sunday August 31BRAHMS AND WIDMANNEUROPEAN TOUR SEND-OFFThe Cleveland OrchestraFranz Welser-Möst, conductor

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

THE CLEVELAND ORCHESTRA

A fi reworks display by American Fireworks Company will take place immediately following

this concert, weather permitting.

2 2014 Blossom FestivalConductor

Franz Welser-Möst Music Director Kelvin Smith Family Endowed Chair The Cleveland Orchestra

W I T H T H E U P C O M I N G 2 01 4 -1 5 S E A S O N , Franz Welser-Möst begins his thirteenth year as music director of Th e Cleveland Or-chestra, with a long-term commitment extending to the Orches-tra’s centennial in 2018. Under his leadership, the Orchestra is renowned among the world’s greatest ensembles, acclaimed for its musical excellence, and a champion of new composers and innovative programming. Th e Orchestra is committed to per-forming more music for more people throughout Northeast Ohio — through concert, community, and education presentations. Mr. Welser-Möst also serves as general music director of the Vienna State Opera. Under Mr. Welser-Möst’s leadership, Th e Cleveland Orchestra has launched a series of residencies in important cultural locations around the world. Th ese include residencies at Vienna’s Musikverein and Switzerland’s Lucerne Festival, as well as programs at New York’s Lincoln Center Festival and at Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music. Th e Orchestra’s annual residency in Miami, under the name Cleve-land Orchestra Miami, features multiple weeks of concerts coupled with community programs (modeled on the Orchestra’s long-term educational programs in Northeast Ohio) with more than a dozen school partners across the Miami-Dade area. Opera has been featured as a key component of Franz Welser-Möst’s tenure in Cleveland, with ten operas being presented in his fi rst decade with the Orchestra, including a three-season Mozart cycle of fully-staged Zurich Opera productions at Severance Hall, followed by Strauss’s Salome at Severance Hall and at Carnegie Hall. Mr. Welser-Möst became general music director of the Vienna State Opera in 2010. He also maintains an ongoing relationship with the Vienna Philharmonic, which he recently led in performances at Carnegie Hall, Lucerne, Salzburg, and To-kyo, as well as twice conducting the ensemble’s annual New Year’s Concert. He pre-viously served a decade-long tenure with the Zurich Opera, leading the company in 40 new productions and culminating in three seasons as general music director. Mr. Welser-Möst’s recordings and videos have won international awards and acclaim. His Cleveland Orchestra recordings include live video performances of Bruckner Symphonies Nos. 4, 5, 7, 8, and 9. For his talents and dedication, Mr. Welser-Möst’s honors include the Vienna Philharmonic’s “Ring of Honor” for his long-standing personal and artistic rela-tionship with the orchestra, as well as recognition from the Western Law Center for Disability Rights, honorary membership in the Vienna Singverein and Vienna’s Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde, appointment as an Academician of the European Academy of Yuste, a Decoration of Honor from the Republic of Austria for his artis-tic achievements, and the Kilenyi Medal from the Bruckner Society of America. Mr. Welser-Möst is the co-author of Cadences: Observations and Conversations.

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3Blossom Music Festival

Sunday evening, August 31, 2014, at 7:00 p.m.

2O14BLOSSOMMUSIC FESTIVAL

Program: August 31

T H E C L E V E L A N D O R C H E S T R A FRANZ WELSER-MÖST , conductor

JÖRG WIDMANN Con brio: Concert Overture(b. 1973)

JOHANNES BRAHMS Symphony No. 3 in F major, Opus 90(1833-1897) 1. Allegro con brio 2. Andante 3. Poco allegretto 4. Allegro — Un poco sostenuto

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

BRAHMS Symphony No. 4 in E minor, Opus 98 1. Allegro non troppo

2. Andante moderato 3. Allegro giocoso 4. Allegro energico e passionato — Più allegro

With this concert, The Cleveland Orchestragratefully honors the FirstEnergy Foundationfor their generous support.

This concert is dedicated to Dr. David and Janice Leshner in recognition of their extraordinary generosity in supportof The Cleveland Orchestra’s 2013-14 Annual Fund.

Media Partners: WCLV Classical 104.9 FM ideastream® and The Plain Dealer

4 Blossom Music Festival

2O14 European Tour

The Cleveland OrchestraFRANZ WELSER-MÖST

J O S H U A S M I T H . N I K O L A J Z N A I D E RLondon . Lucerne . Berlin . Linz . Vienna . Paris . Amsterdam

S E P T E M B E R 7 - 2 2

BRAHMS

WIDMANN

The Cleveland Orchestra acknowledges these corporations and individuals for their generous support of the 2014 Euro pean Tour: Tele München Group, Miba AG, Dr. Herbert G. Kloiber, Dr. and Mrs. Wolfgang Berndt, Mr. and Mrs. Harro Bodmer, Mr. and Mrs. Alfred Umdasch, and Elisabeth and Karlheinz Muhr. With special thanks and recogni-tion for the ongoing support of Jones Day and Jones Day Foundation, including international touring sponsorship.

JörJörg Wg Widmidmannann

Joho annes Braahmsms

5Blossom Music Festival

2O14EuropeanTourLONDONSunday, September 7, 2014 Monday, September 8, 2014 BBC Proms, Royal Albert Hall

LUCERNEWednesday, September 10, 2014Lucerne Festival, Culture and Convention Center

BERLINThursday, September 11, 2014Musikfest, Berlin Philharmonie

LINZSaturday, September 13, 2014Wednesday, September 17, 2014Thursday, September 18, 2014Brucknerhaus

VIENNASunday, September 14, 2014Monday, September 15, 2014Musikverein

Tuesday, September 16, 2014Vienna Konzerthaus

PARISSaturday, September 20, 2014Sunday, September 21, 2014Salle Pleyel

AMSTERDAMMonday, September 22, 2014Concertgebouw

J U S T A S H E D I D in earlier acclaimed pairings — of composers Anton Bruck-ner and John Adams in 2011, of Beethoven and Shostako vich in 2013 — for this concert Franz Wels-er-Möst has chosen two complementary composers, one modern, one classical. For in the Orchestra’s up-coming European Tour, and in two diff erent concerts this weekend (tonight and this past Friday at Sever-ance Hall), he’s chosen contemporary German com-poser Jörg Wid mann to contrast and compare with unsurpassed 19th-century masterworks by Johannes Brahms. Tonight’s concert begins with a work by Wid-mann called Con brio. Th e overture’s title comes from a common tempo marking — meaning “with brilliance / dash / vivacity” — used in Beethoven’s Seventh and Eighth symphonies. Here, Widmann chooses to riff musical colorings from the past for a very 21st century kind of feeling. Brahms, the calmer (but certainly not quiet) Symphony No. 3 and the energetically passionate (and very heroic) Fourth Symphony. Heard together and in juxtaposition, these works amply demonstrate many of the unrivalled strengths of Th e Cleveland Orchestra in today’s world. Not just comfortable, but embued with 19th-century styles. While at the same time deft ly able to grab onto and play musical styles and stylings of to-day and tomorrow. Th at one of the world’s greatest orchestras calls Northeast Ohio home is a strong source of pride, not just for the musicians and musicianship onstage, but for the larger community of music-lovers who sup-port their work, regularly enjoy their artistry, and follow Th e Cleveland Orchetra’s unsurpassed acclaim around the world. —Eric Sellen

I N T R O D U C I N G T H E C O N C E R T

Brahms&Widmann

Introduction

6 The Cleveland OrchestraAbout the Music

“ C O N B R I O is fast music, as fast as possible, with great rhyth-mic drive. I try not to repeat myself. When I fi nish a piece, I have to try something else!” says Jörg Widmann. Th e overture’s title comes from a common tempo mark-ing — meaning “with brilliance / dash / vivacity” — used in Beethoven’s Seventh and Eighth symphonies. Widmann ex-plains that he hatched the idea for the piece when Mariss Jan-sons asked him to write a concert opener to a program of these two Beethoven symphonies. Beethoven uses that marking in both pieces. “Whenever I would hear ‘con brio’ I would always think of Beethoven,” the composer says. Widmann uses an orchestra similar in size and instrumen-tation to Beethoven’s, but stresses that he does not quote from Beethoven. Rather, he was inspired by Beethoven’s rhythmic drive. Th e composer says he loves the “wild and big sound’’ that Beethoven got in the last movement of the Seventh and fi rst movement of the Eighth — and was impressed that Beethoven could achieve such excitement with a relatively small number of winds. “In Con brio, there are parts that are tricky to play, but they are possible,” Widmann says with a knowing laugh. “Th e Cleveland Orchestra is so virtuosic it can play anything; I know, because I heard it play Chor in Cleveland. I never heard this piece played that great. In my life I will never forget how they did it.” Beethoven was capable of imagining exceedingly forward-thinking ideas, the composer observes. “Th e way he uses ac-cents and sforzando [a sudden, strong attack] makes the point that the bar line is not important for him: he tries to eliminate the barline,” says Widmann. Similarly, Widmann thwarts expectations in Con brio. Overtures oft en end fortissimo — loud, all out. Not in Con brio, where the rhythmic drive “just disappears into nothing. Th e last chords are like a skeleton,” says the composer. “It’s like the negative of a photograph; you have the negative images in the air aft er the music ends.’’ As is his habit, Widmann fi ne-tuned a few details aft er the Bavarian Radio Symphony and Mariss Jansons premiered this work in September 2008. In Con brio, he occasionally asks the players to do things they’re not accustomed to doing — for example, the bassoons take off their reeds and blow di-

Con brio: Concert Overture for orchestracomposed 2008

by JörgWIDMANNborn June 19, 1973Munich

now living inFreiburg

7Blossom Music Festival

About the Composer

rectly into the curved metal tube (called the bocal) that leads into the wooden instrument. He also has the fl utes play with a whooshing, toneless sound. He added specifi c directions to the players in the score regarding these special eff ects follow-ing the work’s premiere.

J Ö R G W I D M A N N served as Th e Cleveland Orchestra’s Daniel R. Lewis Young Composer Fellow 2009-11. Th e Orch estra has played a number of his works under Franz Welser-Möst’s direction and is encoring four of them in concerts in August and September 2014, in pairings with major works by Johannes Brahms. Widmann was born in Munich in June 1973, and studied clarinet with Gerd Starke at the Hochschule für Musik in Munich and later (1994-1995) with Charles Neidich at the Juilliard School in New York. He began taking composition lessons with Kay Westermann at the age of eleven and subsequently continued his studies with Wilfried Hiller and Hans Werner Henze (1994-1996) and later with Heiner Goebbels and Wolfgang Rihm in Karlsruhe (1997-1999). In 2001, Jörg Widmann was appointed as the successor to Dieter Klöcker as professor of clarinet at the Freiburg Staatliche Hochschule für Musik. He became a professor of composition there in 2009. A series of string quartets, written between 1997 and 2005, form one core of Wid-mann’s creative output. Th e fi ve string quartets are intended as a large cycle, with each individual work following a traditional form or setting. Th ese are: String Quartet No. I (1997), followed by Choralquartett (2003, revised 2006) and Jagdquartett (premiered by the Arditti Quartet in 2003). Th e series was completed in 2005 with String Quartet No. IV, fi rst performed by the Vogler Quartet, and Quartet No. V “Versuch über die Fuge” [Attempt at a Fugue], which features a soprano solo and was premiered by Ju-liane Banse with the Artemis Quartet. Widmann has also composed a trilogy of works for large orchestra in which he studied the transformation of vocal forms for instrumental forces: Lied (2003-09), Chor (2004), and Messe (2005). In 2007, Christian Tetzlaff and the Junge Deutsche Philharmonie gave the premiere of Widmann’s fi rst Violin Concerto. Th e same year, Pierre Boulez and the Vienna Philharmonic gave the fi rst performance of Armonica for orchestra, in which Widmann combined the tonal colors of a glass harmonica with orchestra to produce a homogenously breathing body of sounds and sound eff ects. Th is was followed by Con brio, an homage to Beethoven. Widmann’s new concerto for fl ute, titled Flûte en suite, was premiered by Th e Cleveland Orchestra and principal fl ute Joshua Smith in May 2011. Widmann has also created musical theater works, including the opera Das Ge-sicht im Spiegel, which was chosen by the German magazine Opernwelt as the most

About the Composer

8 Blossom Music Festival

signifi cant fi rst performance of the 2003-04 season. Am An-fang (2009) was the result of a unique collaboration between a visual artist and a composer; Widmann created the work to-gether with the German painter and sculptor Anselm Kiefer and conducted the world premiere for the 20th anniversary of the Opéra Bastille in Paris. His most recent work is a music-drama called Babylon for the Munich State Opera. Widmann’s great passion as a clarinetist is chamber music. He regularly performs with partners such as Tabea Zimmer-mann, Heinz Holliger, András Schiff , Kim Kashkashian, and Hélène Grimaud. He has also performed widely as a soloist in orchestral concerts. Fellow composers have dedicated several works to Widmann. He performed the premiere of Music for Clarinet and Orchestra by Wolfgang Rihm in 1999. In 2006, he performed Cantus by Ari bert Reimann and, in 2009, at the Lu-cerne Festival, the world premiere of Rechant by Heinz Holliger. In addition to his fellowship as Th e Cleveland Orchestra’s Lewis Young Composer (2009-11), Jörg Widmann has served as composer-in-residence with the Berlin German Symphony Orchestra, Salzburg Festival, Lucerne Festival, Cologne Philhar-monic Orchestra, and the Vienna Konzerthaus. He has received many prizes and much recognition for his works. In 2013, he was awarded the Heidelberg Spring Music Award and the GEMA German Music Authors Award. He is a fellow of the Institute for Advanced Study in Berlin and a full member of the Bavar-ian Academy of the Fine Arts, the Free Academy of the Arts in Hamburg, and the German Academy of Dramatic Arts.

About the Composer

Widmann composed Con brio in 2008 on commission from the Bavarian Radio Symphony and conduc-tor Mariss Jansons. It was premiered as part of the orchestra’s season open-ing concert in Munich on September 25, 2008. This concert overture runs about 10 minutes in performance. Widmann scored it for a classical orchestra of 2 fl utes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, 2 trumpets, timpani, and strings. The Cleveland Orchestra fi rst performed this work in January 2011, under the direction of Christoph von Dohnányi.

At a Glance

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9Blossom Music Festival About the Music

I N T H E V E R Y H O T S U M M E R of 1853, when Brahms was twenty years old, he fulfi lled a childhood dream by walking down the river Rhine from Mainz to Bonn, a spectacular hike of about a hundred miles full of reminders of German history and legend. One of the fi rst places he stopped at was Wies-baden and the little town of Rüdesheim close by, famous for the Rheingau wines that are made there. Memories of those days were behind his decision, thirty years later, to spend the summer of 1883 in Wiesbaden. He was a man of regular hab-its, one of which was to escape from Vienna in the summer months to fi nd a suitably tranquil holiday spot where he could compose in peace. He usually went to the Austrian or Swiss Alps, but in 1883 he had an invitation from his friends Rudolf and Laura von Beckerath, who lived in Wiesbaden. Rudolf was a wine-maker and violinist, Laura was a pianist, and they had houses in both Wiesbaden and Rüdesheim. Brahms took rooms for himself in Wiesbaden’s Geisbergstrasse for the summer. A further enticement was the presence in Wiesbaden of a young singer, Hermine Spies, who Brahms had heard for the fi rst time that January. Her lovely contralto voice and bright personality enchanted him to the point where Brahms’s sister assumed an engagement was in the air. He remained a committed bachelor, but the company of this “pretty Rhineland girl,” as he called her, undoubtedly brightened those summer months and even perhaps pervaded the great work that took shape on his desk — the Th ird Symphony. It had been six years since the Second Symphony was writ-ten, and in the interval he had composed two overtures and two concertos, one for violin and his Second Piano Concerto. Brahms was no longer nervous about engaging the most chal-lenging of forms, in fact he was secure in his mature command of musical expression and technique. Each new work was guar-anteed an enthusiastic reception; since Wagner’s death in Feb-ruary of that year, Brahms, at fi ft y, was regarded as Germany’s leading musician. A new symphony from his pen would be a a major event. Dvořák was in Vienna that October when Brahms re-turned from Wiesbaden, and the two spent some time together.

Symphony No. 3 in F major, Opus 90composed 1883

by JohannesBRAHMSborn May 7, 1833Hamburg

died April 3, 1897Vienna

10 The Cleveland Orchestra

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11Blossom Music Festival

Dvořák wrote to Simrock, publisher to both composers: “I’ve never seen him in better spirit. You know how reluctant he is to talk even to his closest friends about his creative work, yet he was not like that with me. I asked to hear something of his new symphony and he played me the fi rst and last movements. I can say without exaggeration that this symphony surpasses the two previous ones. Not perhaps in size and force, but in beauty.” Th e Th ird Symphony diff ers from the other three in being shorter and milder in tone, without the heroic passages that the others, particularly the First and Fourth, display. It is the only one in which material from one movement reappears in another, and the only one to end quietly in a soft pianissimo (a radical departure from symphonic tradition); it is for that reason less oft en played today. But many connoisseurs prize it above the other Brahms symphonies for the delicacy of its scoring and its ravishing melodic richness. Th e cyclic procedure of recalling, at the end of a multi-movement work, the gesture of the opening is rare in Brahms despite the popularity of thematic recall in Liszt, Dvořák, Tchaikovsky, and most other composers of that age. In the Th ird Symphony it suggests a deep nostalgia, for the opening gesture is the rising F – A-fl at – F motif. Th is is related to the F – A – F motto associated with the violinist Joachim, whose friendship — one of the deepest of Brahms’s life — took shape that same 1853, thirty years before. By substituting the A-fl at, Brahms introduced the ambiguity of major-minor tonality that holds the listener’s attention throughout the symphony and is not resolved until we reach those luminous soft chords at the end, pianissimo and in the major-key. Th e two central movements are exceptionally touching. Th e Andante feels like a set of variations on the clarinet’s el-egant theme, but is not so systematic, and some strange and solemn chords in the lower strings provide an enigmatic inter-lude. Th e restrained writing for trombones in this movement is masterly. Th e melody of the third movement, heard at the start in the cellos, is one to cherish long aft er the performance is over. For shapely elegance, it has no rival, and its eff ect is even more penetrating when it passes fi rst to the winds, then to the fi rst horn on its own. Neither of these two middle movements ever rises in volume to forte for more than a passing moment. Energetic music is plentiful in both the fi rst and last move-

Brahms completed his Third Symphony in Wiesbaden during the summer of 1883. The fi rst performance took place on December 2, 1883, at a concert of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Hans Richter. The score was published the following year. Frank van der Stucken conducted the American premiere on Octo-ber 24, 1884, in New York. This symphony runs about 35 minutes in perfor-mance. Brahms scored it for 2 fl utes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, contrabassoon, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trom-bones, timpani, and strings. The Cleveland Orchestra fi rst performed this work in March 1923 under Nikolai Sokoloff ’s direction (at sub-scription concerts featuring Sergei Rachmaninoff as the soloist in his own Second Pia-no Concerto). The work was heard most recently in Octo-ber 2010, in performances at Severance Hall conducted by Semyon Bychkov. The Cleveland Orchestra recorded this symphony with George Szell in 1964, with Lorin Maazel in 1976, with Christoph von Dohnányi in 1988, and with Vladimir Ashkenazy in 1991.

About the Music

At a Glance

12 Blossom Music Festival

ments, along with musical argument (re-shaping themes and fi gures, and moving through the keys) in Brahms’s sure-handed manner. But they both come to rest with the same dream-like reminiscence of the rising motto and its balanced descending theme. Brahms seems to be perfectly at peace with the world. Th e symphony’s fi rst performance took place in Vienna in December 1883 in a concert which also featured Dvořák’s Violin Concerto, also new to the Viennese. Although Vienna was his home, where he had many friends and supporters, there was usually an element of the press determined to cut Brahms down to size. Yet those sour voices were silent in this instance, and the symphony was acclaimed by all, going on to success-fully acclaimed performances all over Germany and beyond.

—Hugh Macdonald © 2014

About the Music

A photographof Brahms nearthe end of his life, circa 1895.

13Blossom Festival 2014 About the Music

I T I S U S U A L LY S A I D of Brahms that he delayed composing a symphony until aft er he was forty out of respect for Beethoven’s great set of nine — and from a fear of being found wanting in comparison with his mighty predecessor. Th ere is much truth in this. Indeed, Brahms acknowledged it himself. Brahms’s rapid rise, at the age of twenty, into the circle of leading composers was set in motion by Robert Schumann, who declared publicly that Brahms was destined for a great future in the pedigree of German music. In the company of Schumann and his wife Clara, Brahms had played almost ex-clusively chamber music — which for them represented the real Beethoven legacy, especially the violin sonatas and late quartets, with the unspoken understanding that the Ninth Symphony was not necessarily the center of the Beethoven universe. Not coincidentally, at the same time, the Ninth (and its “Ode to Joy”) was being elevated by Liszt and Wagner and their fol-lowers as a pointer to a future in symphonic poem and music drama, two territories in which Brahms never set foot. When he fi nally resolved to write a symphony, Brahms had Schumann’s symphonies sounding in his ears as strongly as Beethoven’s — which is why a similarity can be heard between the opening of Schumann’s Fourth and the wide-spread octave with which Brahms began his First. When we reach the fi nale of Brahms’s First, though, we do unmistakably encounter an echo of the choral fi nale of Beethoven’s Ninth. “Any fool can see that,” was Brahms’s dismissive comment. Once he had given one symphony to the world, it was easier for Brahms to embark on its successors. Th e rest fol-lowed more rapidly, within nine years. Th e Second followed very soon aft er the First, and the Fourth appeared within two years of the Th ird. Self-critical to the point where he destroyed an unknown number of works that did not satisfy his exacting standards, Brahms always regarded symphonic writing as a tough propo-sition, to the point where we should be thankful that he gave us as many as four — and always grateful for the opportunity to hear each of them. If Brahms had written a fi ft h symphony toward the end of his life, one might imagine something gloriously mellow,

Symphony No. 4 in E minor, Opus 98 composed 1884-85

by JohannesBRAHMSborn May 7, 1833Hamburg

died April 3, 1897Vienna

14 Blossom Music Festival

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15Blossom Music Festival

There is a

higher level

of dissonance

and tension

in the Fourth

Symphony

than in most

of Brahms’s

music, but

as always

with this

composer,

it is perfectly

judged —

and balanced

by faultless

craftsmanship

and an

abundant

melodic gift.

like the late clarinet music or the Four Serious Songs. But that is not the direction in which the Fourth Symphony pointed. In its own context, it is the least comfortable of Brahms’s four symphonies, in terms of musical language and sonority. Being familiar and frequently heard in our own time, it rarely causes the wince of doubt that beset its original hearers. (We fi nd it hard to imagine, similarly, that such a beautiful work as the Violin Concerto struck some of its original hearers as uncouth, but . . . history tells us otherwise.) Th ere is a higher level of dissonance and tension in the Fourth Symphony than in most of Brahms’s music, but as al-ways with this composer, it is perfectly judged — and balanced by faultless craft smanship and an abundant melodic gift . Th e symphony was fi rst performed in Meiningen, a small town in central Germany that was briefl y of great importance in the mu-sical world thanks to the leadership of musicians like Hans von Bülow and Richard Strauss, who strongly encouraged Brahms and persuaded him in 1885 to grant them the fi rst performance of his latest symphony. Home audiences in Vienna could be fi ckle, especially as Wagner-mania was sweeping across Europe. As usual, Brahms shows little interest in the more color-ful instruments that most composers were delighting in at that time — no english horn, no bass clarinet, no tuba, no harp. Th ough he asks for a contrabassoon in the last two move-ments to enrich the bass, and a piccolo for the third-movement scherzo, where he ventures into the percussion section with a very un-Brahmsian triangle. And, although he clung to the old-fashioned hand-horns, not the valved variety then in uni-versal use, he wrote for the horns with infi nite mastery, as both the slow movement and the scherzo bear witness. In general outline, Brahms does not deviate from his classical inheritance — a broad, substantial fi rst movement, a lyrical slow movement, a jocular scherzo, and a strong, asser-tive fi nale. Aft er the First Symphony, whose opening Allegro is preceded by a slow introduction like a number of Beethoven’s symphonies (and Schumann’s Fourth), Brahms’s remaining symphonies adopt the maxim he always preferred — state your fi rst theme clearly and fi rmly at the very outset. In this case, the graceful opening theme, with its drooping thirds, is woven into the texture of the whole movement. His writing for strings had never been so rich as here. Th e main contrast in this movement is rhythmic, for triplet fi gures keep intrud-

About the Music

16 Blossom Music Festival

ing. At the end of the movement, however, the powerful drive of the original four-four pulse is unstoppable. A pair of horns declare the slow movement opening with a misleadingly forceful gesture. For this is the tenderest of slow movements, rich in complex harmony and smooth melody. Th e clarinet is especially favored, and the second subject (fi rst heard in the cellos) is one of Brahms’s greatest inspirations, intensifi ed each time it comes back. Th e scherzo brings out the hearty hill-walker in Brahms, and the triangle signals a breeziness that we rarely fi nd in his music. Th e slower middle section is all too brief, as if Brahms was in a hurry to get back to his vigorous exercise, energetic enough to wonder what kind of fi nale could be suffi ciently dif-ferent to follow it. Here, for the last movement, Brahms broke with con-vention and composed a passacaglia (although he did not call it that), a baroque form grandly exhibited by Bach in which a short harmonic sequence is many times repeated in elaborate variation. Th is is the moment the trombones have been waiting for (a discipline they learned from Beethoven’s Fift h), and they lay down the eight fi rm chords that defi ne the sequence. Th e problem for Brahms was (as it was for Bach, too) not to seem to be stuck in the home key. His eight-bar outline is heard thirty times in wonderfully inventive variation, but it escapes from E minor only to taste, briefl y, the nectar of E major following a desolate fl ute solo. Th e return to E minor sounds like a re-capitulation of the beginning, with strong wind chords, but it simply heralds a stirring continuation of the variations, until, following one tremendous sequence aft er another, the sym-phony, in Sir Donald Tovey’s memorable words, “storms to its tragic close.”

—Hugh Macdonald © 2014

Hugh Macdonald lives in England and is the Avis H. Blewett Professor Emeritus of Music at Washington University in St. Louis.

He s a noted authority on French music. He has written books on Beethoven, Berlioz, and Scriabin.

Brahms wrote his Fourth Symphony in Mürzzuschlag (Styria, Austria) during the summers of 1884 and 1885. He conducted the fi rst performance on October 25, 1885, in Meiningen, Germa-ny, where Hans von Bülow was the music director. The United States premiere took place on December 11, 1886, with Walter Damrosch conducting the New York Symphony. This symphony runs about 40 minutes in per-formance. Brahms scored it for 2 fl utes (one doubling piccolo), 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, contrabassoon, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trom-bones, timpani, triangle, and strings. (Piccolo and triangle appear in the third move-ment only, contrabassoon in the third and fourth move-ments only, and trombones only in the fi nale.) The Cleveland Orchestra fi rst performed the Brahms Fourth in April 1925, led by music director Nikolai Soko-loff . It has been presented by the Orchestra with relative frequency since then, most recently at Severance Hall in January 2014 under the baton of Franz Welser-Möst.

At a Glance

About the Music

17Blossom Music Festival

It is not in fact sohard to compose. But what is fabulously diffi cult is to leave the superfl uous notes under the table.

—Johannes Brahms

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18 The Cleveland OrchestraOrchestra News

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Orchestra NewsNews

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

Hail and Farewell

Thomas Mansbacher Cello The Cleveland Orchestra

Thomas Mansbacher is retiring from his posi-tion as a cellist in The Cleveland Orchestra with the close of the Blossom Music Festival season at the end of August. Mr. Mansbacher has been a member of The Cleveland Orch-estra since 1977. Prior to coming to Cleve-land, he served as principal cello of the New Haven Symphony and the New Hampshire Sinfonietta. He received a bachelor’s degree from Washington University and a master of music degree from the Yale School of Music. He studied with Elizabeth Fischer, Aldo Pari-sot, and George Neikrug. He has taught at Cleveland State University during his years in Cleveland. In retirement, Tom plans to spend more time with his family. He has two daughters, Sarah and Jessica, and a granddaughter, Elea-nor. In his free time, he enjoys reading mys-teries, watching Korean fi lms, going to the gym, bicycle touring, and doing yoga, and is a crossword puzzle addict. “It has been such a privilege and plea-sure to be part of this orchestra,” he says. “Live music is needed in today’s society more than ever. It is a good and most uplifting infl uence in people’s lives, bringing people together and giving focus and inspiration.”

Cellist Thomas Mansbacher will step into retire -ment at the end of August, after serving as a mem-ber of The Cleveland Orchestra for thirty-seven seasons. Please join in extending heartfelt thanks and congratulations to Tom.

19Blossom Music Festival

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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

20 Blossom Music Festival

“Whoeverr encounters the muuu--sic of Jörg Widmann for the fifi firstt time is astonished at its direcct-ness and intensity. Not infre-quently, the music breaks like a raging torrent over the listennerr:: it is excessive in its eff ervescentt virtuosity or its infi nite sadnesss.” —Markus Fein