Just announced: How to Train Your Dragon in Concert View more details
100 Points
Apr 30
May 2
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.
conductor/composer/clarinettist
Jörg Widmann is one of the most remarkable and versatile artists of his generation. In the 2025–26 season, he will be performing worldwide in all his facets — as clarinettist, conductor, and composer — which includes assuming the artistic director position of the Lucerne Festival Academy. Widmann is also principal guest conductor of the NDR Radiophilharmonie, associate conductor of the Münchener Kammerorchester, and artistic partner of Sinfonietta Riga.
Following important engagements with the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra and Orquesta y Coro Nacionales de España, Widmann will conduct The Cleveland Orchestra for the first time as well as the Atlanta and Detroit symphony orchestras. Further guest conducting appearances see him work with the Oslo Philharmonic, Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, and Budapest Festival Orchestra.
As a performer, Widmann premieres Olga Neuwirth’s clarinet concerto Zones of Blue with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and Simon Rattle. He also performs chamber music with long-standing partners such as Isabelle Faust, Pierre-Laurent Aimard, and Carolin Widmann at venues including the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Konzerthaus Wien, and Boulez Saal.
Widmann’s compositions are performed regularly by orchestras worldwide such as The Cleveland Orchestra, Wiener Philharmoniker, New York Philharmonic, London Symphony Orchestra, and many others. Widmann was composer in residence with the Berliner Philharmoniker during the 2023–24 season, which culminated in the world premiere of his Horn Concerto with Stefan Dohr as soloist.
Widmann studied clarinet in Munich with Gerd Starke and at The Juilliard School with Charles Neidich. He also studied composition with Kay Westermann, Wilfried Hiller, Hans Werner Henze, and Wolfgang Rihm. Widmann later taught clarinet and composition at the University of Music Freiburg and, since 2017, the Barenboim-Said Academy Berlin.
In June 2024, Widmann was named a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Music. He is also a fellow of the Institute for Advanced Study in Berlin, received an honorary doctorate from the University of Limerick, and was elected president of the International Max-Reger-Society. Widmann’s works continue to receive many awards, including, most recently, the Bach-Preis der Freien und Hansestadt Hamburg.
It was at the suggestion of the conductor of the world premiere, Mariss Jansons, that Jörg Widmann refer to musical characteristics of Beethoven’s Seventh and Eighth symphonies. His starting points primarily are specific fast types of movement in the Beethoven works, which [Widmann] translates into his tonal language. Widmann has chosen the same instrumentation as the Beethoven symphonies and takes up the task of creating a similar “fury and rhythmic insistence” with these economical means.
— Courtesy of Schott Music Group
It is a last dance, a dance that death dances with us, in ever new turns, pirouettes, masquerades — but it always remains death. He threatens and laughs and dances with us to where no one has been before and yet where we all have to go to. His pull and his power must be stronger than we know from any earthly dance — no easy task for a composer, but a fascinating one. Wild and beautiful, terrible and final it should be, this last dance. My Danse macabre has therefore become one of my most important, most intense, and most propulsive orchestral pieces to date. May this dance, even if macabre, bring joy to the orchestra and the audience.
— Jörg Widmann
Composer
A mighty fortress is our God, a bulwark never failing; our helper He, amid the flood of mortal ills prevailing. For still our ancient foe doth seek to work us woe; his craft and power are great, and armed with cruel hate, on earth is not his equal.
And though this world, with devils filled, should threaten to undo us, we will not fear, for God hath willed His truth to triumph through us. The prince of darkness grim, we tremble not for him; his rage we can endure, for lo! his doom is sure; one little word shall fell him.
— Two stanzas from “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God” by Martin Luther (c. 1527)
Jorg Widmann's performance is generously sponsored by Astri Seidenfeld.
Jörg Widmann, a former Daniel R. Lewis Composer Fellow with The Cleveland Orchestra, makes a winning return to Severance to conduct three of his own works — including the US premiere of his wildly propulsive Danse macabre — alongside Mendelssohn’s “Reformation” Symphony, a treasure of the composer’s youth that ends with a stately fantasy on a famous chorale by Martin Luther.
There will be a Concert Preview presentation one hour prior to the performance in Reinberger Chamber Hall with Caroline Oltmanns, Professor of Piano, Youngstown State University.
We offer a variety of concessions before and after the concert, as well as during intermission.
*Donor exclusive lounge areas. Learn more about becoming a donor
Download The NEW Cleveland Orchestra App, and explore upcoming concerts, purchase tickets with seat selection, and manage your tickets digitally. You’ll also get access to performance updates and helpful notifications.
Below is a list of the features and services available in at Severance for this concert. You may also request assistance in advance of a concert by calling the Severance Ticket Office at 216-231-1111 or 800-686-1141 or create a request using the button below.
Jump to: