Cleveland Orchestra and Franz Welser-Möst Announce 2016 European Festivals Tour

Following The Cleveland Orchestra's critically acclaimed 2015 European Tour and Vienna Residency, Music Director Franz Welser-Möst and the Orchestra announce details of their summer 2016 European Festivals Tour, August 18-24, 2016. This will be their sixteenth international tour together. The Orchestra will perform a total of five concerts, featuring works by Thomas Adès, Richard Strauss, Bartók, and Beethoven, including two programs each at the Salzburg Festival and the Grafenegg Festival in Austria, and a single concert at the Lucerne Festival in Switzerland.

"We always look forward to returning to Europe to perform as part of the world-class festivals in Salzburg, Grafenegg, and Lucerne," said Music Director Franz Welser-Möst. "The tour programs, which we developed in Cleveland, illustrate the Orchestra's extraordinary ability to perform repertoire of the late-20th and early-21st centuries with ease and finesse. The programs include a focus on Thomas Adès repertoire alongside iconic works by Strauss, Bartók, and Beethoven, which was intentional, to provide a unique perspective for the musicians and audiences. On this tour we have a fantastic lineup of guest artists, with Leila Josefowicz, Anja Harteros, and Luba Orgonášová, who each approach their interpretations with insightful musicianship that results in a special blend of artistry with the Orchestra."

Franz Welser-Möst and The Cleveland Orchestra begin the summer 2016 European Festivals Tour in Salzburg, Austria with two performances at the Salzburg Festival, in the Grosses Festspielhaus. On Thursday, August 18, the program features Strauss's Symphonia domestica and violinist Leila Josefowicz as soloist in Thomas Adès's Concentric Paths. On Friday, August 19, the program includes Strauss's Death and Transfiguration and the Four Last Songs with soprano Anja Harteros. This will be the Orchestra's eighth visit to the Salzburg Festival since it first appeared there in 1967. Their most recent appearances at the festival were in 2012, under the direction of Franz Welser-Möst.

On Saturday, August 20 and Sunday, August 21, the Orchestra performs at the Grafenegg Festival in Austria. The Saturday program features Strauss's Symphonia domestica and Leila Josefowicz performing in Adès's Concentric Paths. The Sunday concert opens with Bartók's Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta, and also includes the Four Last Songs with soprano Luba Orgonášová as soloist. TheGrafenegg Festival, which began in 2007, takes place in a park on the grounds of the historic fairytale-like Grafenegg Castle in Lower Austria. Both a modern open-air stage (Wolkenturm) and a concert hall (Auditorium) were built to provide world-class venues for the festival. The Cleveland Orchestra made its first appearance at the Grafenegg Festival in August 2010.

The 2016 European Festivals Tour concludes with a performance at the Lucerne Festival on Wednesday, August 24, with a program of Bartók's Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta and Beethoven's Symphony No. 3 ("Eroica"). The Orchestra first performed at Lucerne in 1967 and most recently in 2014 with Welser-Möst.

For more information visit clevelandorchestra.com.

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