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The Cleveland Orchestra, under the leadership of Franz Welser-Möst since 2002, is one of the most sought-after performing ensembles in the world. Year after year, the ensemble exemplifies extraordinary artistic excellence, creative programming, and community engagement. In recent years, The New York Times has called Cleveland “the best in America” for its virtuosity, elegance of sound, variety of color, and chamber-like musical cohesion.
Founded by Adella Prentiss Hughes, the Orchestra performed its inaugural concert in December 1918. By the middle of the century, decades of growth and sustained support had turned the ensemble into one of the most admired around the world.
The past decade has seen an increasing number of young people attending concerts, bringing fresh attention to The Cleveland Orchestra’s legendary sound and committed programming. More recently, the Orchestra launched several bold digital projects, including the streaming platform Adella.live and its own recording label. Together, they have captured the Orchestra’s unique artistry and the musical achievements of the Welser-Möst and Cleveland Orchestra partnership.
The 2025–26 season marks Franz Welser-Möst’s 24th year as Music Director, a period in which The Cleveland Orchestra has earned unprecedented acclaim around the world, including a series of residencies at the Musikverein in Vienna, the first of its kind by an American orchestra, and a number of celebrated opera presentations.
Since 1918, seven music directors — Nikolai Sokoloff, Artur Rodziński, Erich Leinsdorf, George Szell, Lorin Maazel, Christoph von Dohnányi, and Franz Welser-Möst — have guided and shaped the ensemble’s growth and sound. Through concerts at home and on tour, broadcasts, and a catalog of acclaimed recordings, The Cleveland Orchestra is heard today by a growing group of fans around the world.
piano
Beatrice Rana has been shaking up the classical music world, arousing admiration from concert presenters, conductors, critics, and audiences around the world.
In the 2023–24 season, Rana tours Europe with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe and Antonio Pappano, the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, and the Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg. She debuts with the Berlin Philharmonic and The Cleveland Orchestra, and will return to the New York Philharmonic with Manfred Honeck.
Rana’s 2017 recording of J.S. Bach’s Goldberg Variations was praised by reviewers worldwide, received Gramophone’s Young Artist of the Year award, and was named “Discovery of the Year” at the Edison Awards. Rana’s 2019 album of works by Stravinsky and Ravel was also awarded several prizes including Diapason d’Or de l’Année and Choc de l’Année Classica in France. In 2023 she released her fifth album featuring Clara and Robert Schumann’s concertos with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe and Yannick Nézet-Séguin. Rana’s latest album was released in March 2024, featuring works by Beethoven and Chopin.
In 2017, Rana started her own chamber music festival, Classiche Forme, in her native town of Lecce, Puglia. The festival has become one of Italy’s major summer events. She became artistic director of the Orchestra Filarmonica di Benevento in 2020.
Rana won second prize and the Audience Award at the prestigious Van Cliburn Competition in 2013. She attracted international attention in 2011, at age 18, when she won first prize at the Montreal International Competition. In June 2018, she was chosen as Female Artist of the Year at the Classic BRIT Awards at the Royal Albert Hall for her recording of Bach’s Goldberg Variations.
Born to a family of musicians, Rana began her musical studies at age 4 and made her orchestral debut at age 9. She received her piano degree at the Nino Rota Conservatory of Music under the guidance of Benedetto Lupo. Rana later studied with Arie Vardi in Hannover and again with Lupo at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia. She is based in Rome.
Ms. Rana records exclusively for Warner Classics. More information on Beatrice Rana can be found at beatriceranapiano.com. Management for Beatrice Rana: Primo Artists, New York, NY (primoartists.com)
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Composer
At the age of 48, despite his growing international fame, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky was constantly plagued by self-doubt. Early in 1888, he went on a three-month European tour, conducting his own works with some of the world’s finest orchestras. He was feted in Leipzig, Paris, London, and Prague, and made the acquaintance of Dvořák, Grieg, and Mahler.
Tchaikovsky’s private life, however, was not free from turmoil. His sister Alexandra and his niece Vera were both seriously ill, and one of his closest friends, Nikolai Kondratyev, had recently died. It must have been hard to escape the thought that life was a constant struggle against Fate, which appears as a hostile force attempting to thwart all human endeavors.
After his return from abroad, Tchaikovsky decided to write a new symphony, his first in 10 years. Characteristically, the first sketches of the new work, made on April 15, 1888, include a verbal program portraying an individual’s reactions in the face of immutable destiny, involving stages of resignation, challenge, and triumph:
Introduction. Complete resignation before Fate, or, which is the same, before the inscrutable predestination of Providence. Allegro. (1) Murmurs of doubt, complaints, reproaches against XXX. (2) Shall I throw myself in the embraces of faith??? A wonderful program, if only it can be carried out.
Tchaikovsky never made this program public, however, and in one of his letters even went out of his way to stress that the symphony had no program. Clearly, the program was an intensely personal matter to him, in part because he was reluctant to openly acknowledge his homosexuality, which seemed to him one of the hardest manifestations of the Fate he was grappling with. Many people believe that the unnamed, mysterious “XXX” in the sketch stands for homosexuality. In his diaries, Tchaikovsky often referred to his homosexuality as “Z” or “That.”
What, if anything, are we to make of all this? Should we listen to Tchaikovsky’s Fifth as a program symphony about Fate and Destiny? How concerned should we be about thoughts the composer never wanted to divulge, especially those regarding his sexual orientation?
It seems clear that the “program” Tchaikovsky sketched had a deep influence on his thinking during the time he was writing the Fifth Symphony — without it, the symphony would not be what it is. Perhaps most particularly, the opening theme — the “Fate theme” — would probably not return so ominously in all four movements.
At the same time, the “program” is insufficient to explain the finished work, in part because the “meaning” of other themes throughout the symphony is unclear. Moreover, Tchaikovsky had already written a “Fate” symphony — the Fourth — for which a more detailed program survives. And the similarities of the two programs do little to explain the great differences between the two works. (The program of the Fourth is also problematic, for no sooner had Tchaikovsky written it down in a letter to his patroness, Nadezhda von Meck, than he declared it to be hopelessly “confused and incomplete.”)
As for the question of Tchaikovsky’s feelings and desires, while we shouldn’t be too preoccupied with a composer’s most private thoughts, we probably can’t ignore them completely either — especially because there is ample evidence to suggest that Tchaikovsky was both unable and unwilling to separate his extramusical preoccupations from his composing.
The four movements of Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony are linked by a common theme, often played by the brass instruments and apparently symbolizing the threatening power of Fate. English musicologist Gerald Abraham noted that this theme was taken almost literally from an aria in Mikhail Glinka’s opera A Life for the Tsar.
The Fate theme is first heard in the Andante introduction of the first movement, soon to be followed by a more lyrical, lilting idea as we move into the faster Allegro tempo. Even with the change of melody, the accompaniment of the Fate motif remains present as a stern reminder. The entire first movement swings back and forth between lyrical and dramatic moments. We would expect it to end with a final climax. Instead, the volume gradually decreases to a whisper, and the mysterious last measures are scored for the lowest-pitched instruments in the orchestra — bassoons, cellos, basses, and timpani.
The second movement is lyrical and dreamlike, suggesting a brief respite from the struggle. The first horn plays a beautiful singing melody, eventually joined by the full orchestra. A second idea, in a slightly faster tempo, is introduced by the clarinet. Soon, however, an intense crescendo begins, culminating in a fortissimo entrance of the Fate theme. The movement’s opening theme returns, again interrupted by Fate; only after this second dramatic outburst does the music finally find its long-desired rest.
The third movement is a graceful waltz, with a slightly more agitated middle section. Again we expect a respite from the Fate theme and the emotional drama it represents. Yet before the movement is over, there is a short reminder, subdued yet impossible to ignore, in the clarinets and bassoons.
In the fourth-movement Finale, Tchaikovsky seems to have taken the bull by the horns. The Fate theme dominates the entire movement, despite the presence of several contrasting themes. At the end of a grandiose development section, the music comes to a halt. At some performances over the years, audience members have mistakenly thought that the symphony was over at this point and started applauding. The final resolution, however, is yet to come, in the form of a majestic reappearance of the Fate theme and a short Presto section in which all “doubts, complaints, and reproaches” are cast aside. Against all odds — or is it simply humanity’s optimistic desires? — the symphony receives the triumphant ending we’ve all been listening for.
— Peter Laki
Peter Laki is a musicologist and frequent lecturer on classical music. He is a visiting associate professor of music at Bard College.
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