Now Cleveland avoids the UK
NewsThe Cleveland Orchestra, America’s finest on current form, is plannign a Europe tour this summer.
Between August 26 and September 7, the orchestra will play in Berlin, Helsinki, Lucerne, Ansfelden, Bratislava, and Vienna, with music director Franz Welser-Möst and Icelandic star Víkingur Ólafsson playing the Schumann piano concerto.
In normal circumstances, Cleveland would have planned a stop at the Edinburgh Festival or the BBC Proms, or both. But Britain has pinched its arts organisations to the bone and there were not enough funds, or knowhow, to make a stopover work.
So London loses out to Bratislava.
So it goes.
Franz Welser-Möst’s baton technique exhibits a certain reticence and rigidity. Regrettably, the Cleveland Orchestra is not embarking on a tour with a conductor of a different interpretative bent—one who might unlock the ensemble’s inherent fluidity and pristine transparency. There is a growing concern that under his tentative and unassertive musical direction, the orchestra may be gradually relinquishing its historically crystalline sonority.
Nonsense. The orchestra has never sounded better after 20+ years with FW-M. That doesn’t happen despite him.
100 percent agreed!
What and where is this “growing concern”? Should public health authorities be consulted?
Well, even if one agrees with “Not the Same” (and I do not), FWM has only three years and a few months left as Cleveland’s music director, so there’s only a certain amount of further damage (if that’s what one thinks it is) he can do.
Seems to be avoiding Paris and Amsterdam as well, to name just two.
More to your point, he’s flying right over France, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, so skipping the UK is not so unusual.
I suspect that visa issues also played a role.
Yes, visa issues was my first thought. I’m guessing all these other countries have only 1 joint process and the UK has its own.
Also no Prague or Munich. In the three years I lived in Prague you never saw touring orchestras except at Prague Spring. And right between Berlin and Vienna.
“In normal circumstances”??? What is normal? There have been many times that the Clevelanders have visited Europe and not appeared in the UK.
The Cleveland Orchestra planned to visit the UK in 2020 but Covid19 put an end to that. I had booked tickets to see the orchestra at Symphony Hall in Birmingham.
The orchestra does do tours to Europe anyway but it would be great to have a visit to the UK before too long. It is one of the very best.
I’m going to have to go to Cleveland someday.
I lived 40 miles away for 9 years. Alas, I was doing a great deal of business travel over that period, but I got to see the orchestra a fair bit.
I can’t pretend to be quite as big a fan of FW-M as NL is, but there were some splendid performances.
Hope to see you there Guy. Severance Hall is a beautiful facility with great acoustics. And the world caliber Cleveland Art Museum is just down the road.
Hope you do. You would be pleasantly surprised not only by Severance Hall but also by the nearby world class Cleveland museums. and per chance if you are not feeling well, visit the world class Cleveland Clinic hospital. But I hope that would not be necessary. And you may enjoy the view of Lake Erie, a fresh water lake, not to mention Jacobs Field to watch a baseball game and then, if in the mood after attending a concert by the Cleveland Orchestra, visit the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame designed by no less an architect than I. M. Pei.
The excellent Gehry-designed School of Management building at Case Western Reserve University is a few steps away from SH, as well.
They are presumably too expensive. I’d rather pay money as an audience member to see the BBC Symphony or RSNO….
Couldn’t agree more. Far too expensive, arts and music struggling, and we need to support extremely fine orchestras in our country and our opera companies or we lose them.
but FWM is so boring anyway….
Seems like maybe they should try to raise more funds for the places they are avoiding. I am sure there are pockets deep enough in all those cities who would contribute to the cause.
Not in a recession, a cost of living crisis, and people struggling to heat their homes. Inflation may have gone down but prices haven’t.
Regarding the Cleveland Orchestra’s evolution, one observes a shift under Franz Welser-Möst. The Gesamtkunstwerk ideal has led to a more cohesive but less distinctive sound. The first violins lack their former incisive clarity, the second violins and violas have muted their rich textures, and the cellos and double basses resonate with less depth. This homogenization, while fostering unity, detracts from the orchestra’s once unique sonic identity. The ensemble’s tradition of vibrant, characterful sections has given way to a more global, less individualistic orchestral sound.
Didn’t this same website report that Cleveland’s string section is gradually diminishing and the orchestra seems to be in some crisis even if they are still managing to perform? (On other threads they are far from being described as America’s finest).
The orchestra aren’t going to France, Spain, Portugal, Netherlands, Belgium, Ireland, Sweden, Norway nor Denmark either. Perhaps they just wanted to concentrate on a small group of cities and not get too tired out. That’s logical!
and why the implicit sneer at Bratislava? A modest internet search shows that you could keep very busy there going to intriguing-sounding concerts and festivals.
And Bratislava is only a one-hour train ride from Vienna; they can do a run-out.
Has it occurred that this omission could be simply a question of logistics? indeed it is a very complicated procedure to launch an overseas tour.
It’s a real shame that the Cleveland Orchestra are once again, not coming to the UK, but I did hear that the Czech Philharmonic under Jakub Hrůša and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra under Sir Simon Rattle will both be coming to the Proms this year so that’s a plus.