Severance Music Center 2023-24 Classical Season

Amadeus

Sep 21-24

Amadeus is a screen triumph, a sumptuous period epic, a soaring celebration of the music of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. “About as close to perfection as movies get.” --USA  Today

Trifonov
Plays Brahms

Sep 28 & Oct 1

“Without question the most astounding pianist of our age.” — The Times. 

Tchaikovsky’s Second Symphony

Oct 5-7

Tchaikovsky considered Ukraine a second home and refuge and he began work on this symphony that creatively incorporates Ukrainian folk songs.

Mahler's Song of the Night

Oct 12 & 13

“Armed with his dark, handsome baritone he unveiled multiple layers of meaning in every song, every stanza and occasionally, in a single line”— The Financial Times.

Hannigan Conducts Strauss

Nov 9-11

Embodying music with an unparalleled dramatic sensibility, soprano and conductor Barbara Hannigan is an artist at the forefront of creation. 

Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto

Nov 24-26

Tchaikovsky’s lushly romantic violin concerto is filled with soaring melodies and gypsy rhythms and showcases the composer’s lyric genius. 

Mahler’s Fourth Symphony

Nov 30 - Dec 2

Mahler’s Fourth Symphony paints an uplifting picture of earthly afterlife, a child’s vison of heaven as a place filled with earthly delights and tuneful melodies.

Tchaikovsky's Romeo & Juliet

Dec 7 & 9

Always a favorite of Cleveland audiences, the Labèques return to perform the Martinů’s tour de force concerto for two pianos.

The Miraculous Mandarin

Jan 11-13

The Miraculous Mandarin is a sumptuous, erotic ballet telling a fantastical tale of a girl forced to act as a decoy by thugs, luring a wealthy mandarin to his tragic fate.

Modern Classicist: Welser-Möst Conducts Prokofiev 5 & 2

Jan 17 & 18

“[The Fifth Symphony is] the greatest musical event in many, many years. The greatest since Brahms and Tchaikovsky! It is magnificent! It is yesterday, it is today, it is tomorrow.” — Time

Beethoven’s Fateful Fifth

Feb 9-11

“Fate knocking at the door.” Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony opens with perhaps the four most famous notes in all of music. Revolutionary in its time, it is now perhaps the best-known piece of music in history. 

Ravel’s Mother Goose

Feb 15 & 17

Themes of nostalgia, childhood, and the passage of time abound in this whimsical concert, which concludes with Ravel’s enchanting ballet score.

Beethoven’s Pastoral

Feb 22-25

Inspired by the countryside, in Beethoven’s “Pastoral,” his most programmatic symphony, you can hear the rolling of thunder, a joyous country dance, and the calling of a shepherd’s pipes.

Kanneh-Mason Plays Schumann

Feb 29 - Mar 2

Isata Kanneh-Mason drew popular and critical acclaim when her debut album “Romance – the Piano Music of Clara Schumann” rocketed to No. 1 on the UK classical charts.

Brahms’s Fourth Symphony

Mar 7-9

The piccolo takes an unusual solo turn when the Orchestra’s principal piccolo, Mary Kay Fink, performs a work commissioned for her from Zehavi.

Levit Plays Mozart

Mar 14, 16 & 17

Igor Levit, called “one of the essential artists of our time” (The New York Times) returns to Cleveland after his astounding debut.

Sibelius’s Second Symphony

Mar 21-23

With its rich, sweeping melodies and powerful brass chorales, the Second Symphony has become one of Sibelius’s most famous works.

City Noir

Apr 4 & 6

Inspired by the peculiar ambience and mood of Los Angeles ‘noir’ films, Adams' City Noir contrasts with the more pastorale mood of this concert’s opening works.

Elgar’s Cello Concerto

Apr 11-13

Called “the fast rising star of conducting” Klaus Mäkelä returns to conduct a program highlighting the works of British conductors.

Yuja Wang Plays Ravel & Stravinsky

Apr 18-20

Critics around the world are praising Yuja Wang for her “impressive virtuosity and poise” (Boston Globe), and she has thrilled audiences worldwide with her “superhuman keyboard technique with artistic eloquence that is second to none” (San Francisco Chronicle).

Rachmaninoff’s Second Piano Concerto

Apr 26-28

Rachmaninoff wrote of his Second Piano Concerto, “What I try to do when writing down my music is to make it say simply and directly what is in my heart.”

Lang Lang Plays Saint-Saëns

May 2 & 4

“The hottest artist on the classical music planet” (The New York Times) superstar Lang Lang plays sold-out concerts in continents of the globe; he returns to Cleveland to perform Saint-Saëns most popular concerto.

Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique

May 3 matinee

The Cleveland Orchestra's Music Director, Franz Welser-Möst, conducts Symphonie fantastique.

Mozart’s Gran Partita

May 23 & 25

Mozart’s serenade for winds was taken from obscurity to immortality in the movie as Salieri is transfixed by his introduction to the composer’s music.

Mozart’s Magic Flute

May 16 - 26

One of the greatest operas ever written, Mozart’s timeless classic is about the search for truth and reason, love and enlightenment, the human and the supernatural.

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