Haydn & Strauss at Severance Music Center

HAYDN Symphony No. 52

R. STRAUSS Four Last Songs

JANÁEK Suite from From the House of the Dead (arr. Jílek)

PUCCINI Final Scene from Suor Angelica

The Cleveland Orchestra Franz Welser-Möst, conductor Asmik Grigorian, soprano

Lithuanian superstar soprano Asmik Grigorian, praised by Franz Welser-Möst as “the complete package” (The New York Times), makes her Cleveland Orchestra debut with a mesmerizing doubleheader: Richard Strauss’s Four Last Songs, a reflection on life, love, and farewells, and the final scene from Puccini’s Suor Angelica, an opera about a nun forced to enter a convent after bearing a child out of wedlock. Haydn’s turbulent Symphony No. 52 showcases the orchestra’s mastery of form and melody, while Janáek’s emotionally charged Suite from From the House of the Dead depicts the brutality of life in a Siberian prison camp.

This program’s Concert Preview lectures will be presented by Roger Klein, Rabbi, Congregation Mishkan Or.