“Northeast Ohio or northeast Austria. Severance Hall or the Philharmonie de Paris. Blossom or Belgium. Location makes little difference to the Cleveland Orchestra,” writes Zachary Lewis in Wednesday’s (10/14) Plain Dealer (Cleveland, OH). “Everywhere it goes, including every stop on its 2015 tour of Europe, the objective is the same: to make new fans and energize old ones…. ‘It’s about going to the next level and continuing to build our audiences,’ said Mark Williams, the orchestra’s director of artistic planning…. On this tour—a nine-city journey that begins Thursday and spans more than two weeks … the group will pair works by Messiaen and Strauss…. Certain cities also will experience performances of Mahler’s Symphony No. 3, Mozart’s ‘Jupiter’ Symphony, Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 4 with pianist Radu Lupu, and Verdi’s ‘Four Sacred Pieces.’ … [In Paris], the orchestra will get to play in the Philharmonie de Paris, the lavish new arts complex.… All four performances are sold out or nearly so in Vienna… ‘It’s definitely an orchestra which has a European, Austrian sound,’ said Thomas Angyan, head of Vienna’s prized concert hall, the Musikverein. ‘In Vienna, they are really treated as being an orchestra of Europe.’ ”
Posted October 16, 2015
Pictured: The Cleveland Orchestra and Franz Welser-Möst at Vienna’s Musikverein during a previous Europe tour
