NEWS RELEASE
The Cleveland Orchestra and
Music Director Franz Welser-Möst
announce 2010 Lucerne Residency
and summer tour performances
The Orchestra will perform in Lucerne, Switzerland; Edinburgh, Scotland;
Grafenegg, Austria; and Merano and Stresa, Italy
The world premiere of Toshio Hosokawa’s Woven Dreams,
the fifth in a series of Roche Commissions, takes place at the Lucerne Festival
CLEVELAND, March 18, 2010 – Music Director Franz Welser-Möst and The Cleveland Orchestra will embark on their ninth international tour together, including the Orchestra’s ninth appearance at the Lucerne Festival in Switzerland. The Orchestra performs three programs at the Lucerne Festival, and five concerts in Scotland, Germany, and Italy
Lucerne Festival Residency
Franz Welser-Möst and The Cleveland Orchestra make their fifth appearance together at the Lucerne Festival from August 26-28 with three separate programs. In addition to Debussy’s Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun, Schubert’s Fourth Symphony, Bruckner’s Eighth Symphony, and Strauss’s Ein Heldenleben, the Orchestra, joined by soprano Christine Schäfer, will perform songs by Schubert and Berg’s Suite from Lulu.
An important component of the Orchestra’s Lucerne Residency is the premiere of Roche Commissions. Launched in 2003, Roche Commissions regularly awards commissions for new musical works by outstanding contemporary composers. Roche selects the composer on the basis of recommendations made by the artistic directors of the Lucerne Festival, Carnegie Hall, and The Cleveland Orchestra. The commissioned work is premiered by The Cleveland Orchestra, conducted by Franz Welser-Möst. The following season, the Orchestra performs it at Severance Hall and at Carnegie Hall. This year’s world premiere is Woven Dreams by Toshio Hosokawa. Born in Hiroshima in 1955, Mr. Hosokawa is revered as Japan’s leading composer. He is the music director of the Takefu International Music Festival and a professor at the Tokyo College of Music.
European Tour
Franz Welser-Möst and The Cleveland Orchestra begin the summer 2010 European tour in Edinburgh, Scotland, at the Edinburgh International Festival with two performances at Usher Hall. Founded in 1947, the three-week annual event takes place in six major concert halls and theaters, plus additional smaller venues. On Tuesday, August 17, the program includes three short works by Ives, including two organ solos, Variations on “America,” and Postlude in F, to be played by Joela Jones, the Principal Keyboardist of The Cleveland Orchestra. These works surround From the Steeples and the Mountains, performed by members of the Orchestra. The program concludes with Bruckner’s Eighth Symphony.
The second program in Edinburgh, on Wednesday, August 18, includes Korngold’s Prelude to Act II and “Mariettas Lied” from Die tote Stadt, Berg’s Suite from Lulu, and Brahms’s Symphony No. 2. American soprano Laura Aikin will join the Orchestra in Korngold’s aria and the Suite from Lulu.
The Cleveland Orchestra debuts at the Grafenegg Music Festival on Friday, August 20, with a program of Schubert’s Fourth Symphony and Richard Strauss’s Ein Heldenleben. The festival, begun in 2007, is in a park on the grounds of the historic fairytale-like Grafenegg Castle in lower Austria. Both a modern open-air stage with a pavilion and a concert hall were built recently to provide world-class venues for the festival. More than 10 international orchestras will perform at the Grafenegg Music Festival this season, including the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Marinsky Orchestra, and the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra.
On Tuesday, August 24, The Cleveland Orchestra repeats the Grafenegg Music Festival program for the opening of the Merano Festival. Near Switzerland, Merano sits in a basin of the Alps. The festival, a month long, began in 1986 with chamber music performances, and is now visited by leading international orchestras.
The tour concludes with a performance at the Stresa Festival in Italy on the banks of Lake Maggiore. The program is Schubert’s Symphony No. 4 and Strauss’s Ein Heldenleben. Founded in 1961, the Stresa Festival presents symphonic concerts, chamber music, solo recitals, and opera. Concerts are presented all summer at unique venues including churches and palaces. The Orchestra will perform in the Palazzo dei Congressi on August 29.
Sponsorship and Funding
The Cleveland Orchestra thanks Raiffeisenlandesbank Oberösterreich and Tele München Group for their ongoing support of the Orchestra’s electronic media projects and European radio and TV broadcasts. The Cleveland Orchestra’s European touring is supported by The Cleveland Orchestra’s European Advisory Board. International tours of The Cleveland Orchestra are supported by the Frances Elizabeth Wilkinson International Touring Fund.
***
Cleveland Orchestra Residencies
Franz Welser-Möst and The Cleveland Orchestra have achieved high-profile residencies in the United States and in Europe, including ongoing biennial residencies at the Lucerne Festival and at the Musikverein in Vienna. Mr. Welser-Möst and the Orchestra have performed throughout Europe and Canada and have toured the U.S. from coast to coast, including regular performances at Carnegie Hall. In January 2007, they began an unprecedented long-term residency project in Miami, Florida, where they perform annually at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts of Miami-Dade County and provide a wide array of community and educational activities. In the 2010-11 season the Orchestra holds its first academic residency at Indiana University, and a biennial residency with New York’s Lincoln Center Festival begins in 2011.
***
Press Contact: Ana Papakhian, (216) 231-7476, US mobile (216) 370-2595 anap@clevelandorchestra.com
.gif)
2010 LUCERNE RESIDENCY and EUROPEAN TOUR PERFORMANCES
AUGUST 17 – 29, 2010
EDINBURGH, SCOTLAND
Tuesday, August 17, 2010, at 8:00pm
Usher Hall
Franz Welser-Möst, conductor
Joela Jones, organ
Ives: Variations on “America” (organ solo)
Ives: From the Steeples and the Mountains
Ives: Postlude in F (organ solo)
Bruckner: Symphony No. 8
EDINBURGH, SCOTLAND
Wednesday, August 18, 2010, at 8:00pm
Usher Hall
Franz Welser-Möst, conductor
Laura Aikin, soprano
Korngold: Prelude to Act II of Die tote Stadt
Korngold: “Mariettas Lied” from Die tote Stadt
Berg: Suite from Lulu
Brahms: Symphony No. 2
GRAFENEGG, AUSTRIA
Friday, August 20, 2010, at 7:15pm
Wolkenturm
Franz Welser-Möst, conductor
Schubert: Symphony No. 4 (“Tragic”)
Strauss: Ein Heldenleben
MERANO, ITALY
Tuesday, August 24, 2010, at 8:30pm
Kursaal
Franz Welser-Möst, conductor
Schubert: Symphony No. 4 (“Tragic”)
Strauss: Ein Heldenleben
LUCERNE, SWITZERLAND
Thursday, August 26, 2010, at 7:30pm
KKL Luzern, Konzertsaal
Franz Welser-Möst, conductor
Christine Schäfer, soprano
Schubert: Symphony No. 4 (“Tragic”)
Schubert/Reger: “Gretchen am Spinnrade”
Schubert/Reger: “Nacht und Träume”
Schubert/Liszt: “Die junge Nonne”
Berg: Suite from Lulu
LUCERNE, SWITZERLAND
Friday, August 27, 2010, at 7:30pm
KKL Luzern, Konzertsaal
Franz Welser-Möst, conductor
Bruckner: Symphony No. 8
LUCERNE, SWITZERLAND
Saturday, August 28, 2010, at 6:30pm
KKL Luzern, Konzertsaal
Franz Welser-Möst, conductor
Debussy: Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun
Hosokawa: Woven Dreams – WORLD PREMIERE
Strauss: Ein Heldenleben
STRESA, ITALY
Sunday, August 29, 2010, at 8:30pm
Palazzo dei Congressi
Franz Welser-Möst, conductor
Schubert: Symphony No. 4 (“Tragic”)
Strauss: Ein Heldenleben
A Brief History of The Cleveland Orchestra
Under the leadership of Music Director Franz Welser-Möst, The Cleveland Orchestra has become one of the most sought-after performing ensembles in the world. In concerts at its winter home at Severance Hall and at each summer’s Blossom Festival, in residencies from Miami to Vienna, and on tour around the world, The Cleveland Orchestra sets standards of artistic excellence, creative programming, and community engagement.
The Cleveland Orchestra’s educational programs, a cornerstone of the Orchestra’s original mission, have introduced nearly four million Cleveland-area schoolchildren to symphonic music since 1921. During the 2009-10 season, the Orchestra launched a Community Music Initiative that begins with orchestral performances led by Franz Welser-Möst in Cleveland Metropolitan School District public schools. Designed to provide greater access to orchestral music for more of Northeast Ohio’s citizens than ever before, the Community Music Initiative introduces new programs throughout the year for students from preschool through high school. The Severance Hall season closes in June 2010 with a free retrospective concert celebrating the tenth anniversary of the Daniel R. Lewis Young Composer fellowships, featuring new works created through this ongoing program.
The partnership with Franz Welser-Möst, which begins its ninth season in September 2010, has earned The Cleveland Orchestra unprecedented residencies in the United States and in Europe, including one at the Musikverein in Vienna – the first of its kind by an American orchestra. The Orchestra returned to Vienna during the 2009-10 season for its fourth Musikverein Residency as part of a nine-concert tour. The Orchestra regularly appears at European festivals, including an ongoing series of biennial residencies at the Lucerne Festival (featuring Roche Commissions, a project involving the Orchestra, the Festival, and Carnegie Hall). In the United States, Mr. Welser-Möst and the Orchestra have toured from coast to coast, including regular appearances at Carnegie Hall, and in January 2007 began an unprecedented long-term residency project in Miami, Florida, where they perform annually at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts of Miami-Dade County and provide a wide array of community and educational activities. In addition, the 2009-10 season marks the announcement of a residency at New York’s Lincoln Center Festival that starts in 2011 and will feature The Cleveland Orchestra in Vienna State Opera productions.
The Cleveland Orchestra was founded in 1918 by a group of local citizens. It has been led by seven music directors (Nikolai Sokoloff 1918-33, Artur Rodzinski 1933-43, Erich Leinsdorf 1943-46, George Szell 1946-70, Lorin Maazel 1972-82, Christoph von Dohnányi 1984-2002, and Franz Welser-Möst 2002-present), and one musical advisor (Pierre Boulez 1970-72). Expansion to a year-round schedule was made possible in 1968 with the opening of Blossom Music Center, an outdoor facility in nearby Cuyahoga Falls that is home to the Orchestra’s Blossom Festival. Today, touring, residencies, radio broadcasts, and recordings available by internet download and on DVD and CD provide access to the Orchestra’s music-making to a broad and loyal constituency around the world.
Franz Welser-Möst
Music Director
Kelvin Smith Family Endowed Chair
The Cleveland Orchestra
Franz Welser-Möst is in his eighth year as Music Director of The Cleveland Orchestra. His long-term commitment extends to the Orchestra’s centennial in 2018. Under his direction, the Orchestra holds residencies in the United States and Europe, champions living composers, partners with Northeast Ohio public schools and conservatories, and has re-established itself as an operatic ensemble. Concurrently with his post in Cleveland, Mr. Welser-Möst becomes General Music Director of the Vienna State Opera in the autumn of 2010.
Under Mr. Welser-Möst’s leadership, The Cleveland Orchestra holds ongoing residencies at Vienna’s famed Musikverein hall and Switzerland’s Lucerne Festival, along with an annual Miami Residency. In 2011, Mr. Welser-Möst and the Orchestra launch a biennial residency at New York’s Lincoln Center Festival, which will feature The Cleveland Orchestra in Vienna State Opera productions.
Under Franz Welser-Möst, The Cleveland Orchestra has presented eleven world and fourteen United States premieres. In 2009, Mr. Welser-Möst led a Zurich Opera production of The Marriage of Figaro at Severance Hall. He and The Cleveland Orchestra continue the Mozart/Da Ponte operas in Cleveland with Mozart’s Così fan tutte in 2009-10 and Don Giovanni in 2010-11.
Recent and upcoming international engagements include a new production of Wagner’s Ring cycle with stage director Sven-Eric Bechtolf at the Vienna State Opera. During the 2009-10 season, Mr. Welser-Möst leads additional Ring performances, as well as Wagner’s Tannhäuser and Parsifal, with the Vienna State Opera. In the summer of 2009, Franz Welser-Möst appeared with the Vienna Philharmonic at the Salzburg Festival, the BBC Proms, and the Lucerne Festival. He also conducted the Berlin Philharmonic at the 2009 Salzburg Easter Festival.
Following his 1989 American debut and prior to his appointment in Cleveland, Mr. Welser-Möst regularly guest-conducted the orchestras of Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Los Angeles, New York, and Philadelphia. Mr. Welser-Möst was music director of the London Philharmonic from 1990 to 1996. Across his decade-long tenure with the Zurich Opera, culminating in three seasons as General Music Director (2005-08), Mr. Welser-Möst led more than 40 new productions. In the 2009-10 season, he led Strauss’s Die Frau ohne Schatten and Mozart’s Così fan tutte in Zurich.
Mr. Welser-Möst’s recordings and videos have won the Gramophone Award, Diapason d’Or, Japanese Record Academy Award, and two Grammy nominations. Mr. Welser-Möst has led The Cleveland Orchestra in video recordings of live performances of the Bruckner Symphonies Nos. 5, 7, and 9. Mr. Welser-Möst and The Cleveland Orchestra released a recording of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony on Deutsche Grammophon in 2007.
Mr. Welser-Möst has been recognized by the Western Law Center for Disability Rights and is an honorary member of the Vienna Singverein. Musical America named him the 2003 Conductor of the Year. Mr. Welser-Möst is the co-author of Cadences: Observations and Conversations, which was published in a German edition in 2007.
