In Saturday’s (11/10) Plain Dealer (Cleveland), Zachary Lewis writes, “A funny thing happened during the growth of the Cleveland Orchestra’s Miami residency: Things got richer, musically. Where once the orchestra’s programs in Miami skewed conservative, the new and larger series beginning this week at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts reflects a greater level of artistic investment. ‘It feels like a season now,’ said Gary Hanson, the orchestra’s executive director. … Some of the difference stems from a nonartistic development, the addition of a fourth week. In previous years, the residency consisted of three weeks spread between January and March. Now it includes an additional week in November. … With parts for a women’s chorus, a children’s chorus and a mezzo-soprano soloist, Mahler’s grandest statement [Symphony No. 3] doesn’t exactly lend itself to travel. In Miami, however, the orchestra is well enough established to take on the work, hire renowned mezzo-soprano Bernarda Fink, and call up the Master Chorale of South Florida, the University of Miami Frost Symphonic Women’s Chorus and the Miami Children’s Chorus. Music director Franz Welser-Most, conductor of the concerts Friday and Saturday, said he’s looking forward not only to reprising his Severance Hall season opener but also to presenting a work many in South Florida have never encountered live.”
Adrienne Arsht Center photo by Robin Hill
Posted November 12, 2012
