regular-priced adult paid admission) to young people ages 7-17 on the Lawn at Blossom and to the Orchestra’s Fridays@7, Friday Morning at 11, and Sunday Afternoon at 3 concerts at Severance.

STUDE NT TICKE T PROGRAMS

In the past three seasons, The Cleveland Orchestra’s Student Advantage

Members, Frequent Fan Card holders, Stu-dent Ambassadors, and special off ers for student groups attending together have been responsible for bringing more high school and college age students to Sever-ance Hall and Blossom than ever before. The Orchestra’s ongoing Student Advantage Program provides oppor-tunities for students to attend concerts at Severance Hall and Blossom through discounted ticket off ers. Membership is free to join and rewards members with discounted ticket purchases. A record 7,000 students joined in the past year. A new Student Frequent Fan Card is avail-able in conjunction with Student Advan-tage membership, off ering unlimited single tickets (one per Fan Card holder) all season long. All of these programs are support-ed by The Cleveland Orchestra’s Center for Future Audiences and the Alexander and Sarah Cutler Fund for Student Audi-ences. The Center for Future Audienc-es was created with a $20 million lead endowment gift from the Maltz Family Foundation to develop new generations of audiences for Cleveland Orchestra concerts in Northeast Ohio.

Building Future Audiences

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45Summers@Severance

August 21

H a n d e l ’ s W a t e r M u s i c

Severance Hall — Cleveland, Ohio Friday evening, August 21, 2015, at 7:00 p.m.

T H E C L E V E L A N D O R C H E S T R A NICHOLAS McGEGAN , conductor

GEORGE FRIDERIC HANDEL Water Music: Suite No. 2 in D major(1685-1759) 1. [no tempo indication] 2. Alla Hornpipe 3. Minuet 4. Lentement 5. Bourrée

F. JOSEPH HAYDN Cello Concerto in C major, H.VIIb:1(1732-1809) 1. Moderato 2. Adagio 3. Finale: Allegro molto

MARK KOSOWER, cello

FRANZ SCHUBERT Symphony No. 5 in B- at major, D485(1791-1828) 1. Allegro 2. Andante con moto 3. Menuetto: Allegro molto — Trio 4. Finale: Allegro vivace

August 21: Handel’s Water Music

2 0 1 5



Nicholas McGeganAs he continues in his fourth decade on the podium, British conductor Nicholas McGegan is recognized for his exploration of music from all periods. He fi rst led The Cleveland Orchestra at Severance Hall in February 2007 and, most recently, in Au-gust 2013. Mr. McGegan has served as music di-rector of San Francisco’s Philharmonia Ba-

roque Orchestra for twenty-nine years. He is also principal guest conductor of the Pasadena Sym-phony, and art-ist-in-association with Australia’s Adelaide Sym-phony. He was artistic director of the Interna-tional Handel

Festival 1991-2011. In recent years, he has also participated in residencies at the Juil-liard School and Yale University, and has worked with dancer and choreographer Mark Morris. One of the few baroque specialists to regularly conduct major symphony orchestras, Nicholas McGegan’s North American appearances have included en-gagements with the orchestras of Atlanta, Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia, St. Louis, St. Paul, and Toronto. He has also led concerts with the Göteborg Symphony Orchestra, Hallé Orchestra, Hong Kong Philharmonic, Or-chestre de la Suisse Romande, Royal

Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amster-dam, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, and the Sydney Symphony. He has conduct-ed operatic performances at Sweden’s Drottningholm Theater, London’s Royal Opera House, San Francisco Opera, Santa Fe Opera, and the Washington National Opera. Nicholas McGegan’s extensive dis-cography comprises more than 100 re-cordings with the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra and other performing groups, including albums with the Göttingen Festi-val Opera and Orchestra and the Arcadian Academy. His world-premiere record-ing of Handel’s Susanna with Lorraine Hunt Lieberson earned a Gramophone Award. His recent albums for the Philhar-monia Baroque Productions label include Brahms’s Serenades, Berlioz’s Les Nuits d’été alongside Handel arias with Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, Haydn’s Symphonies Nos. 88, 101, and 104, Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons with violinist Elizabeth Blumenstock, and Handel’s Atalanta. Born in England and educated at Cambridge and Oxford universities, Mr. McGegan’s honors include an honorary de-gree from London’s Royal College of Music, election as an honorary professor of philos-ophy at the Georg-August Universität Göt-tingen, and an honorary doctorate from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. Among other awards, he was named an Offi cer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire and has received the Hallé Handel Prize, Order of Merit of the State of Lower Saxony (Germany), and the Medal of Honor of the City of Göttingen. For further information, visit www.nicholasmcgegan.com.

Conductor

August 21

47Summers@Severance Introducing the Music

B A R O Q U E T O C L A S S I C A L . This fi nal Summers@Severance concert of the sea-son takes us on a journey — from the waterways of London through the Austrian countryside to a youth-infused Viennese ending. Somewhere along the way we lose the more extravagant periwigs and dressing coats of Handel and the Ba-roque era, try on the simpler hair wigs of Haydn’s middle years, and land at the end of the evening in the clear style of Schubert’s own youthful head of hair and his Classical Symphony No. 5. The transition across the hundred years between tonight’s fi rst and last pieces — from 1717 to 1816 — was, of course, not all in hairstyles, fancy breech-es, and waistcoats. The musical ornamentation and dances of the Baroque gave way, decade by decade, to longer forms, clearer formulas, and more challeng-ing expectations. (These, too, would be soon enough dashed, by the Romantic era’s need for exception and invention, from evolution to revolution.) The concert begins with a musical suite from Handel’s immensely popular Water Music. Originally written to entertain King George on a long boatride along the Thames, this music is ideal as outdoor re-freshment to the ears — and nearly irresistible in its sense of energy and interchange. In the middle of the evening, we hear a cello con-certo by Haydn, whose inventiveness within his on-going duties — to compose and rehearse new music every week for his patron — gave this composer an ex-ceptional opportunity to grow and experiment. His Cello Concerto No. 1, performed here by The Cleveland Orchestra’s principal cello, Mark Kosower, demonstrates the composer’s skill, as well as that of the instrumentalists he had at his disposal. Guest conductor Nicholas McGegan closes the concert with a symphony by the 19-year-old Franz Schubert. Clearly anchored in the works of Haydn and Mozart before him, Schubert nonetheless makes this music his own, forming the very personal language and style that would erupt in full force in the ensuing de-cade — and take Schubert across the divide from Classical to Romantic.

—Eric Sellen


Changing Styles, Newer Expectations

August 21

Canaletto’s painting of London’s Lord Mayor’s Day festivities in 1747 — not unlike the aquatic royal journey featuring Handel’s Water Music in 1717.


E X C E P T I N G O N LY the perennial oratorio Messiah, Handel’s Water Music is this composer’s most familiar work. It was cre-ated for a truly royal entertainment, an excursion by barge on the Thames hosted by England’s King George I. Handel’s earliest biographers stated that the composer was in disfavor with the monarch until the composition of the Water Music restored him to His Majesty’s graces. This seems at least plausible. When Handel took up residence in England, in 1712, he still held the post of Kapellmeister, or music director, back at the court of Georg Ludwig, Elector of Hanover. He had obtained leave to visit London with the understanding that he would re-turn to Hanover within a reasonable time. But his rising fortunes in England gave Handel little incentive to leave, and his stay in London became a matter not of weeks or months but of years. We do not know whether the truant Kapellmeister ignored calls to return to Hanover or, indeed, what the state of his rela-tionship with Georg Ludwig was during his prolonged absence from Germany. If, in fact, it was strained, Handel may well have felt some apprehension when, in August of 1714, Queen Anne died without an heir, and the English crown passed to the House of Hanover. His situation might have become acutely uncom-fortable in September of that year, when his nominal employer from Hanover arrived in London as King George I of England. Handel was, supposedly, afraid to appear at court until the King’s delight with the music he produced for a river party in Au-gust 1715 at last eff ected a reconciliation. Although this story has acquired the force of legend, there is little evidence to support it and a good deal to contradict it. George I certainly had more urgent concerns than holding a grudge against a mere composer. Moreover, he attended performances of Handel’s works shortly after arriving in England and readily renewed the stipend Queen Anne had granted the composer before her death. Most important, we have no account of the barge excursion that is supposed to have taken place in 1715. But we do know that much, if not all, of Handel’s Water Music was heard during a river trip on July 17, 1717. From available evidence, this seems to be when much of this music was fi rst played — and it was most likely for this “water party” that the work was written. This occasion in July 1717 has been amply documented

August 21

Water Music: Suite No. 2 in D majorcomposed 1717

by George FridericHANDELborn February 23, 1685Halle, Prussia

diedApril 14, 1759London


in letters and other accounts. One report off ers these details: “Next to the King’s barge was that of the musicians, about fi fty in number, who played on all kinds of instruments. . . . The music had been composed specially by the famous Mr. Handel . . . [and] His Majesty approved of it so greatly that he caused it to be repeated three times in all.” Precisely how Handel grouped the movements that com-prised his aquatic serenade, and in what order, is not known. The Water Music was published in bits and pieces over the course of the next half century. Various factors suggest an arrangement of three suites, and these are used, together or separately, as the accepted norm for presenting this music today. D major is the key most congenial to the valveless trumpet in use during the Baroque period, and Suite No. 2 of Water Music uses that tonality and the bright tone of trumpets to splendid eff ect. (Suite No. 1, in the key of F major, is sometimes called the “horn suite” for its prominent use of that instrument, and the third suite, in G major, substitutes fl utes for horns and trumpets.) The Water Music consists mostly of movements based on dances of the day. These pieces provide a variety of tunes and sonorities, but Handel further enriches the complexion of the work through other types of movements. The overture of the D-major suite consists entirely of elaborate fanfares featuring the brass instruments. The dances that comprise the bulk of the remainder of the suite feature the characteristic rhythms of the minuet, bourrée, and more, all well known to the composer’s listeners. Most of the music is ideally suited for outdoor performance, and one can delight in imagin-ing how it must have sounded to its fi rst audience, fl oating on the Thames on that warm summer evening in 1717.

—Paul Schiavo © 2015

Handel most likely wrote his Water Music in 1717. The fi rst documented perfor-mance took place during a “water party” for King George I on the Thames River, near London, on July 17, 1717. Handel probably directed the musicians, who sat together on a river barge. Suite No. 2 runs about 10 minutes in performance. (The full Water Music of all three suites runs about 45 minutes in performance.) Handel’s score is usually interpreted for a modern orchestra of 1 or 2 fl utes (sometimes with one player doubling on piccolo), 2 oboes, bassoon, 2 horns, 2 trumpets, harpsichord, and strings. Some related wind instruments, such as recorders, were probably used in performances during Handel’s lifetime. The Cleveland Orchestra fi rst presented selections from Handel’s Water Music in November 1967, at con-certs led by Pierre Boulez. A few additional performances have taken place at Sever-ance Hall and, more recently, at Blossom.

A 2005 documentary by BBC Television worked to recreate the “water party” on the River Thames in 1717 that featured the premiere of Handel’s Water Music.

At a Glance


Mark Kosower Principal Cello Louis D. Beaumont Endowed Chair The Cleveland Orchestra

Mark Kosower is a consummate artist equally at home internationally as a recital and concerto soloist and, since 2010, as principal cello of The Cleveland Orchestra. The 2015-16 season features his perfor-mances of the Brahms Double Concerto alongside concertmaster William Preucil in

Miami. Recent and upcoming solo engage-ments include appearances with the orches-tras of Colum-bus, Dayton, Hawaii, India-napolis, and San Jose. He also performed and recorded both of Victor Herbert’s

cello concertos with Belfast’s Ulster Orches-tra under the direction of JoAnn Falletta. Mr. Kosower teaches cello at the Cleveland Institute of Music and is also a faculty member with the Kent/Blossom Music Festival. He is a frequent guest at international chamber music festivals, including Santa Fe, Eastern Music, North Shore Chamber Music, Japan’s Pacifi c Mu-sic Festival, and Colorado’s Strings Music Festival. In past seasons, he has appeared internationally as soloist with the Rot-terdam Philharmonic, Orchestre de Paris, Hong Kong Philharmonic, China National Symphony in Beijing, National Symphony Orchestra of Taiwan, Brazilian Symphony Orchestra, Orquestra Filarmonica de Minas

Gerais in Brazil, and the Orquestra Sinfon-ica de Venezuela, in addition to solo per-formances at the Chatelet in Paris, the Alte Oper in Frankfurt, the Hong Kong Cultural Centre, and the Teatro Municipal in Rio de Janeiro. Other appearances as concerto soloist have included the orchestras of Detroit, Florida, Houston, Milwaukee, Min-nesota, North Carolina, Oregon, Phoenix, Ravinia, Saint Paul, Seattle, and Virginia. An active advocate of 20th and 21st-century music, Mark Kosower has brought lesser-known contemporary masterworks to international attention in recent years, demonstrated by two recent albums on the Naxos label, the fi rst featuring the com-plete cello concertos of Alberto Ginastera (making Kosower the fi rst cellist to record the complete works for solo cello by this composer) and a second album with the world premiere recording of Miklós Rózsa’s Rhapsodie for solo cello and orchestra. Mr. Kosower also recently recorded works by Reger, Strauss, and Eberhard Klemmstein with pianist Jee-Won Oh for the Ambitus la-bel, and has recorded for Delos and VAI. Born in Wisconsin, Mark Kosower be-gan studying cello at the age of one-and- a-half with his father, and later studied with Janos Starker at Indiana University and with Joel Krosnick at the Juilliard School. Mr. Kosower’s many accolades in-clude an Avery Fisher Career Grant, a Sony Grant, and as grand prize winner of the Ir-ving Klein and WAMSO competitions. His previous posts include principal cello of the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra in Ger-many (2006-10), and professor of cello and chamber music at the San Francisco Con-servatory of Music (2005-07).

Soloist

August 21


August 21

O F T H E T H R E E Viennese classical masters, Haydn — who oth-erwise had much less interest in the concerto than either Mozart or Beethoven — was the only one to write works for cello and orchestra. The most likely explanation is that, as Kapellmeister to Prince Nikolaus Esterházy, Haydn worked closely with many excellent instrumentalists in the prince’s orchestra. Concertos were welcome additions to the programs of the twice-weekly musical “academies,” for which so many of Haydn’s symphonies were written. (It should be noted that many of Haydn’s sympho-nies from this period also contain extended, almost concerto-like, instrumental solos.) The Concerto in C major, the fi rst of Haydn’s two cello con-certos, was written about two decades before the once better-known D-major work. For many years, the C-major work was thought to be lost — only its fi rst two measures were known from the handwritten catalog Haydn had kept of his own works. Even more frustrating, the catalog contained not one but two nearly identical incipits (opening measures) for cello concertos in C major. In 1961, Czech scholar Oldrich Pulkert discovered a set of parts in Prague that corresponded to one of the two incipits. The concerto was published and immediately taken up by cellists ev-erywhere. As for the other C-major catalog incipit, it may be a simple mistake (Haydn could well have notated the theme from memory and didn’t remember it exactly) or a discarded variant. On stylistic grounds, scholars have dated the C-major con-certo from between 1762 and 1765; it is certainly an early work, from the fi rst years of Haydn’s three-decade-long tenure with Prince Esterházy, from 1761 to 1790. It also belongs to the tran-sitional period between Baroque and Classicism, whose great-est representative, Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (1714-1788), had a strong infl uence on the young Haydn. The continuity of the rhythmic pulse and the numerous identical repeats of the fi rst movement’s main theme are clear Baroque features, while the shape of the musical gestures points to the emergence of a new style that would later become known as Classicism or Classical. The original cello part shows that the soloist was expect-ed to play along with the orchestra during tutti passages of the whole orchestra, helping to reinforce the bass line. The solo

Cello Concerto in C majorcomposed 1762-65

by F. JosephHAYDNborn March 31, 1732Rohrau, Austria

diedMay 31, 1809Vienna


part itself is extremely demanding, with rapid passagework that frequently ascends to the instrument’s high register. The Adagio second movement, in which the winds are silent, calls for an exceptionally beautiful tone, and the last movement for uncommon brilliance and stamina. Surely the fi rst cellist of Haydn’s orchestra, Joseph Weigl, must have been one of the outstanding players of his time.


Haydn wrote his Cello Concerto in C major between 1762 and 1765. Performances were given during Haydn’s lifetime. The score was not published and, by sometime in the 19th century, no score or parts were known to have survived. In 1961, however, a set of parts was discovered in Prague, and the work quickly entered the standard repertory. This concerto runs about 25 minutes in performance. Haydn scored it for 2 oboes, 2

horns, and strings, plus solo cello. The Cleveland Orchestra fi rst performed Haydn’s C-major Cello Concerto in March 1975 under the direction of Lorin Maazel with Ms-tislav Rostropovich as soloist. Alan Gilbert led the most recent Severance Hall performances, with soloist Truls Mørk, in April 1997. The most recent Blossom performance was with soloist Johannes Moser under Franz Welser-Möst’s direction in July 2007.

JAZZ AT LINCOLN CENTER ORCHESTRAwith WYNTON MARSALIS

TICKETS 216-231-1111 clevelandorchestra.com

FRIDAY AUGUST 28S E V E R A N C E H A L L

At a Glance

About the Music

53Summers@Severance

Schubert completed his Fifth Symphony on October 3, 1816. The fi rst performance, which took place shortly thereafter, was private, given by an amateur orchestra consisting of family and friends of the composer’s. The work was not heard in public until 1841. The Ameri-can premiere took place in 1883, with George Henschel and the Boston Symphony. This symphony runs about 25 minutes in perfor-mance. Schubert scored it for fl ute, 2 oboes, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, and strings.

At a Glance

Symphony No. 5 in B- at major, D485composed 1816

A G E N I N E T E E N , composition number 485. These simple bio-graphical facts about Schubert and his Fifth Symphony are re-peated almost any time someone writes or talks about this work. But what do they really mean? Schubert’s productivity during his late-teenage year is little short of mind-boggling. Especially when we remember that during most of this time he worked as an assistant teacher at his father’s school, and could only compose at night or on Sundays. By 1815-16, after only four or fi ve years of active composing, he was reaching a level of technical perfec-tion second to none, in a voice that was unmistakably his own. Schubert’s fi rst six symphonies, as scholars have never tired of saying, are strongly indebted to the works of Haydn and Mozart, whose symphonies are echoed in quite a few passages. Yet it is one thing to borrow a theme — and quite another to know what to do with it. And Schubert assimilated the borrowed materials so thoroughly that they sound like Schubert and no one else. “Pert,” “lively,” “beautiful,” “delightful,” “lovely,” “simple,” “joyful” — these are just a few of the adjectives that have de-scribed Schubert’s Fifth Symphony. They are all true, yet what is not often emphasized is how much the unique fusion of serenity and gloom, seen in the works of Schubert’s last years, is already in evidence in this relatively early composition. The “lovely” melo-dies are always apt to end with a deceptive cadence, in which a reassuring closure is denied and replaced by an unexpected, of-ten dissonant, harmony. It is like a sunny day that is never entirely free from clouds; but nor do the clouds hide the sun for long. Happiness and melancholy become completely one in the second movement, when the violin and the woodwinds begin a wistful dialog, their voices intertwining and occasionally clashing with one another. The third-movement minuet was clearly in-spired by the one in Mozart’s Symphony No. 40. While Schubert did not imitate the rhythmic complexities of his model, he added a few harmonic twists of his own. The Trio, or middle section, of the movement is in the manner of an Austrian country dance. The fi rst and the last movements combine tender lyricism with moments of high excitement, and a time-honored symphonic form with a 19-year-old’s youthful enthusiasm.


About the Music

August 21

by FranzSCHUBERTborn January 31, 1797Himmelpfortgrund,near Vienna

diedNovember 19, 1828Vienna


NON-RESIDENT TRUSTEES Virginia Nord Barbato (NY) Wolfgang C. Berndt (Austria) Laurel Blossom (SC)

Richard C. Gridley (SC) Loren W. Hershey (DC) Herbert Kloiber (Germany)

Ludwig Scharinger (Austria)

TRUSTEES EX-OFFICIO Faye A. Heston, President, Volunteer Council of Th e Cleveland Orchestra Dr. Patricia Moore Smith, President, Women’s Committee of Th e Cleveland Orchestra Claire Frattare, President, Blossom Women’s Committee

Carolyn Dessin, Chair, Cleveland Orchestra Chorus Operating Committee Beverly J. Warren, President, Kent State University Barbara R. Snyder, President, Case Western Reserve University

PAST PRESIDENTS D. Z. Norton 1915-21 John L. Severance 1921-36 Dudley S. Blossom 1936-38 Thomas L. Sidlo 1939-53

Percy W. Brown 1953-55 Frank E. Taplin, Jr. 1955-57 Frank E. Joseph 1957-68 Alfred M. Rankin 1968-83

Ward Smith 1983-95Richard J. Bogomolny 1995-2002, 2008-09James D. Ireland III 2002-08

RESIDENT TRUSTEES George N. Aronoff Dr. Ronald H. Bell Richard J. Bogomolny Charles P. Bolton Jeanette Grasselli Brown Helen Rankin Butler Scott Chaikin Paul G. Clark Owen M. Colligan Robert D. Conrad Matthew V. Crawford Alexander M. Cutler Hiroyuki Fujita Paul G. Greig Robert K. Gudbranson Iris Harvie Jeffrey A. Healy Stephen H. Hoffman David J. Hooker Michael J. Horvitz Marguerite B. Humphrey David P. Hunt Christopher Hyland Trevor O. Jones

Betsy Juliano Jean C. Kalberer Nancy F. Keithley Christopher M. Kelly Douglas A. Kern John D. Koch S. Lee Kohrman Charlotte R. Kramer Dennis W. LaBarre Norma Lerner Virginia M. Lindseth Alex Machaskee Milton S. Maltz Nancy W. McCann Thomas F. McKee Beth E. Mooney John C. Morley Donald W. Morrison Meg Fulton Mueller Gary A. Oatey Katherine T. O’Neill The Honorable John D. Ong Larry Pollock Alfred M. Rankin, Jr.

Clara T. RankinAudrey Gilbert Ratner Charles A. RatnerZoya ReyzisBarbara S. Robinson Paul RoseSteven M. RossRaymond T. SawyerLuci ScheyHewitt B. Shaw Richard K. SmuckerJames C. SpiraR. Thomas StantonJoseph F. Toot, Jr.Daniel P. WalshThomas A. WaltermireGeraldine B. WarnerJeffery J. WeaverJeffrey M. WeissNorman E. WellsPaul E. Westlake Jr.David A. Wolfort

OFFICERS AND EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE Dennis W. LaBarre, President Richard J. Bogomolny, Chairman The Honorable John D. Ong, Vice President

Norma Lerner, Honorary Chair Hewitt B. Shaw, Secretary Beth E. Mooney, Treasurer

Jeanette Grasselli Brown Matthew V. Crawford Alexander M. Cutler David J. Hooker Michael J. Horvitz

Douglas A. Kern Virginia M. Lindseth Alex Machaskee Nancy W. McCann John C. Morley

Larry PollockAlfred M. Rankin, Jr.Audrey Gilbert RatnerBarbara S. Robinson

THE MUSICAL ARTS ASSOCIATION as of June 2015

operating Th e Cleveland Orchestra, Severance Hall, and Blossom Music Festival

THE CLEVELAND ORCHESTRA Franz Welser-Möst, Music Director Gary Hanson, Executive Director

HONORARY TRUSTEES FOR LIFE Gay Cull Addicott Oliver F. Emerson Allen H. Ford

Robert W. Gillespie Dorothy Humel Hovorka Robert P. Madison

Robert F. MeyersonJames S. Reid, Jr.

Musical Arts Association

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T H E C L E V E L A N D O R C H E S T R A

CONCERTS

Celebra ng Life & Music The Cleveland Orchestra performs all varie es of music, gathering family and friends together in celebra on of the power of music. The Orchestra’s music marks major milestones and honors special moments, helping to provide the soundtrack to each day and bringing your hopes and joys to life.

From free community concerts at Severance Hall and in downtown Cleveland . . . to picnics on warm summer evenings at Blossom Music Center . . .

From performances for crowds of students, in classrooms and auditoriums . . . to opera and ballet with the world’s best singers and dancers . . .

From holiday gatherings with favorite songs . . . to the wonder of new composi ons performed by music’s rising stars . . .

Music inspires. It for es minds and electri es spirits. It brings people together in mind, body, and soul.

Each year, thousandsof Northeast Ohioans experience The ClevelandOrchestra for the rst me.Whether you are a seasoned concertgoer or a rst- mer,these pages give you waysto learn more or get involvedwith the Orchestra and to explore the joys of music further.

Created to serve Northeast Ohio, The Cleveland Orchestra has a long and proud history of sharing the value and joy of music.

To learn more, visit clevelandorchestra.com

PHOTOGRAPHY BY ROGER MASTROIANNI

55Summers@Severance

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EXCELLENCE

Ambassador to the WorldThe Cleveland Orchestra is one of the world’s most acclaimed and sought-a er performing arts ensembles. Whether performing at home or around the world, the musicians carry Northeast Ohio’s commitment to excellence and strong sense of community with them everywhere the Orchestra performs. The ensemble’s es to this region run deep and strong:

Two acous cally-renowned venues — Severance Hall and Blossom — anchor the Orchestra’s performance calendar and con nue to shape the ar s c style of the ensemble.

More than 60,000 local students par cipate in the Orchestra’s educa on programs each year.

Over 350,000 people a end Orchestra concerts in Northeast Ohio annually.

The Cleveland Orchestra serves as Cleveland’s ambassador to the world — through concerts, recordings, and broadcasts — proudly bearing the name of its hometown across the globe.

A FOCUS ON YOUNG PEOPLE

Changing LivesThe Cleveland Orchestra is building the youngest orchestra audience in the country. Over the past ve years, the number of young people a ending Cleveland Orchestra concerts at Blossom and Severance Hall has more than doubled, and now makes up 20% of the audience!

Under 18s Free, the agship program of the Orchestra’s Center for Future Audiences (created with a lead endowment gi from the Maltz Family Founda on), makes a ending Orchestra concerts a ordable for families.

Student Advantage and Frequent FanCard programs o er great deals for students.

The Circle, our new membership program for ages 21 to 40, enables young professionals to enjoy Orchestra concerts and social and networking events.

The Orchestra’s casual Friday evening concert series (Fridays@7 and Summers @Severance) draw new crowds to Severance Hall to experience the Orch-estra in a context of friends and musical explora ons.



57Get Involved

EDUCATION

Inspiring MindsEduca on has been at the heart of The Cleve land Orchestra’s community o erings since the ensemble’s founding in 1918. The arts are a core subject of school learning, vital to realizing each child’s full poten al. A child’s educa on is incomplete unless it includes the arts, and students of all ages can experience the joy of music through the Orchestra’s varied educa on programs.

The Orchestra’s o erings impact . . .

. . . the very young, with programs including PNC Musical Rainbows and PNC Grow Up Great.

. . . grade school and high school students, with programs including Learning Through Music, Family Concerts, Educa on Concerts, and In-School Performances.

. . . college students and beyond, with programs including musician-led master classes, in-depth explora ons of musical repertoire, pre-concert musician interviews, and public discussion groups.

YOUR ORCHESTRA

Building CommunityThe Cleveland Orchestra exists for and because of the vision, generosity, and dreams of the Northeast Ohio commun-ity. Each year, we seek new ways to meaningfully impact Cleveland’s ci zens.

Convening people at free community concerts each year in celebra on of our country, our city, our culture, and our shared love of music.

Immersing the Orchestra in local commun i es with special performances in local businesses and hotspots during our annual “At Home” neighborhood residencies.

Collabora ng with celebrated arts ins tu ons — from the Cleveland Museum of Art and PlayhouseSquare to Chicago’s Jo rey Ballet — to bring inspira onal performances to the people of Northeast Ohio.

Ac vely partnering with local schools, neighborhoods, businesses, and state and local government to engage and serve new corners of the community through neighborhood residencies, educa on o erings, and free public events.


57Summers@Severance

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VOLUNTEERING

Get InvolvedThe Cleveland Orchestra has been supported by many dedicated volunteers since its founding in 1918. You can make an immediate impact by ge ng involved.

Over 100,000 friends of The Cleveland Orchestra par cipate online in our news, concerts, and performances through Facebook and Twi er.

The Women’s Commi ee of The Cleveland Orchestra and the Blossom Women’s Commi ee support the Orchestra through service and fundraising. For further informa on, please call 216-231-7557.

Over 400 volunteers assist concertgoers each season, as Ushers for Orchestra concerts at Severance Hall, or as Tour Guides and as Store Volunteers. For more info, please call 216-231-7425.

300 professional and amateur vocalists volunteer their me and ar stry as part of the professionally-trained Cleveland Orchestra Chorus and Blossom Fes val Chorus each year. To learn more, please call 216-231-7372.

A GENEROUS COMMUNITY

Suppor ng ExcellenceThe Cleveland Orchestra is in the midst of the Sound for the Centennial Campaign, a ten-year ini a ve that seeks to sustain the musical excellence and community engagement that sets this ensemble apart from every other orchestra in the world.

Ticket sales cover less than half the cost of The Cleveland Orchestra’s concerts, educa on presenta ons, and community programs. Each year, thousands of generous people make dona ons large and small to sustain the Orchestra for today and for future genera ons.

Every dollar donated enables The Cleveland Orchestra to play the world’s nest music, bringing meaningful

experiences to people throughout our community — and acclaim and admira on to Northeast Ohio.

To learn more, visit clevelandorchestra.com/donate



Get Involved


GET INVOLVED

Learn MoreTo learn more about how you can play an ac ve role as a member of The Cleveland Orchestra family, visit us at Blossom or Severance Hall, a end a musical performance, or contact a member of our sta .

VISIT Severance Hall

11001 Euclid Avenue Cleveland, OH 44106

Blossom Music Center 1145 West Steels Corners Road Cuyahoga Falls, OH 44223

CONTACT USAdministra ve O ces: 216-231-7300

Ticket Services: 216-231-1111 or 800-686-1141 or clevelandorchestra.comGroup Sales: 216-231-7493

[email protected]

Educa on & Community Programs: 216-231-7355

educa [email protected] Orchestra Archives: 216-231-7356

[email protected]: 216-231-7372

[email protected]: 216-231-7557

[email protected]

Individual Giving: 216-231-7556 [email protected]

Legacy Giving: 216-231-8006 [email protected]

Corporate & Founda on Giving: 216-231-7523

[email protected]

Severance Hall Rental O ce: 216-231-7421

[email protected]

ACTIVE PARTICIPATION

Making MusicThe Cleveland Orchestra passionately believes in the value of ac ve music-making, which teaches life lessons in teamwork, listening, collabora on, and self expression. Music is an ac vity to par cipate in directly, with your hands, voice, and spirit.

You can par cipate in ensembles for musicians of all ages — including the Cleveland Orchestra Chorus, Children’s Chorus, Youth Chorus, and Blossom Fes val Chorus, and the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra.

Each year, the Orchestra brings people together in celebra on of music and events, giving voice to music at community singalongs and during holiday performances.

We partner with local schools and businesses to teach and perform, in ensembles and as soloists, encouraging music-making across Northeast Ohio.

Music has the power to inspire, to transform, to change lives. Make music part of your life, and support your school’s music programs.

59Summers@Severance


H A I L E D A S O N E of the world’s most beau-tiful concert halls, Severance Hall has been home to Th e Cleveland Orchestra since its opening on February 5, 1931. Aft er that fi rst concert, a Cleveland newspaper edito-rial stated: “We believe that Mr. Severance intended to build a temple to music, and not a temple to wealth; and we believe it is his intention that all music lovers should be welcome there.” John Long Severance (president of the Musical Arts Associa-tion, 1921-1936) and his wife, Elisabeth, donated the funds necessary to erect this magnifi cent building. Designed by Walker & Weeks, its elegant Georgian exterior was constructed to harmonize with the classi-cal architecture of other prominent build-ings in the University Circle area. Th e interior of the building refl ects a combina-tion of design styles, including Art Deco, Egyptian Revival, Classicism, and Mod-ernism. An extensive renovation, restoration, and expansion of the facility was completed in January 2000.

11001 Euclid Avenue, Cleveland, Ohio 44106 S E V E R A N C E H A L L . C O M

LATE SEATINGAs a courtesy to the audience members and musicians in the hall, late-arriving patrons are asked to wait quietly until the fi rst convenient break in the program, when ushers will help you to your seats. These seating breaks are at the discretion of the House Manager in consultation with the performing artists.

PAGERS, CELL PHONES, AND WRISTWATCH ALARMSPlease silence any alarms or ringers on pagers, mobile phones, or wristwatches prior to the start of the concert.

PHOTOGRAPHY, VIDEOGRAPHY, AND RECORDINGAudio recording, photography, and videog-raphy are prohibited during performances at Severance Hall. Photographs of the hall and selfi es to share with others can be taken when the performance is not in progress. As courtesy to others, please turn off any phone of device that makes noise or emits light.

IN THE EVENT OF AN EMERGENCYContact 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 RESTRICTIONSRegardless of age, each person must have a ticket and be able to sit quietly in a seat throughout the performance. Cleveland Orchestra subscription concerts are not recommended for children under the age of 8. However, there are several age-appropriate series designed specifi cally for children and youth, including: Musical Rainbows, (recommended for children 3 to 6 years old) and Family Concerts (for ages 7 and older).

THE CLEVELAND ORCHESTRA STOREA wide variety of items relating to The Cleve-land Orchestra — including logo apparel, com-pact disc recordings, and gifts — are available for purchase at the Cleveland Orchestra Store before and after concerts and at intermission. The Store is also open Tuesday thru Friday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Call 216-231-7478 for more information, or visit clevelandorchestra.com.

Severance Hall

61Summers@Severance Violins of Hope

THE CLEVEL AND ORCHESTR A is among more than a half-dozen organizations from across Northeast Ohio who are partnering together this fall to present a collaborative series of events, exhibitions, education presentations and workshops, and musical perfor-mances. The program, titled Violins of Hope, centers around a unique group of violins that were witness to humanity’s perseverance in the face of incomprehen-sible darkness during the Holocaust in Nazi Germany. Noted Israeli master violinmaker Amnon Weinstein has restored and col-lected a group of invaluable instruments, which will be brought to Cleveland in fall 2015 to provide unprecedented educational, cultural, and personal expe-riences. Played before and during the Holocaust, the instruments have been painstakingly restored and serve as testaments to the resilience of the human spirit and the power of music to lift hearts in even the most horrifi c of circum-stances. The full collection includes more than 45 Holocaust-era violins, some with the Star of David on the back and others with names and dates inscribed within the instrument. The violins have been played in concerts around the world, most recently by the Berlin Philharmonic earlier this year. “The opportunity to bring these extraordinary instruments to greater Cleve-land immediately united organizations and individuals across the region,” says Richard Bogomolny, Chairman of the Musical Arts Association (the non-profi t organization that operates The Cleveland Orchestra) and one of the leaders of

Violins of HopeA U T U M N 2 0 1 5

A remarkable collection of instruments comes to Cleveland — witnesses to history, they sound again with resilience and hope . . .


LEAFV I O L I N S O F H O P E

Violins of Hope

the Violins of Hope Cleveland eff ort. “A profound personal story lives within each violin, and together they possess the poten-tial to leave an indelible impact on every person who sees and hears them.” Among highlights of Violins of Hope performances and activities in Cleveland are two special concerts. On Sunday, September 27, a Gala Celebration concert takes place with The Cleveland Orchestra under the direction of music director Franz Welser-Möst, and featur-ing violinist Shlomo Mintz as soloist, with some of the Violins of Hope instruments being played. This special event marks the dedication of the newly-renovated Silver Hall, part of Case Western Reserve’s Milton and Tamar Maltz Performing Arts Center at The Temple-Tifereth Israel. And on October 14, 2015, the Cleve-land Institute of Music Orchestra will present a free community concert at Sev-erance Hall invoking the power of music to inspire new generations and bring people together in peace. The Gala concert in September will be telecast live by ideastream (the re-gion’s nonprofi t public media organiza-tion that includes WVIZ/PBS, 90.3 WCPN, and WCLV 104.9 Classical), who will also develop a half-hour documentary high-lighting Northeast Ohio’s experiences with the project as well as individual sto-ries involving the instruments. Following the Gala concert, the in-struments of Violins of Hope will be fea-tured in a major exhibition at the Maltz Museum of Jewish Heritage, running from October 1 through January 3, 2016. A wide variety of education proj-ects for students and the community are

also planned. The Cleveland Orches-tra’s fall education concerts for students will be centered around the Violins of Hope theme in partnership with the non-profi t group Facing History and Our-selves who will lead a broad education and engagement eff ort for grades 7-12 throughout the autumn in the Cleveland Metropolitan School District, the schools of the Catholic Diocese of Cleveland, and in suburban districts and private schools across Northeast Ohio. Programs, lec-tures, fi lms, exhibitions, adult learning sessions, and performances involving faculty and students from Case Western Reserve University and the Cleveland Institute of Music are also scheduled, with additional events sponsored by a variety of community arts and cultural organizations. Thanks to the vision and generous support of a group of committed com-munity sponsors, Violins of Hope Cleve-land will be a landmark project. This will be only the second time that the violins have been to North Ameri-ca, and the fi rst time that they will be the centerpiece for such a broad spectrum of programming, spanning three months and reaching audiences throughout Northeast Ohio and beyond. For more details about the Violins of Hope project and associated activities and performances, please visit the web-site violinsofhopecle.org.


THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME

OCT 30, 2015

FRI at 8:00 p.m.

Todd Wilson, organ*

Celebrate Halloween with this classic 1923 silent film . . . with accompaniment improvised live by acclaimed organist Todd Wilson. The fully improvised accompaniment features Severance Hall’s mighty Norton Memorial Organ, considered one of the finest concert organs ever built.

*Please note that The Cleveland Orchestra

does not appear on this program.

BACK TO THE FUTURE

DEC 10, 2015

THU at 7:30 p.m.

The Cleveland Orchestra Brett Mitchell, conductor

Power up your DeLorean . . . recharge your flux capacitor . . . and get ready to celebrate the 30th anniversary of an unforgettable movie classic as you’ve never seen and heard it before! Alan Silvestri’s dazzling musical score includes approximately fifteen minutes of brand-new music, all performed by The Cleveland Orchestra.

Back to the Future ™ & © Universal Studios

and U-Drive Joint Venture. All rights reserved.

BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN

APR 26, 2016

TUE at 7:30 p.m.

The Cleveland Orchestra Richard Kaufman, conductor

She’s Alive!!! The 1935 classic horror film with legendary film composer Franz Waxman’s evocative score played live by The Cleveland Orchestra. Starring Colin Clive, Elsa Lanchester, and Boris Karloff.

THREE CLASSIC FILMS WITH LIVE ACCOMPANIMENT

PLUS, SUBSCRIBERS CAN ADD THIS CONCERT TO THEIR SERIES.

HOME ALONE DEC 16, 2015WED at 7:30 p.m.

A true holiday favorite, this beloved comedy classic features renowned composer John Williams’s memorable score performed live by The Cleveland Orchestra. Hilarious and heart-warming, Home Alone is holiday fun for the entire family!Home Alone © 1990 Twentieth Century Fox. All rights reserved.

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The Cleveland Orchestra’s At the Movies series is sponsored by PNC Bank.

TICKETS | 216-231-1111 or clevelandorchestra.com

2015-16 Severance Hall Season

A quiet park comes to life

... WITH INVESTMENT BY CUYAHOGA ARTS & CULTURE

Cuyahoga Arts & Culture (CAC) uses public dollars approved by you to bring arts and culture to every corner of our County. From grade schools to senior centers to large public events and investments to small neighborhood art projects and educational outreach, we are leveraging your investment for everyone to experience.

Visit cacgrants.org/impact to learn more.

Your Investment: Strengthening Community

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