Franz Welser-Möst, recovering, withdraws from Beethoven cycle
OrchestrasThe Cleveland music director, who has received successful cancer treatment over 15 months, is apparently not quite ready to return for this month’s limelight cycle of Beethoven piano concertos with Igor Levit.
The orchestra has yet to announce his withdrawal, or a replacement.
We wish Franz a full continued recovery.
Stupendous news it has been successful.
Get fully well soon O Franz.
Get well Maestro
Maestro Szell’s Beethoven symphonies set a benchmark. Maestro Dohnanyi’s was also rather excellent. In between these two, Maestro Maazel did his magic!
When will we get a cycle by FWM? The Cleveland Orchestra has always been better than möst.
Wish FWM a full recovery, can’t wait to hear him conduct them at Carnegie in March.
Wasn’t he about to do a cycle of piano concertos? In that case, Szell & Fleisher still are one of best sets ever made. (You also might be the only person to ever write something complimentary about Maazel’s Beethoven symphony set.)
The Maazel Cleveland set of the Beethoven 9 symphonies is available on YouTube. The sound engineering is not advanced compared to the Szell. The performances from the orchestra are superb, but Maazel can get fussy particularly in 3, 5 and the
last movement of 9. The 6th is a tad slow (as was Szell) and this hampers the performance. Symphonies 1,2,4,7,8 and the first 3 movements of the 9th are very good.
Yes, Maazel did his magic in the wrong way
Igor’s chance to start conducting from the keyboard!
I heard Levit has at least cancelled this coming week.
He cancelled both weeks.
No pianist, I guess it’ll be the Beethoven Double Concerto then to start off the cycle.
They could just stream one of Szell’s recordings while he’s gone.
Logically it’d be Thielemann, who has had a long fruitful relationship with Levit and recently recorded with Vienna.
But Most would never have Thielemann guest at Cleveland in a thousand years.
just imagine those two – horreur
I doubt this was a surprise to Cleveland management, but it seems uncharacteristic for them not to announce replacements yet. FWM did conduct in Bavaria a few weeks ago; the review I saw was ho-hum. Meanwhile, by all accounts, Cleveland has gotten off to a stupendous season with guest conductors so far. But there are auditions to be had, and this requires a music director in Cleveland.
Keep going, Franz. Great news about your treatment.
This is not good news. His immunotherapy was supposed to be done by summer. The fact that he is still undertaking it means that the cancer is more aggressive than originally thought.
This is not the time or place to speculate on his health and treatment success. This is a private matter for him and his family. The only comments should be for his full recovery.
Speaking as a cancer survivor, completing treatment and being ready to perform in demanding circumstances are not necessarily close together in time! And things rarely stay on schedule, even when going well.
I wouldn’t jump to any conclusions from what we see here.
Email this afternoon concerning Wed & Thurs concerts:
Franz Welser-Möst will be unable to conduct the upcoming three weeks of performances in Cleveland due to ongoing medical treatment. Following Franz’s cancellation, pianist Igor Levit withdrew from his planned performances. Instead, we have added an exciting line-up of five pianists who will showcase their talents in Beethoven’s complete piano concertos. The series begins this Wednesday and Thursday with Orion Weiss (piano), Augustin Hadelich (violin), and Julia Hagen (cello) performing Beethoven’s Triple Concerto and Sir Stephen Hough playing Beethoven’s Third Piano Concerto. Daniel Reith conducts.