Severance Music Center 2022-23 Classical Season

Mahler's Resurrection

Sep 29 & 30

Some pieces of music are so stirring, so electrifying that audiences are transfixed by their inherent emotional power.

Saint-Saëns Organ Symphony

Oct 7 & 8

Severance’s Norton Memorial Organ shines in this journey from somber contemplation to radiant redemption, which provided a model for none other than Mahler’s “Resurrection” Symphony.

Beethoven’s Eroica

Oct 13-16

When it premiered, Beethoven’s “Heroic” Symphony startled audiences with its length, originality, and the revolutionary way in which the composer pushed the limits of musical conventions without breaking them.

An Alpine Symphony

Oct 20 & 22

Richard Strauss's Alpine Symphony summons an orchestra of well over 100 musicians to depict the majesty of nature in spellbinding relief.

Gerstein Plays Schumann

Oct 27-29

Kirill Gerstein brings his profound intellect and dazzling virtuosity to Schumann’s rhapsodically romantic Piano Concerto.

El Niño

Nov 17-19

“John Adams's nativity oratorio is a winner, a very palpable hit — an intelligent, emotional and sometimes magical re-telling of the old, old story from a new perspective” (BBC).

The Firebird

Nov 25-27

Stravinsky’s Firebird set Paris aflame at its 1910 premiere, catapulting its composer to worldwide fame.

Elgar and Walton

Dec 1-3

Rising piano virtuoso Behzod Abduraimov leads Prokofiev’s notoriously demanding Second Piano Concerto.

Holiday Concerts

Dec 8-18

*These concerts are not included in subscription packages for the 2022-23 Classical Season at Severance.

Home Alone
in Concert

Dec 14

*This concert is not included in subscription packages for the 2022-23 Classical Season at Severance.

Gilbert Conducts Nielsen and Haydn

Jan 5 & 7

The concert opens with principal timpani Paul Yancich as soloist in James Oliverio’s new Timpani Concerto, which was commissioned for him by The Cleveland Orchestra.

Franz Welser-Möst Conducts Schubert

Jan 12-14

Through this fascinating juxtaposition, spanning more than a century, Schubert’s pioneering artistry and Berg’s latent romanticism are brought into illuminating relief.

Boléro

Feb 2-5

It begins softly. A single snare drum. Then, a flute with a sensual melody. Gradually each instrument joins in, one after another, until the entire orchestra is playing in unison though the work’s final tremendous climax.

Mahler’s Fifth

Feb 9 & 11

Mahler called his Fifth Symphony a “foaming, roaring, raging sea of sound.” It begins simply enough, with a lone trumpet fanfare, but quickly explodes into one of music’s most passionate and thrilling symphonies.

Beethoven’s Seventh

Feb 16-18

Beloved conductor Herbert Blomstedt returns to Cleveland for a program of Beethoven and Mozart favorites.

Mozart and Strauss

Feb 23-25

Franz Welser-Möst brings together a feast of musical delights from Central Europe’s rich symphonic history.

Mitsuko Uchida in Recital: Beethoven

Feb 26

One of the most revered artists of our time and a perennial favorite of Cleveland audiences, Mitsuko Uchida is known as a peerless interpreter of Beethoven.

Pictures at an Exhibition

Mar 2-5

The concert begins with a rediscovered masterpiece by pioneering 19th-century female composer Louise Farrenc. Concluding the program is a much-loved classic of the orchestra’s repertoire: Ravel’s opulent orchestration of Mussorgsky’s piano suite Pictures at an Exhibition.

Mozart's Requiem

Mar 9-12

Legends swirl around the creation of Mozart’s Requiem, written on his deathbed and left unfinished. We are nevertheless left with a work of overwhelming power — at once intensely dramatic and deeply personal — that touches the core of our humanity.

West Side Story
in Concert

Mar 17-19

*This concert is not included in subscription packages for the 2022-23 Classical Season at Severance.

The Tempest Symphony

Mar 30 & Apr 1

Shakespeare’s plays have provided a limitless source of inspiration, and this evening pairs two particularly evocative responses to his comedy The Tempest.

Shostakovich’s Fifth Symphony

Apr 6-8

Its unsettling opening movement captures the shifting, uncertain mood of the time, and leads to an exultant finale proclaiming that all is heroic, bright, and beautiful.

Mahler's Titan

Apr 13-16

Mahler wrote, “A symphony should be like the world, it should embrace everything,” and his first symphony is just that.

All Mozart

Apr 21-23

Bernard Labadie, one of today’s finest interpreters of the Classical era, joins the Orchestra and soloist Lucy Crowe to delve into the composer’s astounding genius in song and symphony.

Marsalis
and New World

Apr 27-29

When describing his “New World” symphony, Dvořák said, “I tried to write only in the spirit of those national American melodies,” but his Ninth is clearly an expression of both the Old World and the new.

Weilerstein Plays Barber

May 4-6

Cleveland-born cellist Alisa Weilerstein joins Music Director Franz Welser-Möst to perform Barber’s “lyric and romantic” Cello Concerto, a piece praised for its “Brahms-like grandeur.”

The Girl of the Golden West

May 14-20

Puccini’s The Girl of the Golden West, the operatic equivalent of a spaghetti western, tells the tale of a love triangle between a sultry saloon owner, a carousing constable, and a disguised desperado.

New! Piano Recital Series

3 Concerts

New this season, a piano recital series featuring three world-renowned pianists, Mitsuko Uchida, Vìkingur Ólafsson, and Maria João Pires, arrives at Severance.

Make your year-end gift for music!

Your tax-deductible donation by December 31 helps the Orchestra reach crucial year-end financial goals. Keep the music playing now and into the New Year!