Fall Festival, THE CUNNING LITTLE VIXEN, Benjamin Britten and More Set for Cleveland Orchestra's 2013-14 Season

The Cleveland Orchestra has announced its 2013-14 season. Music Director Franz Welser-Möst will introduce a Fall Festival, pairing symphonies by Beethoven and Shostakovich, and an all-Brahms weekend with two programs featuring Brahms's Violin Concerto and his Second and Fourth Symphonies. Mr. Welser-Möst brings opera back to Severance Hall, with a semi-staged production of Janácek's The Cunning Little Vixen. Guest artists returning to Severance Hall include Leon Fleisher, Mitsuko Uchida, Radu Lupu, and conductors Christoph von Dohnányi, Pierre Boulez, and Herbert Blomstedt. The Orchestra celebrates the 100th anniversary of the birth of Benjamin Britten with performances of his Spring Symphony, Violin Concerto, and Serenade for Tenor, Horn, and Strings.

FRANZ WELSER-MÖST CONDUCTS
In his twelfth season as Music Director, Franz Welser-Möst introduces a Fall Festival in October featuring symphonies by Beethoven and Shostakovich in three programs. The first program is Beethoven Symphony No. 3 ("Eroica") and Shostakovich Symphony No. 6. The second program is Beethoven Symphony No. 4 and Shostakovich Symphony No. 8. The final program pairs Beethoven Symphony No. 5 and Shostakovich Symphony No. 10. In addition to conducting the performances at Severance Hall, Mr. Welser-Möst will speak about the program pairings in a special festival preview. He commented, "The dream of freedom inspired the founding of our society. Political and social freedom is presented so emotionally and clearly in Beethoven's music. By listening to the music of Beethoven and Shostakovich in juxtaposition, we experience their ideas of freedom from different eras, yet from today's perspective."

Franz Welser-Möst continues an emphasis on operatic and choral repertoire in the 2013-14 season, with the Cleveland premiere performances of Janá?ek's opera The Cunning Little Vixen and performances of Beethoven's Mass in C major and Britten's Spring Symphony. Soprano Martina Janková will return to perform the title role in The Cunning Little Vixen. The cast also includes bass-baritone Alan Held and mezzo-sopranos Jennifer Johnson Cano and Julie Boulianne.

Mr. Welser-Möst will conduct Beethoven's Mass in C major with Luba Orgonášová, soprano, Kelly O'Connor, mezzo-soprano, Herbert Lippert, tenor, Ruben Drole, baritone, and the Cleveland Orchestra Chorus. The program also includes Beethoven's Grosse Fuge arranged for string orchestra and Messiaen's Trois petites liturgies de la Présence Divine, with Joela Jones, piano, Cynthia Millar, ondes martenot, and Women of the Cleveland Orchestra Chorus. Messiaen wrote the text for the piece, and composed the work during World War II. In his own words, he described his intent: "It proclaims theological truths using terms borrowed, in all humility, from the Holy Scriptures. The principal idea is that of the Divine Presence, with each section dedicated to a different kind of presence."

The music of Brahms will be featured in two programs in January 2014. The first program begins with the Academic Festival Overture and the second begins with the Tragic Overture; each is followed by the Violin Concerto with Julia Fischer. The first program concludes with Symphony No. 2 and the second with Symphony No. 4.

COMPLETE BEETHOVEN PIANO CONCERTO CYCLE
Leon Fleisher, the Orchestra's new Artist-in-Residence for the 2013-14 season, returns to appear with the Orchestra for the first time since 2003, making his Severance Hall conducting debut. He will lead a program including Beethoven's Piano Concertos Nos. 2 and 3 with Mitsuko Uchida as soloist. Mr. Fleisher has appeared with the Orchestra in 70 concerts, beginning with his Cleveland Orchestra debut in October 1946. He made his conducting debut with the Orchestra at a concert in Lakewood, Ohio, in 1978. Mr. Fleisher recorded the complete Beethoven Piano Concerto cycle with George Szell and The Cleveland Orchestra in the 1950s and ?60s. Originally recorded for Columbia Masterworks, the recordings were re-issued in 1990 and 2006 by Sony. As Artist-in-Residence, Mr. Fleisher will present a piano masterclass during the 2013-14 season. The position of Artist-in-Residence is made possible by the Malcolm E. Kenney Artist-in-Residence Fund.

Mitsuko Uchida has appeared annually with the Orchestra since 2002, and five times prior to that from 1990 to 2002. Her 2009 recording of Mozart's Piano Concertos Nos. 23 and 24 with The Cleveland Orchestra won a Grammy Award for Instrumental Soloist Performance with Orchestra.

Radu Lupu will perform Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 4 under the direction of Franz Welser-Möst in a program with Mozart's Symphony No. 38 ("Prague"). The program also includes Jörg Widmann's Teufel Amor - Sinfonischer Hymnos nach Schiller.

In the opening concert of the season, Hélène Grimaud will perform Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 5 ("Emperor") with the Orchestra under the direction of guest conductor Fabio Luisi. The program concludes with Mahler's Fourth Symphony, featuring soprano Maureen McKay.

Beethoven's First Piano Concerto will be performed by Imogen Cooper with guest conductor Jane Glover. C.P.E. Bach's Sinfonia No. 2 opens the program and, following the Concerto, the program concludes with Vanhal's Sinfonia in G minor and Haydn's Symphony No. 103 ("Drum Roll").

BOULEZ, DOHNÁNYI, AND BLOMSTEDT
Pierre Boulez returns to conduct two programs in 2014. Schoenberg's Verklärte Nacht (Transfigured Night) opens the first program, followed by his Accompaniment to a Cinematographic Scene. The program concludes with Bartók's Violin Concerto No. 2 with Nikolaj Znaider. The second program includes Debussy's La Mer and Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun. Music Director Laureate Christoph von Dohnányi returns to conduct an all Schumann program with Symphonies Nos. 2 and 4. Herbert Blomstedt makes his sixth set of appearances at Severance Hall in performances of the Dvo?ák Cello Concerto with Cleveland Orchestra principal cello Mark Kosower and Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 6 ("Pathétique").

Benjamin Britten COMMEMORATION
The 2013-14 season marks the 100th anniversary commemoration of Benjamin Britten's birth. Born November 22, 1913, Britten is one of the most celebrated and often performed British composers. The Cleveland Orchestra commemorates his birth in three programs. Franz Welser-Möst conducts Britten's Spring Symphony with soprano Kate Royal, mezzo-soprano Jamie Barton, tenor John Tessier, and the Cleveland Orchestra Chorus and Children's Chorus. Britten described the Spring Symphony as "a symphony not only dealing with the Spring itself but with the progress of Winter to Spring and the reawakening of the earth and life which that means."

Marek Janowski will conduct Britten's Serenade for Tenor, Horn, and Strings with tenor Matthew Polenzani and Richard King, Cleveland Orchestra principal horn. The Serenade is a song cycle about night, sleep, and death, with texts by six British poets. An evocative horn solo is followed by the six songs, and then reprised off-stage.

Janine Jansen will perform Britten's Violin Concerto under the direction of Vladimir Jurowski. Ms. Jansen, who recorded the piece with the London Symphony Orchestra said, "It is written so well, it's really an amazing piece to play....The whole coda - this is the most impressive moment. It starts like a prayer, but it ends in a kind of scream - it's incredible. Every time one plays it, one can't move afterwards, physically and emotionally."

GIANCARLO GUERRERO
Principal Guest Conductor of Cleveland Orchestra Miami Giancarlo Guerrero will conduct a program at Severance Hall featuring guest artist Yuja Wang in Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 3. The program begins with Prokofiev's Classical Symphony and concludes with Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade. In his memoir, Rimsky-Korsakov called the work inspired by the Arabian Nights folk tales "a kaleidoscope of fairy-tale images."

DANIEL R. LEWIS YOUNG COMPOSER FELLOW
Ryan Wigglesworth begins a two-year tenure as The Cleveland Orchestra's seventh Daniel R. Lewis Young Composer Fellow in September 2013. Mr. Wigglesworth has been commissioned to create a new work to be premiered by the Orchestra in the 2014-15 season. The United States premiere of Mr. Wigglesworth's Sternenfall will be conducted by Franz Welser-Möst in March 2014. Mr. Wigglesworth will also participate in rehearsals, masterclasses, and educational activities serving the Northeast Ohio community. The Daniel R. Lewis Young Composer Fellow program began in 1998. Works by the composers are commissioned by The Cleveland Orchestra through the Young Composers Endowment Fund, which was established in 1997 by a $1 million gift from Jan R. and Daniel R. Lewis, who reside in Florida. Mr. Lewis is the Chairman of the Miami Music Association, which supports Cleveland Orchestra Miami.

British composer Ryan Wigglesworth was appointed Composer in Residence at the English National Opera in April 2012. His orchestral song cycle Augenlieder was awarded the vocal prize at the 2010 British Composer Awards. Mr. Wigglesworth's recent compositions include three works for the BBC Symphony Orchestra: Sternenfall (2007); The Genesis of Secrecy, commissioned for the 2009 BBC Proms and premiered by Sir Andrew Davis; and Augenlieder, first performed by soprano Claire Booth under the composer's direction at the Barbican in 2009. A First Book of Inventions was premiered by the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra in 2010, and his recent Violin Concerto, written for Gordan Nikolic and the Netherlands Chamber Orchestra, was premiered in Amsterdam in 2012. His current projects include a song cycle for tenor Mark Padmore, an orchestral work to mark the centenary of Benjamin Britten's birth for the Aldeburgh Festival, and a full-scale opera for the English National Opera. Ryan Wigglesworth can also be seen on the conductor's podium, most recently at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden (Birtwistle's The Minotaur), and with the London Philharmonic, conducting Tippett's A Child of Our Time at Royal Festival Hall.

Born in Yorkshire, Mr. Wigglesworth studied at New College, Oxford and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. He was a Lecturer at Cambridge University and a Fellow of Corpus Christi College from 2007 to 2009.

WORLD AND U.S. PREMIERES
The Cleveland Orchestra will perform a commissioned world premiere by Gabriela Lena Frank for piccolo and orchestra in May 2014 with Cleveland Orchestra solo piccolo Mary Kay Fink and guest conductor David Robertson. Born in Berkeley, California, to a mother of mixed Peruvian/Chinese ancestry and a father of Lithuanian/Jewish descent, Gabriela Lena Frank explores her multicultural heritage through her compositions. Inspired by the works of Béla Bartók and Alberto Ginastera, Ms. Frank is similarly a musical anthropologist. She has traveled extensively throughout South America and her works reflect and refract her studies of Latin-American folklore, incorporating poetry, mythology, and native musical styles into a western classical framework. Her recent works have been premiered by the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra (La Centinela y la Paloma [The Keeper and the Dove]) and the Los Angeles Philharmonic (New Andean Songs).

In addition to the premieres of the Frank and Wigglesworth works, other contemporary works to be performed during the 2013-14 season include Christopher Rouse's Rapture, under the direction of David Robertson, and the United States premiere of Jörg Widmann's Teufel Amor - Sinfonischer Hymnos nach Schiller with Franz Welser-Möst. Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Christopher Rouse wrote Rapture for the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra in 2000. The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review noted, "Rapture shows off the orchestra collectively and individually. Its resplendent scoring is both rich and bright. Rouse writes for virtuoso orchestra, with solos within sections and not just for principal players."

Jörg Widmann was The Cleveland Orchestra's Daniel R. Lewis Young Composer Fellow from 2009 to 2011. The Orchestra premiered his work Flûte en suite with Cleveland Orchestra principal flute Joshua Smith in 2011. Mr. Widmann's work Teufel Amor - Sinfonischer Hymnos nach Schiller is based on a remaining fragment of a poem by Schiller. The text that inspired the composition is: "Sweet Amor, remain in melodic flight." Mr. Widmann said, "My imagination was fired by Schiller's fragment; his conception of the flight of Amor as the heights and depths of a melodic progression inspired me to compose a symphonic hymnos which praises the marvels of love - even in its devilish incarnation."

GLOBAL AMBASSADORS
Franz Welser-Möst and The Cleveland Orchestra embark on their thirteenth international tour together in November 2013. The tour launches with a performance on the Great Performers series at Lincoln Center in New York. In Europe, the Orchestra will perform 12 concerts, in Hamburg, Frankfurt, Paris, Luxembourg, Cologne, Linz, and Vienna.

CONDUCTOR AND SOLOIST DEBUTS
Guest conductors making their Cleveland Orchestra debuts in the 2013-14 season are Jane Glover and Vladimir Jurowski. Other artists debuting this season include pianist Imogen Cooper, sopranos Maureen McKay and Kate Royal, mezzo-sopranos Jamie Barton and Julie Boulianne, and tenor Herbert Lippert. Conductors Jakob Hr?ša and Vassily Sinaisky along with pianist Yuja Wang and soprano Luba Orgonášová will make their Severance Hall debuts - they have performed with the Orchestra at Blossom Music Center. (Ms. Orgonášová will make her Cleveland Orchestra debut at the 2013 Blossom Music Festival.)

RETURNING ARTISTS
Several conductors make return appearances this season: Music Director Laureate Christoph von Dohnányi; Principal Guest Conductor of Cleveland Orchestra Miami Giancarlo Guerrero; Marin Alsop, Herbert Blomstedt, Pierre Boulez, Marek Janowski, Fabio Luisi, David Robertson, Osmo Vänskä, and Artist-in-Residence Leon Fleisher (in his Severance Hall conducting debut). Returning soloists include Rudolf Buchbinder, Jennifer Johnson Cano, Elizabeth DeShong, Ruben Drole, Julia Fischer, David Fray, Kirill Gerstein, Hélène Grimaud, Alan Held, Martina Janková, Janine Jansen, Radu Lupu, Cynthia Millar, Kelley O'Connor, Garrick Ohlsson, Matthew Polenzani, John Relyea, Jessica Rivera, Garrett Sorenson, John Tessier, Mitsuko Uchida, and Nicolaj Znaider.

The season features five members of the Orchestra as soloists: William Preucil, Concertmaster, in Dvo?ák's Violin Concerto; Mark Kosower, Principal Cello, in the Dvo?ák Cello Concerto; Mary Kay Fink, Solo Piccolo, in the world premiere Cleveland Orchestra commission of Gabriela Lena Frank's Piccolo Concerto; Richard King, Principal Horn, in Britten's Serenade for Tenor, Horn, and Strings; and Joela Jones, Principal Keyboards, in Messiaen's Trois petites liturgies de la Présence Divine.

Subscriptions for the 2013-14 Season are on sale now and start at just $90 for a four-concert package. Subscribers receive seating priority over single-ticket buyers, ticket exchange privileges, and other benefits. Tickets to individual performances go on sale in August. For more information about the variety of subscription packages offered or for other questions, call Ticket Services at 216-231-1111 or 800-686-1141 or visit us online at clevelandorchestra.com.

The Severance Hall Ticket Office is located on street level in the Smith Lobby. The entrance and 15-minute Ticket Service parking are along the west side of the building, on East Boulevard. Severance Hall Ticket Office hours are Monday through Friday from 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. and, from September through May, Saturdays from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. (closed Sundays and holidays except for those days with performances, when the Ticket Office will be open three hours prior to each performance).

Free bus service is available to Friday Morning Concert patrons, departing from Akron, Beachwood, Brecksville, and Westlake. Subscribers can sign up for bus service when renewing their season package. Now offered for the third consecutive season, bus service is sponsored by the Women's Committee of The Cleveland Orchestra.

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