The Cleveland Orchestra

Birth : , Cleveland, Ohio, USA

History

The Cleveland Orchestra, based in Cleveland, is one of the five American orchestras informally referred to as the "Big Five". Founded in 1918 by the pianist and impresario Adella Prentiss Hughes, the orchestra plays most of its concerts at Severance Hall. As of 2020, the music director is Franz Welser-Möst. In October 2020 The New York Times called it "America's finest [orchestra], still," and in 2012 Gramophone Magazine ranked the Cleveland Orchestra number 7 on its list of the world's greatest orchestras.

Movies

The Cleveland Orchestra Centennial Celebration

Bruckner: Symphony No. 7

Franz Welser-Möst conducts the Cleveland Orchestra live at Severance Hall, Cleveland, September, 2008. Also included is an introduction by Welser-Möst.

Johannes Brahms - Violin Concerto Symphony No. 4 (Julia Fischer)

Brahms’ rousing Academic Festival Overture and Violin Concerto op. 77 bear witness to a composer at the height of his abilities, a mature master of large-scale masterpieces. The Violin Concerto demands extreme technical proficiency. As if to exemplify this, violinist Julia Fischer gears herself from the very start of this emotionally searing work to maintaining a restrained yet passionate tone.

Johannes Brahms - Piano Concerto No.1,2 (Yefim Bronfman)

Yefim Bronfman has the uncanny ability to play large without stridency, to handle the most delicate passages without losing presence, and to play everything in between with a ravishing sense of tonal colour. In the Second Piano Concerto Welser-Möst and Bronfman brought pulsing energy to the concerto’s second movement, setting up an oasis of calm for the third that segued immediately into the genial finale, whose last chords were nearly obliterated by roars of approval from the audience. Laced into his forceful performance of Piano Concerto No. 1 was a surprising element of fury, as if the pianist had become unhinged momentarily: and yet Bronfman was also wholly present, taking time in relaxed passages to savour every second.

Johannes Brahms - Symphony No.1, 2 & 3 (The Cleveland Orchestra)

Brahms Symphonies 1-3. In 2014, Franz Welser-Möst conducts the Cleveland Orchestra in Symphony No. 1 at the Royal Albert Hall, London and Symphonies 2 and 3 at the Musikverein Golden Hall, Vienna. This disc is also available as part of a box set with Brahms' most famous symphonic works. Symphony 1 directed for TV Director by Jonathan Haswell; Symphonies 2 and 3 directed for TV by Brian Large. Herbert G. Kloiber was Producer.