What the Critics Are Saying
A collection of recent reviews of The Cleveland Orchestra.
From the Orchestra’s 2011 Lincoln Center Festival Residency:
“Mr. Welser-Möst comes from Linz, Austria, Bruckner’s hometown, and his devotion to this music was palpable. . . . In the Fifth Symphony, the stretches of the Adagio where the music turns two tiered, with ostinato figures in the lower strings and a wafting melody in the violins, were exquisitely rendered. Mr. Welser-Möst brought structural shape to the run-on scherzo, which is not easy. His account of the elusive, iconoclastic finale, which somehow merges complex fugues with a sprawling sonata form, was exhilarating.”
—The New York Times, July 2011
“On Sunday afternoon . . . the Ninth Symphony revealed Bruckner at his most forward-looking. The score itself is emotionally tumultuous and daring harmonically, and the performance, another glorious effort under Welser-Most, only amplified these qualities. That the audience sat silent for several seconds before erupting into applause after the Finale was almost no surprise, given the severity of the journey just completed. But Saturday’s performance of Bruckner’s Symphony No. 8 was in a class by itself, one of those special occasions when conductor and orchestra are in perfect alignment. Every gesture was infused with uncommon zest, from the pounding cascades of the Scherzo to the Adagio’s glimmering harps and shattering climax. Just as the orchestra in the Finale always held one new emotional level in reserve, so did the entire reading sound both surprising and inexorable.”
—The Plain Dealer, Cleveland, July 2011
“The performance moved naturally and inexorably, feeling neither unduly padded nor overlong. Mr. Welser-Möst’s feel for Bruckner’s sound and idiom was evident in lucid balances, well-judged tempos and a keen sense of how to shape phrases naturally. Other conductors have milked from this work a greater impression of mysticism; Mr. Welser-Möst’s knack is to let Bruckner provide his own best testimony. The orchestral playing was transcendently beautiful, with warm, burnished strings and radiant, weighty brass chorales that were particularly breathtaking. A roaring ovation rang out at the end, undiminished for more than five minutes.”
—The New York Times, July 2011
From the Orchestra’s 2010 Asia Tour and Tokyo Residency:
“Eight years after Welser-Möst first assumed his post as conductor, the combination seems today to be going perfectly. Starting from the dreamy soft tones of the principal flautist in Debussy’s Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun . . . the stage was set from the beginning in the Cleveland Orchestra style. The themes were presented all the more clearly through Welser-Möst’s delicate direction, leading the audience into the dreams of the slumbering faun.”
—Mainichi Shimbun, Tokyo, November 2010
“The sound of the orchestra was also thoroughly refined. The inner voices that provide subtle flavors and the vivid tonal colors of the woodwinds could be heard with real clarity.”
—Hokkaido Shimbun, Sapporo, November 2010
“The performance of Bruckner’s Symphony No. 7 in the second half was singularly outstanding. . . . Under Welser-Möst’s direction, there were no rough or uncouth sounds to be heard anywhere in this “rustic” score. Even the first movement, which is like a great river, had a chamber-music-like precision throughout, and was soft and beautiful. What’s more, the second main theme in the second movement, which continues that mood, was sung gently, with slim lines, raising a delicate beauty that is not heard in ordinary Bruckner performances.”
—Mainichi Shimbun, Tokyo, November 2010
“The Cleveland Orchestra performed in Seoul Arts Center. They showed a refreshed interpretation of Bruckner. Commonly Bruckner’s work is considered as sacred music, but Welser-Möst presented a new point of view about Bruckner’s Seventh Symphony by bringing out vivid tempos and solid expression. . . . The Cleveland Orchestra showed great insight into the music of Bruckner through this concert.”
—Yeonhap News, Seoul, November 2010
From the Orchestra’s 2010 European Festivals Tour:
“The orchestra negotiated Berg’s opaque harmonies in a way that made the music sound not just staggeringly beautiful but also effortlessly joined-together — a feat seldom achieved by the Clevelanders’ European peers. Their Brahms Second Symphony might seem old-fashioned to some ears, but it worked on its own terms: technically flawless, exceptionally well-blended, yet full of luminous touches from individual sections and section principals. . . . The orchestra itself is the star.”
—The Financial Times (London), August 2010
“The Cleveland Orchestra proved that they are still one of the world’s great musical beasts. With Franz Welser-Möst conducting, this titanic piece reverberated alike in the Usher Hall and in the souls of the audience.”
—The Wall Street Journal, August 2010
“A gorgeous, sumptuously phrased performance of Brahms’s Symphony No. 2”
—The New York Times, August 2010
“Their reputation as one of the world’s great ensembles is richly deserved.”
—The Guardian (London), August 2010
“The Austrian Welser-Möst led his ensemble in perfect rhythm and tempo, and infused the whole work with great radiance in sound and expression.”
—Daily News of the Dolomites, August 2010
“There is hardly any better constellation for Bruckner’s music. . . . The performance left a deep impression for
the audience.”
—Volksblatt (People’s News), August 2010
“These professionals developed all the details of this brilliant composition . . . and allowed the audience to revel in the elements, used by the composer, of romance, impressionism and the color of sound.”
—News of Upper Austria, August 2010
