saturday July 12BEETHOVEN’S SEVENTHThe Cleveland OrchestraAsher Fisch, conductorIsabelle Faust, violin

2O14BLOSSOMMUSIC FESTIVALS U M M E R H O M E O F

THE CLEVELAND ORCHESTRA

Thanks to the richness of Cleveland’s cultural heritage and the excellence of The Cleveland Orchestra,

literally millions of men, women and children have experienced such a dawn… and it is unforgettable.

We are:Hyster ® and Yale® forklift trucks

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Hyster-Yale Materials Handling, Inc.

3Blossom Music Festival

Saturday evening, July 12, 2014, at 8:00 p.m.

T H E C L E V E L A N D O R C H E S T R A ASHER FISCH , conductor

RICHARD WAGNER Overture to The Flying Dutchman(1813-1883)

FELIX MENDELSSOHN Violin Concerto in E minor, Opus 64(1809-1847) 1. Allegro molto appassionato — 2. Andante — 3. Allegretto ma non troppo — Allegro molto vivace

ISABELLE FAUST, violin

I N T E R M I S S I O N

LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN Symphony No. 7 in A major, Opus 92 (1770-1827) 1. Poco sostenuto — Vivace 2. Allegretto 3. Presto 4. Allegro con brio

Program: July 12

2O14BLOSSOMMUSIC FESTIVAL

This concert is sponsored by Hyster-Yale Materials Handling, Inc. , a Cleveland Orchestra Partner in Excellence.

Isabelle Faust’s appearance with The Cleveland Orchestra is made possible by a gift to the Orchestra’s Guest Artist Fund from The Hershey Foundation.

This concert is dedicated to Mr. and Mrs. Gerald A. Conway in recognition of their extraordinary generosity in supportof The Cleveland Orchestra’s 2013-14 Annual Fund.

Media Partner: The Plain Dealer

4 The Cleveland OrchestraAbout the Music

T H R O U G H O U T his early years as a composer and conductor, Richard Wagner’s life was hectic but not unusual. He was but one of many talented musicians trying to fi nd his share of fame and fortune. Like so many others’, his fi nancial state was oft en precarious. His extravagant expenditures were oft en quite at odds with the small incomes he managed to obtain each year. His marriage, in 1836, to the actress Minna Planer was ill-suited from the start. Th eir travails together were augmented by Richard’s erratic jealousy (not without some foundation in her fl irting ways) and his nearly annual shift ing from one pro-vincial conducting appointment to another. With a brief and fi nancially draining tenure as music direc-tor for the theater at Riga in Russia coming to an end, Wagner decided to escape (quite literally) his debt and gamble his future on Paris, the cultural capital of Europe. He and Minna secretly slipped across the border to Prussia (his passport had been im-pounded by creditors) and set sail from Pillau on July 19, 1839, as the only passengers (along with their huge Newfoundland dog named Robber) on a small German cargo ship bound for England across the Baltic and North Seas. What should have been an eight-day fair-weather crossing lasted over four weeks in incident aft er onslaught of bad weather and foul seas. Yet the extended storm-tossed voyage, complete with shel-tering nights of unscheduled refuge along Norway’s southern coast, was not without profi t for Wagner’s fertile mind. Wagner later described how the entire frightful experience etched in his mind an operatic scheme on the tale of the “Flying Dutch-man.” Th e legend was well-known along coastal areas of North-ern Europe and had already been fi ctionalized in a variety of publications, including Heinrich Heine’s Memoirs of Herr von Schnabelewopski of 1834. Aft er a brief stay in London, the Wagners travelled on to Paris, where they stayed for almost three years, trying to change Richard’s fortune by securing a commission to write an opera. During this time, without any promises for production, he completed two operas: Rienzi and then Th e Flying Dutchman. While in Paris, Wagner did make passing acquaintance with several of the day’s most famous composers and musical personalities, including Berlioz, Liszt, and Meyerbeer. With

Overture to The Flying Dutchmancomposed 1841

by RichardWAGNERborn May 22, 1813Leipzig

died February 13, 1883Venice

5Blossom Festival 2014

his spending as usual out-of-sync with income, he also spent several weeks in debtors’ prison. While writing Th e Flying Dutchman, he also later claimed to have sold the very idea of writing an opera on this seafaring story to the Paris Opéra. Th e Opéra, however, utilized a French team to do the actual writ-ing; the resulting opera opened to lackluster reviews in 1842 and promptly sank beneath the waves of history. Wagner completed his own Flying Dutchman in late 1841, writing the overture last as a musical overview of ideas and themes. And then, suddenly, his vision of himself began to come true. Th e opera house in Dresden wanted to stage Rienzi, and Wagner happily slipped away from “the cursed cultural capital of Europe” to oversee the production. Th e popular success of Rienzi, an overcharged story of Italian treachery and betrayal, helped convince the Dresden Opera to ask for Wagner’s next opera. Little did they know that as he wrote Th e Flying Dutchman Wagner’s ideas of what opera music should be had begun to diverge from the accepted models of 19th-century opera. Th e arias and duets and cho-ruses of the conventionally formed Rienzi were disappearing in Wagner’s mind toward one long, seamless fl ow of dramatic music. Wagner originally conceived and wrote Th e Flying Dutch-man in one long act, without intermissions. To help elicit a production, he later divided it up with “convenient” act breaks, stretching some of the material and including traditional musi-cal divisions — resulting in what at least appeared to be arias and chorus numbers, but which in reality sometimes fl owed together without giving audiences their accustomed breaks to applaud and talk between numbers. Th us, while early audi-ences found the power of this new music compelling or at least daring, they also fussed about how far from normal Wagner the composer was drift ing. His gradual success in winning over critics and audiences as his art and craft matured would become one of the great success stories of the 19th century — and one of music history’s biggest turns toward a new direc-tion. Th e Flying Dutchman marks the initial swing, with the boldness of its music evident from the opening measures.

T H E M U S I C Th e Overture to Th e Flying Dutchman opens with “hol-low” fi ft hs in the strings, a chord waiting for its identity in ei-

The Overture to Wagner’s

Flying Dutch-

man opens

with “hollow”

fi fths in the

strings, a

chord waiting

for its identity

in either

minor or major

— just as

the character

of the Dutch-

man exists

without his

soul, waiting

between life

and death.

About the Music

5Blossom Festival 2014

his spending as usual out-of-sync with income, he also spent several weeks in debtors’ prison. While writing Th e Flying Dutchman, he also later claimed to have sold the very idea of writing an opera on this seafaring story to the Paris Opéra. Th e Opéra, however, utilized a French team to do the actual writ-ing; the resulting opera opened to lackluster reviews in 1842 and promptly sank beneath the waves of history. Wagner completed his own Flying Dutchman in late 1841, writing the overture last as a musical overview of ideas and themes. And then, suddenly, his vision of himself began to come true. Th e opera house in Dresden wanted to stage Rienzi, and Wagner happily slipped away from “the cursed cultural capital of Europe” to oversee the production. Th e popular success of Rienzi, an overcharged story of Italian treachery and betrayal, helped convince the Dresden Opera to ask for Wagner’s next opera. Little did they know that as he wrote Th e Flying Dutchman Wagner’s ideas of what opera music should be had begun to diverge from the accepted models of 19th-century opera. Th e arias and duets and cho-ruses of the conventionally formed Rienzi were disappearing in Wagner’s mind toward one long, seamless fl ow of dramatic music. Wagner originally conceived and wrote Th e Flying Dutch-man in one long act, without intermissions. To help elicit a production, he later divided it up with “convenient” act breaks, stretching some of the material and including traditional musi-cal divisions — resulting in what at least appeared to be arias and chorus numbers, but which in reality sometimes fl owed together without giving audiences their accustomed breaks to applaud and talk between numbers. Th us, while early audi-ences found the power of this new music compelling or at least daring, they also fussed about how far from normal Wagner the composer was drift ing. His gradual success in winning over critics and audiences as his art and craft matured would become one of the great success stories of the 19th century — and one of music history’s biggest turns toward a new direc-tion. Th e Flying Dutchman marks the initial swing, with the boldness of its music evident from the opening measures.

T H E M U S I C Th e Overture to Th e Flying Dutchman opens with “hol-low” fi ft hs in the strings, a chord waiting for its identity in ei-

The Overture to Wagner’s

Flying Dutch-

man opens

with “hollow”

fi fths in the

strings, a

chord waiting

for its identity

in either

minor or major

— just as

the character

of the Dutch-

man exists

without his

soul, waiting

between life

and death.

About the Music

6 The Cleveland Orchestra

ther minor or major — just as the character of the Dutchman exists without his soul, waiting between life and death. In the midst of this, we hear the motif of the Dutchman himself, cursed along with his crew to sail the seas forever, dead by day and alive at night, and allowed to come ashore just once every seven years in search of a faithful woman who can redeem him by being true in love, to the point of dying for him. Th is opening music, like a storm threatening on the ho-rizon, soon quiets for the soothing theme of Senta’s second-act ballad. Here is the central musical theme of the opera — and the overture — representing the true woman’s love (which, if we read the ballad’s words, is a bit maniacal and over-the-top, but opera is nothing if not overcharged with emotion and de-votion). Th e remainder of the overture sets forth, in a straight-forward manner, much of the action of the opera. Th e storm suddenly overwhelms us with sheets of rain and dashing waves — and the Dutchman’s ship sails aggressively into view. Th e ship, however, seems strangely unaff ected by the violent storm surrounding it, and we soon hear the jaunty chanting melody of the sailors onboard. (Wagner claimed that he devised this tune from a chant actually sung by the sailors on his ship cross-ing the windswept North Sea.) Th e Dutchman’s musical theme is then intermingled with the rising storm, over which we can still hear brief echoes of the sailors’ chant as well as other motifs from the opera. Fol-lowing a rather conventional passage sequencing up the scale (more like Italian bel canto opera, which Wagner loved, than the seamless composer he later became), the storm is calmed by Senta’s ballad, this time capped with the opera’s redemption motif. Shortly thereaft er we hear Senta’s running leap into the sea — true even to her death — and the mariner’s soul is saved in one of Wagner’s eloquent trademark phrases, arching grace-fully to radiant resolution on a glowing D-major chord.

—Eric Sellen © 2014

Eric Sellen currently serves as Th e Cleveland Orchestra’s program book editor.

Wagner wrote the libretto and composed the music for his opera The Flying Dutchman (“Der fl iegender Holländer”) between May and November 1841. The work’s fi rst performance was given at the Dresden Opera on January 2, 1843, under Wagner’s direction. This overture runs about 10 minutes in performance. Wagner scored it for piccolo, 2 fl utes, 2 oboes, english horn, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trom-bones, tuba, timpani, harp, and strings. The Cleveland Orchestra fi rst performed the Overture to The Flying Dutchman in March 1921, conducted by Nikolai Sokoloff . The Orchestra played it quite frequently over the next fi fty years — most notably at a special concert in Febru-ary 1924 conducted by the composer’s son, Siegfried Wagner, as part of an Ameri-can conducting tour to raise funds toward reopening his father’s Bayreuth Festspiel-haus. The Orchestra’s most recent performance of this overture was at Blossom in 2007.

At a Glance

About the Music

7The Cleveland Orchestra About the Music

O N E O F T H E C O R N E R S T O N E S of the concerto repertoire, the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto is one of the most beloved symphonic works ever written. At age 35, Mendelssohn could already look back on an international career of a decade and a half. He had been able to turn his fortunate personal situ-ation to advantage and fully enjoy the benefi ts of a privileged family background (his father was a wealthy banker who was able to provide him with the best education and even put an orchestra at his disposal to play his early works). Since 1837, Mendelssohn was himself happily married and was, by 1844, the father of four. His fi rst name, Felix (Latin for “happy”), ap-peared to be a good omen for his life. (No one could then have predicted Mendelssohn’s tragic death only three years later.) Th is concerto was a gift of friendship to a musician par-ticularly close to Mendelssohn’s heart. Mendelssohn had known Ferdinand David (1810-1873) since boyhood, and shortly aft er he took over the directorship of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Or-chestra, he invited the violinist to be his concertmaster. (Da-vid was to hold this position for 37 years, serving long aft er Mendelssohn’s death.) David shared with Mendelssohn many of the adminis-trative duties at the orchestra. Th ey also frequently performed chamber music together, with Mendelssohn at the piano. Men-delssohn’s fondness for David can be seen from this passage from a letter written to the violinist: “I realize that there are not many musicians who pursue such a straight road in art un-deviatingly as you do, or in whose active course I could feel the same intense delight that I do in yours.” Th is was written in 1838, the year Mendelssohn made the fi rst sketches for the Violin Concerto. Other commitments, however, prevented him from completing the work until 1844; the concerto remained one of his last symphonic compositions (followed only by the oratorio Elijah). Th e concerto seems perfectly to refl ect the composer’s sunny disposition. In this work, as elsewhere in Mendelssohn’s music, Romantic passion is always tempered by Classical restraint, and tender lyrical feelings are balanced by light, even humorous mo-ments. Violinistic virtuosity goes hand in hand with a depth of expression achieved only by the greatest masters.

Violin Concerto in E minor, Opus 64composed 1838-44

by FelixMENDELSSOHNborn February 3, 1809Hamburg

diedNovember 4, 1847Leipzig

8 2014 Blossom FestivalAbout the Music

One of Mendelssohn’s most innovative touches comes at the very beginning of the concerto, where he dispensed with the usual orchestral exposition and introduced the solo instrument, with a soaring melody, immediately at the outset. Th e violin re-mains the center of attention throughout the entire work, with only a few tutti sections where the soloist doesn’t play. In another striking departure from the norms, the move-ments of the concerto are played without pause. It wasn’t the only time Mendelssohn had the movements of his larger works played with no breaks (he had done the same earlier, in the “Scottish” Symphony), but in the concerto he inserted short connecting passages between the movements. Aft er the fi rst movement, a single note held by a solo bassoon provides a link to the beautiful Andante, and a brief melodic passage serves as a bridge between the second and third movements. Th e speed of this latter passage, scored for solo violin and string orches-tra, is halfway between the preceding slow and subsequent fast tempos. Th e various moods and sentiments — those of the passionate fi rst, the lyrical second and the graceful third movements — all fl ow directly from one another, instead of presenting them as separate entities. Th e written-out cadenza of the fi rst movement (which may be, at least in part, by David), is also more strongly inte-grated into the movement than was the case in earlier concertos. Mendelssohn moved it from its traditional place at the end of the movement to the middle, making it grow organically out of the development section and resolve just as naturally in the recapitulation. Nor does the cadenza end when the orchestra re-enters; it continues while the fl ute, the oboe, and the fi rst violins play the main theme — another example of the kind of seamless transition between sections that was so important to Mendelssohn. Th e charge, oft en repeated in the past, that Mendelssohn was a conservative whose music contains no sig-nifi cant innovations, rests on a serious misconception.

—Peter LakiCopyright © Musical Arts Association

Peter Laki, a visiting associate professor at Bard College, is a musicologist and frequent lecturer on classical music.

Mendelssohn made the fi rst sketches for his Violin Concerto in 1838, but the actual composition took place largely in 1844. It was fi rst performed on March 13, 1845, at a concert of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orches-tra, with Ferdinand David as soloist and conducted by Niels Gade. This concerto runs about 30 minutes in performance. Mendelssohn scored it for an orchestra of 2 fl utes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bas-soons, 2 horns, 2 trumpets, timpani, and strings, plus the solo violin. The work’s three movements are played without pause. The Cleveland Orchestra fi rst performed Mendels-sohn’s Violin Concerto in November 1919, under Niko-lai Sokoloff and with violinist Toscha Seidel. Since that time, it has been presented regularly, played by some of the most well-known soloists of the day, including Yehudi Menuhin, Isaac Stern, Pin-chas Zukerman, Itzhak Perl-man, Midori, Sarah Chang, and Christian Tetzlaff , as well as by several of the Orches-tra’s concertmasters.

At a Glance

9Blossom Festival 2014

Isabelle FaustGerman violinist Isabelle Faust is known for her artistry, technique, and interpretive instincts. She is making her Cleveland Orchestra debut with this evening’s concert. Ms. Faust performs regularly across Europe and in North America. Her concerto appearances have included engagements with the orchestras of Berlin, Boston, Cologne, Hannover, Hamburg, London, Munich, Netherlands, Paris, and Stuttgart, with the Salzburg Camerata and Mozarte-um Orchestra, and with the various orchestras of the BBC throughout the United Kingdom. Isabelle Faust began violin lessons at age fi ve, and as a teenager studied with Denes Zsigmondy and Christoph Pop-pen. In 1987 she won the International Leopold Mozart Competition of Augsberg. In 1990, the city of Rovigo awarded her its Premio Quadrivio Prize, and in 1993 she received fi rst prize in the Paganini Competition of Genoa. She made her United States debut in 1995 with the Utah Symphony Orchestra.  Ms. Faust is keenly interested in historical technique and also an advocate of new music. She has given premiere performances of works by Werner Egk, Michael Jarrell, Th omas Larcher, Olivier Messiaen, and Jörg Widmann. She is a proponent of works by Morton Feldman, György Ligeti, Luigi Nono, and Giacinto Scelsi, as well as of forgotten and neglected pieces such as André Jolivet’s Violin Concerto. As a recitalist and chamber musician, Isabelle Faust has performed throughout Europe, Israel, Japan, and the United States, and at the festivals of Bad Kissingen, Berlin, Colmar, Delft , Lanaudière Canada, Lockenhaus, Lyon, Rheingau, Sarasota, Schleswig-Holstein, and Schwetzingen. Her musical partners include Pierre-Lau-rent Aimard, Bruno Canino, Bruno Giuranna, Clemens Hagen, Stephen Isserlis, Boris Pergamenschikov, and Joseph Silverstein. Also among Ms. Faust’s regular collaborators in performances and record-ings is pianist Alexander Melnikov. Th eir Harmonia Mundi album of the complete Beethoven sonatas received the Echo Klassik Award, Gramophone Award, and a Grammy Award nomination. Isabelle Faust’s discography also includes works by Bach, Bartók, Dvořák, Haydn, Janáček, Schumann, and Szymanowski, which have received many nominations and prizes, including the Diapason d’Or, Diapason d’Or de l’Année, and the Japanese Record Academy Award. Isabelle Faust performs on the 1704 “Sleeping Beauty” Stradivarius violin, on loan to her from Germany’s L-Bank Baden-Württemberg. She currently serves as a violin professor at the Berlin University of the Arts.

Soloist

10 The Cleveland Orchestra

I C A N D I S T I N C T LY remember the day I heard Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony for the fi rst time. I was about 5 or 6 years old, and a recording with Arturo Toscanini and the NBC Sym-phony was being played on the radio. I was completely mes-merized by the performance, and when the fourth movement began, I jumped to my feet and started to dance. A dozen years later, I learned about Richard Wagner’s de-scription of this symphony as the “apotheosis of the dance,” and although I wasn’t sure what an apotheosis was, I could certainly agree that dance was at the center of what this symphony was all about. Even later, I became acquainted with other attempts by 19th-century writers to capture the work’s essence — invoking political revolutions, military parades, masquerade balls, Bac-chic orgies, and more. Finally, about 25 years aft er my fi rst en-counter with the symphony, I read Maynard Solomon’s excellent book on Beethoven, in which this musicologist-author shows how all these fanciful interpretations are really variations on a single theme, that of the “carnival or festival, which, from time immemorial, has temporarily lift ed the burden of perpetual sub-jugation to the prevailing social and natural order by periodically suspending all customary privileges, norms, and imperatives.” In other words, generations of listeners have felt that Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony is a wild celebration of life and freedom. While the Ninth Symphony is a fi erce struggle with fate that is won only when the “Ode to Joy” is intoned, from the start the Seventh radiates joy and happiness that not even the second movement — which has come to be called a funeral march — can seriously compromise.

T H E M U S I C Th e dance feelings associated with the work fi nd their explanation in the fact that each of the four movements is based on a single rhythmic fi gure that is present almost without in-terruption. (Only the third movement has two such fi gures, one for the initial Scherzo section and one for the central Trio.) In the fi rst movement, we see how the predominant rhythm gradually comes to life during the transition from the lengthy slow introduction to the fast tempo. Everyone who has ever heard rock music knows how

Symphony No. 7 in A major, Opus 92composed 1812

by Ludwig vanBEETHOVENborn December 16, 1770Bonn

diedMarch 26, 1827Vienna

About the Music

11Blossom Festival 2014 About the Music

intoxicating the constant repetition of simple rhythmic pat-terns can be. Th at’s part of what Beethoven did here, but he did much more — against a backdrop of continually repeated dance rhythms, he created an endless diversity of melodic and harmonic events. Th ere is a strong sense of cohesion as the melodies fl ow from one another with inimitable spontaneity. At the same time, harmony, melody, dynamics, and orchestra-tion are all full of the most delightful surprises. It is somewhat like riding in a car at a constant (and rather high) speed while watching an ever-changing, beautiful landscape pass by. Th e fi rst movement starts with the most extended slow introduction Beethoven ever wrote for a symphony. It presents and develops its own thematic material, linked to the main theme of the “Allegro” section in a passage consisting of multiple repeats of a single note — E — in the fl ute, oboe, and violins. Among the many unforgettable moments of this movement, I would single out two: the oboe solo at the beginning of the re-capitulation (which has no counterpart in the exposition) and the irresistible, gradual crescendo at the end that culminates in a fortissimo (“extremely loud”) statement of the movement’s main rhythmic fi gure. Th e second-movement “Allegretto” in A minor was the section in the symphony that became the most popular from the day of the premiere — it was so successful, judged by audi-ence applause and shouting, that it was repeated immediately at the fi rst performance. Th e main rhythmic pattern of this movement was used in Austro-German church litanies of the 18th and 19th centuries. Th e same pattern is so frequent in the music of Franz Schubert that it is sometimes referred to as the “Schubert rhythm.” Th e “Allegretto” of Beethoven’s Sev-enth combines this rhythm with a melody of a rare expressive power. Th e rhythm persists in the bass even during the con-trasting middle section in A major. We know this movement has a secret because of a pas-sage in one of Beethoven’s conversation books (which contain remarks addressed to the deaf composer). Th e composer’s sec-retary, Anton Schindler, wrote: “We have to show all this in the complete edition, because nobody would be looking for these things.” Th e secret may have to do with the mysterious wind chord that opens and closes the movement (it is a so-called 6-4 chord, which normally is not allowed to stand by itself because it is so startling without chords that follow). However, because

Beethoven wrote his Seventh Symphony in 1812. He con-ducted the fi rst performance on December 8, 1813, at a special concert at the Univer-sity of Vienna. The Seventh Symphony was published in 1816 with a dedication to Count Moritz von Fries, a Viennese nobleman and longtime patron. This symphony runs about 35 minutes in performance. Beethoven scored it for 2 fl utes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, 2 trumpets, timpani, and strings. Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony crept into The Cleveland Orchestra’s reper-toire. The second move-ment was played by itself in November 1919, at the “First Popular Concert” of the Orchestra’s second season. The fi rst performance of the entire symphony at a Cleve-land Orchestra subscription concert was not by the Orchestra itself, but by the La Scala Orchestra of Milan, conducted by Arturo Tosca-nini, on February 2, 1921, in the “New” Masonic Hall. The Cleveland Orchestra played the entire Symphony for the fi rst time in April 1922 with music director Nikolai Sokoloff conducting. It has been played frequently on Orchestra concerts since that time.

At a Glance

12 The Cleveland OrchestraAbout the Music

the conversation books did not record Beethoven’s replies, we may never know exactly what the secret was or even if it was in any way connected with that chord. Th e third-movement “Scherzo” is the only one of the sym-phony’s movements where the basic rhythmic patterns are grouped in an unpredictable, asymmetrical way. Th e joke (which is what the word Scherzo literally means) lies in the fact that the listener is never quite sure what will happen in the next moment. For some moments of respite, the movement’s middle Trio section returns to regular-length periods. In another innovative move, Beethoven expands the traditional Scherzo-Trio-Scherzo structure by repeat-ing the Trio a second time, followed by a third appearance of the Scherzo. And then, near the end, ever joking, Beethoven leads us to believe that he is going to start the Trio over yet another time! But we are about to be doubly surprised: fi rst when the by-now fa-miliar Trio melody is suddenly transformed from major to minor; and second when, with fi ve quick tutti strokes, the entire orchestra ends the movement abruptly, as if cut off in the middle. In the fourth-movement “Allegro con brio,” the exuberant feelings reach their peak as one glorious theme follows another over an unchanging rhythmic pulsation. Th e dance reaches an almost superhuman intensity (and that, incidentally, is the meaning of the Greek word “apotheosis,” literally, “becoming God-like”). Th is is a movement of which even Sir Donald Francis Tovey, the most cel-ebrated British musical essayist of the fi rst half of the 20th century, had to admit: “I can attempt nothing here by way of description.” We are fortunate that music can speak for itself.

—Peter LakiCopyright © Musical Arts Association

Like us on facebook: facebook.com/clevelandorchestra

Follow us on twitter: @clevelandorchestra

THE CLEVELAND ORCHESTRA

13Blossom Festival 2014 Conductor

Asher FischEarlier this year, Israeli conductor Asher Fisch became principal conductor and artistic advisor of the West Australian Symphony Orchestra in Perth. He also continues as principal guest conductor of the Seattle Opera, where he conducted its quadrennial cycle of Wagner’s Ring of the Nibelung in 2013. He is making his Cleveland Orchestra debut with this evening’s concert. Now a seasoned conductor in both the operatic and symphonic worlds, Mr.

Fisch began his career as Daniel Barenboim’s assistant and kapellmeister at the Berlin State Opera. He returns there regularly and this past season led performances of operas by Puccini, Richard Strauss, Verdi, and Wagner.  He also served as music director of the New Israeli Opera 1998-2008, and the Vienna Volksoper 1995-2000. Since his United States debut with the Los Angeles Op-era in 1995, Asher Fisch has appeared at the Houston Grand Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Metropolitan Opera, and San Francisco Opera.  He has conducted performances with the major German and Austrian opera houses, including those of Berlin, Dresden, Leipzig, and Vienna, as well as at the Paris Opera, London’s Royal Opera House, and Teatro alla Scala. He maintains a strong relationship with the Bavarian State

Opera in Munich, where he led six productions this past season. He made his Aus-tralian debut in 2005, conducting Wagner’s Ring at the State Opera of South Aus-tralia; the production won ten Helpman Awards, Australia’s premier music awards, and a live recording was released to wide acclaim. Known in the concert hall for his command of German and Italian reper-toire of the Romantic and post-Romantic eras — in particular Wagner, Brahms, Strauss, and Verdi — Asher Fisch is also an advocate for modern composers. in-cluding Avner Dorman.  Highlights of recent engagements include performances at the Melbourne Festival and concerts with the Aarhus Symphony Orchestra, Mu-nich Philharmonic, National Orchestra of Belgium, and Stuttgart Radio Sympho-ny Orch estra. As guest conductor, he has appeared with the orchestras of Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Cincinnati, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, Milwaukee, Minnesota, Montreal, New York, Philadelphia, Saint Louis, Seattle, Toronto, and Washington, D.C., as well as those of Berlin, Dresden, Leipzig, London, Munich, and the Orches-tre National de France. Also an accomplished pianist, Mr. Fisch can be heard on his fi rst solo album of Wagner piano transcriptions, released in 2012 by the Melba label. He oft en leads concertos from the piano, and also participates in chamber music and vocal recit-als.

13Blossom Festival 2014 Conductor

Asher FischEarlier this year, Israeli conductor Asher Fisch became principal conductor and artistic advisor of the West Australian Symphony Orchestra in Perth. He also continues as principal guest conductor of the Seattle Opera, where he conducted its quadrennial cycle of Wagner’s Ring of the Nibelung in 2013. He is making his Cleveland Orchestra debut with this evening’s concert. Now a seasoned conductor in both the operatic and symphonic worlds, Mr.

Fisch began his career as Daniel Barenboim’s assistant and kapellmeister at the Berlin State Opera. He returns there regularly and this past season led performances of operas by Puccini, Richard Strauss, Verdi, and Wagner.  He also served as music director of the New Israeli Opera 1998-2008, and the Vienna Volksoper 1995-2000. Since his United States debut with the Los Angeles Op-era in 1995, Asher Fisch has appeared at the Houston Grand Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Metropolitan Opera, and San Francisco Opera.  He has conducted performances with the major German and Austrian opera houses, including those of Berlin, Dresden, Leipzig, and Vienna, as well as at the Paris Opera, London’s Royal Opera House, and Teatro alla Scala. He maintains a strong relationship with the Bavarian State

Opera in Munich, where he led six productions this past season. He made his Aus-tralian debut in 2005, conducting Wagner’s Ring at the State Opera of South Aus-tralia; the production won ten Helpman Awards, Australia’s premier music awards, and a live recording was released to wide acclaim. Known in the concert hall for his command of German and Italian reper-toire of the Romantic and post-Romantic eras — in particular Wagner, Brahms, Strauss, and Verdi — Asher Fisch is also an advocate for modern composers. in-cluding Avner Dorman.  Highlights of recent engagements include performances at the Melbourne Festival and concerts with the Aarhus Symphony Orchestra, Mu-nich Philharmonic, National Orchestra of Belgium, and Stuttgart Radio Sympho-ny Orch estra. As guest conductor, he has appeared with the orchestras of Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Cincinnati, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, Milwaukee, Minnesota, Montreal, New York, Philadelphia, Saint Louis, Seattle, Toronto, and Washington, D.C., as well as those of Berlin, Dresden, Leipzig, London, Munich, and the Orches-tre National de France. Also an accomplished pianist, Mr. Fisch can be heard on his fi rst solo album of Wagner piano transcriptions, released in 2012 by the Melba label. He oft en leads concertos from the piano, and also participates in chamber music and vocal recit-als.

14 The Cleveland OrchestraOrchestra News

TH

E C

LE

VE

LA

ND

O3

0R

CH

ES

TR

A

TH

E C

LE

VE

LA

ND

OR

CH

ES

TR

A

TH

E C

LE

VE

LA

ND

OR

CH

ES

TR

A

TH

E C

LE

VE

LA

ND

OR

CH

ES

TR

A

TH

E C

LE

VE

LA

ND

OR

CH

E

Orchestra NewsNews

Donors make plans to endow Orchestra’s librarian chair The Cleveland Orchestra is pleased to announce the creation of the Joe and Marlene Toot Head Librarian Endowed Chair through a legacy gift to the Orchestra. “The Head Li-brarian is a critically essential member of the Orchestra — as integral to our musical success as any instrumentalist,” says Gary Hanson. “It is with deep gratitude that I thank business leader Joe Toot of Stark County and his wife Marlene for making such a generous commit-ment through their estate.” The current head librarian, Robert O’Brien, is the ninth in that position since the Orchestra’s founding in 1918. He has served as head librarian since 2008. In this role, O’Brien ensures that each musician has the right mu-sic on the right music stand at the right time for every rehearsal and concert. He makes all scores available to every musician for indi-vidual practice, and ensures that every part and each marking matches the conductor’s needs. He catalogs and maintains the Orches-tra’s extensive collection of musical scores — those that are part of the Severance Hall music library and those rented for particular perfor-mances. He daily works with tempo markings and musical scores in multiple languages, from German to French, Italian to English, and more. The gift from Joe and Marlene Toot will support the funding of The Cleveland Or-chestra’s Head Librarian position in perpetu-ity. Thousands of generous individuals have made a commitment to the Orchestra through outright endowment gifts or legacy plans, through the annual fund and special project support. To learn more about including the Orchestra in your estate plans, please contact Bridget Mundy at 216-231-8006.

Comings and goings As a courtesy to the performers onstage and the entire audience, late-arriving patrons in the Pavilion cannot be seated until the fi rst break in the musical program.

The Musical Arts Association gratefully acknow ledges the artistry and dedication of all the musicians of The Cleveland Orches-tra. In addition to rehearsals and concerts throughout the year, many musicians do-nate performance time in support of com-munity engagement, fundraising, education, and audience development activities. We are pleased to recognize these musicians, listed below, who have volunteered for such events and presentations during the 2012-13 and 2013-14 seasons.

Mark AthertonMartha BaldwinCharles BernardKatherine BormannLisa BoykoCharles CarletonJohn ClouserHans ClebschKathleen CollinsPatrick ConnollyRalph CurryAlan DeMattiaMaximilian Dimoff Elayna DuitmanBryan DummTanya EllKim GomezDavid Alan HarrellMiho HashizumeShachar IsraelJoela JonesRichard KingAlicia KoelzStanley KonopkaMark KosowerPaul KushiousMassimo La RosaJung-Min Amy LeeMary LynchThomas MansbacherTakako MasameEli MatthewsJesse McCormickDaniel McKelway

Sonja Braaten MolloyEliesha NelsonChul-In ParkJoanna Patterson ZakanyAlexandra PreucilWilliam PreucilLynne RamseyJeff rey RathbunJeanne Preucil RoseStephen RoseFrank RosenweinMichael SachsMarisela SagerJonathan SherwinSae ShiragamiEmma ShookJoshua SmithSaeran St. ChristopherBarrick SteesRichard StoutJack SutteKevin SwitalskiBrian ThorntonIsabel TrautweinLembi VeskimetsRobert WaltersCarolyn Gadiel WarnerStephen WarnerRichard WeissBeth WoodsideRobert WoolfreyPaul YancichDerek ZadinskyJeff rey Zehngut

M.U.S . I .C . I .A .N S .A .L .U .T .E

15Blossom Festival 2014

TH

E C

LE

VE

LA

ND

O3

0R

CH

ES

TR

A

TH

E C

LE

VE

LA

ND

OR

CH

ES

TR

A

TH

E C

LE

VE

LA

ND

OR

CH

ES

TR

A

TH

E C

LE

VE

LA

ND

OR

CH

ES

TR

A

TH

E C

LE

VE

LA

ND

OR

CH

ENews

Orchestra News

Cleveland Orchestra group for networking and socializing of dynamic young profes- sionals continues to grow Earlier this year, The Cleveland Orch-estra announced a new group called The Circle, welcoming young professionals ages 21-40. The group is designed for those who share a love of music and an interest in supporting The Cleveland Orchestra in a new and dynamic way. The Circle provides members exclusive access to the Orchestra, with opportunities to meet musicians, and socialize at Severance Hall and at Blossom Music Festival events. Memberships include bi-monthly concert tickets along with oppor-tunities to attend social gatherings to network with friends and cultural business leaders of Northeast Ohio. The objectives of The Circle are to increase engagement opportunities for young people ages 21-40 and to help develop future volunteer community leaders and arts advocates. The Circle was launched at a Cleveland Orchestra concert in January, and is continu-ing to grow. Plans for future events are posted on the orchestra’s website, including concerts, get-togethers, and more. Cost of membership in The Circle is $15 per month for one membership and $20 per month for two memberships and includes bi-monthly tickets. New members join for a minimum of six months. For additional information, visit clevelandorchestra.com or send an email to thecircle@clevelandorchestra.com.

Welser-Möst leads special Vienna Philharmonic concert in Sarajevo to commemorate anniversary of World War I

Franz Welser-Möst led a commemorative concert of the Vienna Philharmonic in the atri-um of Sarajevo’s rebuilt City Hall on June 28, 100 years after the assassinations of Archduke Ferdinand of Austria and his wife Sophie in that city began a series of events that resulted in the outbreak of World War I — and the start of a war-torn century for Sarajevo itself. A giant screen was erected to broadcast the concert for a crowd gathered outside on the opposite side of the Miljacka River. Broadcast-ers for Eurovision relayed the concert to more than 40 countries across Europe. “This is a very symbolic day in a very sym-bolic location,” said Clemens Hellsberg, the outgoing president of the Philharmonic. “We wanted it to be not a view back into history, but a view into the future, after the catastro-phe of war.” In choosing the Beethoven’s ‘Ode to Joy’ as part of the concert, Welser-Möst said, “we wished to express the hope that war should never happen on the soil of Europe again.” Welser-Möst continued, saying that he and the Philharmonic saw themselves performing in this special concert a similar role of reconcili-ation that conductor Daniel Barenboim has sought with his West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, whose mixture of Israeli and Arab players also work to surmount the hatreds and divisions of the past.

Orchestra News

Carmina BuranaO FORTUNA! Experience one of the most pop-ular masterpieces of the 20th century in Carl Orff ’s compelling tale for chorus, orch estra, and soloists. Infused with spirirted rhythms, catchy melodies, and songs of love, lust, and drink — amidst the recurring change of sea-sons and the never-ending wheels of fortune and fate. With the Blossom Festival Chorus.

July 26 Saturday

August 23 Saturday

Beethoven & LisztAN EVENING OF MASTERPIECES. Th is special concert features musical masterworks and more. Beginning at 7 p.m., the Kent/Blossom Chamber Orchestra plays pieces by Ravel and Wagner. At 8 p.m., Th e Cleveland Orchestra takes the stage with a Beethoven overture and Liszt’s fi ery First Piano Concerto with soloist Stephen Hough. Th en, both orchestras play Sibelius’s grand Second Symphony.

The Magic of MozartWOLFGANG’S MASTERFUL MUSIC shines forth in this program of three works by Mozart himself, plus an homage to him by Tchaikovsky. Enjoy the mas-ter’s delightful tunes, innovative sense of balance and form. Delight in the perfection of music cre-ated for listening and show. Including the popular Eine kleine Nachtmusik [“A Little Night-Music”]and the “Linz” Symphony No. 36.

August 9 Saturday

EXPERIENCE MORE BLOSSOM!See a full listing of 2014 Blossom Music Festival concerts on pages 36-37 of the Festival Book.