Cleveland Orchestra Announces FATE AND FREEDOM: MUSIC OF BEETHOVEN AND SHOSTAKOVIC Festival Lineup

The Cleveland Orchestra explores the music, times, and politics of two of western music's most profound and controversial composers in Fate and Freedom: Music of Beethoven and Shostakovich, a Festival presented in partnership with the Cleveland Museum of Art and the Cleveland Institute of Art Cinematheque from October 22-26. The Festival includes orchestra concerts, film screenings, pre-film and pre-concert talks, and a chamber music performance by members of The Cleveland Orchestra. Music Director Franz Welser-Möst conceived the Festival to look more closely at landmark symphonies by Beethoven and Shostakovich and provide context around their creation, while examining the ever-relevant themes of personal and societal freedom they express. Mr. Welser-Möst said, "Beethoven and Shostakovich were very political composers. Their music was written to express the feeling of the times they lived in - there were new feelings about how to live. Beethoven's Third Symphony was the first big musical and philosophical statement by a composer about what freedom can mean, both individually and collectively. Shostakovich lived under a suppressive regime. His symphonies represent personal despair. The symphonies of Beethoven and Shostakovich can teach us so much about our lives."

In a unique juxtaposition, Franz Welser-Möst leads three distinct Cleveland Orchestra concerts on three consecutive evenings, pairing Beethoven Symphonies Nos. 3, 4, and 5 with Shostakovich Symphonies Nos. 6, 8, and 10, respectively, on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, October 24-26. Insight into the music will be provided in a pre-concert interview with Franz Welser-Möst on Thursday, October 24, and a pre-concert talk with guest speaker Frank J. Oteri, New Music USA's composer advocate and the senior editor of NewMusicBox, and Rebecca Mitchell, visiting assistant professor of Russian/Soviet history, Oberlin College, on Friday, October 25. Cleveland Orchestra musicians perform chamber music by Beethoven and Shostakovich in Reinberger Chamber Hall at Severance Hall prior to the Orchestra's concert on Saturday, October 26.

The Cinematheque screens Stanley Kubrick's classic film A Clockwork Orange to open the Festival on Tuesday, October 22. The film prominently features music from Beethoven's Symphony No. 9. John Ewing, Cinematheque co-founder and director and curator of film at the Cleveland Museum of Art, will introduce the film.

A Clockwork Orange, based on the novel by Anthony Burgess, was released in 1971. In an essay in New York Magazine, Mr. Burgess wrote, "One of the slogans of George Orwell's superstate in '1984' is 'Freedom is slavery.' This can be taken to mean that the burden of making one's own choices is, for many people, intolerable. Perhaps there is something to be said for conformity in social life when our working lives have so little room for rugged individualism." The New York Times noted, "Opinion was divided on the meaning of Kubrick's detached view of this shocking future, but, whether the discord drew the curious orKubrick's scathing diagnosis spoke to the chaotic cultural moment, A Clockwork Orange became a hit."

The Cleveland Museum of Art screens The New Babylon, a revolutionary 1929 silent film featuring Shostakovich's first film score, on October 23. Set at the time of the Franco-Prussian War, the film views the era's clash of social classes through the life of a Paris department store clerk who caters to the rich but sympathizes with the discontented workers behind the socialistic Paris Commune of 1871. Time Out London says the film "is filled with jazz and cabaret inspired music and shows Shostakovich at his most wild and satirical." Frank J. Oteri will discuss the film, the politics of the time, and the music in a pre-screening talk with Mr. Ewing, moderated by Dr. James Krukones, associate professor of history and associate academic vice president, John Carroll University.

Fate and Freedom: Music of Beethoven and Shostakovich
Cleveland Orchestra Festival October 22-26

Tuesday, OCTOBER 22, 2013 at 7 p.m.
Cleveland Institute of Art Cinematheque
11141 East Boulevard
Cleveland, OH 44106
Film: A Clockwork Orange
Stanley Kubrick, writer and director
based on the novel by Anthony Burgess

Remarks prior to the film by John Ewing, Cinematheque co-founder, and director and curator of film at the Cleveland Museum of Art.

Tickets (at the Cinematheque box office, day of show only) $9; Cinematheque members $7; ages 25 and under $6. Cash or check only.

Wednesday, OCTOBER 23, 2013 at 6:30 p.m.
Cleveland Museum of Art
11150 East Boulevard
Cleveland, OH 44106
Film: The New Babylon
Grigori Kozintsev and Leonid Trauberg, writers and directors

Dr. James Krukones, associate professor of history and associate academic vice president, John Carroll University, will moderate a pre-screening talk withFrank J. Oteri, New Music USA's composer advocate and the senior editor of NewMusicBox, a multimedia publication, and John Ewing, Cinematheque co-founder and director and curator of film at the Cleveland Museum of Art, about the film, the politics of the time, and the music.

Tickets $9; CMA members, seniors 65 and over, students, $7. Advance tickets at clevelandart.org, or by calling 216-421-7350.

Thursday, OCTOBER 24 at 7:30 p.m.
Severance Hall
The Cleveland Orchestra
Franz Welser-Möst, conductor
BEETHOVEN Symphony No. 3 ("Eroica")
SHOSTAKOVICH Symphony No. 6
Franz Welser-Möst will be interviewed at 6:30 p.m. on the stage at Severance Hall.

Friday, OCTOBER 25 at 8 p.m.
Severance Hall
The Cleveland Orchestra
Franz Welser-Möst, conductor
BEETHOVEN Symphony No. 4
SHOSTAKOVICH Symphony No. 8

Guest speaker Frank J. Oteri, New Music USA's composer advocate and the senior editor of NewMusicBox, a multimedia publication, presents a pre-concert talk with Rebecca Mitchell, visiting assistant professor of Russian/Soviet history, Oberlin College, at 7 p.m. in Reinberger Chamber Hall at Severance Hall.

Saturday, OCTOBER 26 at 8 p.m.
Severance Hall
The Cleveland Orchestra
Franz Welser-Möst, conductor
BEETHOVEN Symphony No. 5
SHOSTAKOVICH Symphony No. 10

All programs and artists are subject to change.

Ticket packages for the three Fate and Freedom: Music of Beethoven and Shostakovich Cleveland Orchestra concerts October 24-26 start at $93. Tickets to individual performances go on sale on August 23. For more information about the variety of subscription packages offered or for other questions, call Cleveland Orchestra Ticket Services at 216-231-1111 or 800-686-1141 or visit us online at clevelandorchestra.com.