CLEVELAND, Ohio – The time for holding back is over. The time to move on is now.
That’s the non-artistic theme of the Cleveland Orchestra’s next Severance Music Center season.
Full of ambitious plans, big names and artistic enterprise, the 2023-24 season signals an eagerness to close the book on the pandemic and get back to business.
“We are looking ahead with great excitement,” said Andre Gremillet, the orchestra’s president and chief executive. “We want audiences to be excited. More than ever, we need new people in the hall.”
Much of the 2023-24 season, starting with a performance of the beloved film “Amadeus,” appears designed to accomplish exactly that. Indeed, in some cases, it’s as if the orchestra surveyed the field and plucked the brightest flowers to draw listeners to Severance Music Center.
To wit: Slated for recital, concerto or chamber-music appearances are cellist Yo-Yo Ma, baritones Matthias Goerne and Simon Keenlyside, violinist Leila Josefowicz, and pianists Evgeny Kissin, Yefim Bronfman, Daniil Trifonov, Yuja Wang, Igor Levit, Marc-Andre Hamelin and Emanuel Ax.
“There’s a really hungry and sophisticated audience here, and there’s nowhere in the world better to play than our halls,” said Gremillet, noting Reinberger Chamber Hall.
All of these are in addition to a brilliant array of guest conductors. Music director Franz Welser-Most has several intriguing programs up his sleeve, including two headed to Carnegie Hall, but in his absence will come such luminaries as composers John Adams and George Benjamin as well as Herbert Blomstedt, Semyon Bychkov, Klaus Makela, and Philippe Herreweghe.
Next season is also packed with debuts, many of them by women. Among the 14 making their Cleveland, Severance or conducting debuts are soprano Aphrodite Patoulidou, pianists Isata Kanneh-Mason and Beatrice Rana, cellist Sol Gabetta, and conductors Dalia Stasevska and Barbara Hannigan (best known as a soprano).
The orchestra has embraced new music with similar warmth. Over the course of the 2023-24 season the orchestra will present 13 works for the first time. Of those, three will be world premieres and nine will be the work of living composers.
“We’re continually looking to add to our family of guest artists,” Gremillet explained. “All of these people are wonderful artists who belong on our stage.”
Perhaps the surest sign of renewed investment in the future is the 2023-24 Severance season finale.
After a gap of several years, and for the first time since the pandemic, the orchestra has slated a fully staged opera production. First came Mozart’s “Le Nozze de Figaro,” then “Cosi Fan Tutte” and “Don Giovanni.” Now, at last, comes Mozart’s “The Magic Flute,” in a production directed by Nikolaus Habjan.
“It doesn’t get any better than that,” Gremillet said. “We really felt this was the time for [staged opera] to come back.”
Season subscriptions are available now. Individual tickets go on sale Monday, Aug. 7. For tickets or details, go to clevelandorchestra.com.
The Cleveland Orchestra’s 2023-24 Severance Music Center season
Thursday-Sunday, Sept. 21-24
Richard Kaufman, conductor
“Amadeus” (film with live orchestra)
Thursday and Sunday, Sept. 28 and Oct. 1
Franz Welser-Most, conductor
Daniil Trifonov, piano
Brahms: Piano Concerto No. 1
Prokofiev: Symphony No. 6
Thursday-Saturday, Oct. 5-7
Welser-Most, conductor
Christoph Sietzen, percussion
Mozart: Symphony No. 29
Staud: “Whereas the reality trembles”
Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 2
Thursday and Friday, Oct. 12-13
Welser-Most, conductor
Simon Keenlyside, baritone
Mahler: Selected Songs
Mahler: Symphony No. 7
Thursday-Saturday, Nov. 9-11
Barbara Hannigan, conductor
Aphrodite Patoulidou, soprano
Haydn: Symphony No. 44
Vivier: “Lonely Child”
Ligeti: “Lontano” for Orchestra
Strauss: Death and Transfiguration
Sunday, Nov. 19
Marc-Andre Hamelin, piano
Ives: Piano Sonata No. 2
R. Schumann: Forest Scenes
Ravel: Gaspard de la Nuit
Friday-Sunday, Nov. 24-26
Pietari Inkinen, conductor
Augustin Hadelich, violin
Dvorak: “Othello” Overture
Tchaikovsky: Violin Concerto
Dvorak: Symphony No. 8
Thursday-Saturday, Nov. 30-Dec. 2
Daniel Harding, conductor
Lauren Snouffer, soprano
Jolas: “The Golden Years”
Mahler: Symphony No. 4
Thursday and Saturday, Dec. 7 and 9
Semyon Bychkov, conductor
Katia Labeque, piano
Marielle Labeque, piano
Anderson: Symphony No. 2 “Prague Panoramas”
Martinu: Concerto for Two Pianos
Tchaikovsky: “Romeo and Juliet” Fantasy-Overture
Thursday-Saturday, Jan. 11-13
Welser-Most, conductor
Krenek: Kleine Symphonie
Mahler/Krenek: Adagio from Symphony No. 10
Bartok: String Quartet No. 3 (String Orchestra Arrangement)
Bartok: Suite from “The Miraculous Mandarin”
Wednesday and Thursday, Jan. 17 and 18
Welser-Most, conductor
Prokofiev: Symphony No. 2
Webern: Symphony
Prokofiev: Symphony No. 5
Thursday, Feb. 1
Leonidas Kavakos, violin
Yo-Yo Ma, cello
Emanuel Ax, piano
Beethoven: Piano Trio Op. 70, No. 1 “Ghost”
Beethoven: Symphony No. 6
Beethoven: Piano Trio Op. 70, No. 2
Friday-Sunday, Feb. 9-11
Herbert Blomstedt, conductor
Schubert: Symphony No. 6
Beethoven: Symphony No. 5
Thursday and Saturday, Feb. 15-17
George Benjamin, conductor
Tim Mead, countertenor
Women of the Cleveland Orchestra Chorus
Ammann: “glut”
Benjamin: “Dream of the Song”
Knussen: “The Way to Castle Yonder”
Ravel: Mother Goose (complete ballet)
Thursday-Sunday, Feb. 22-25
Philippe Herreweghe, conductor
Jean-Guihen Queyras, cello
Beethoven: Overture to “Egmont”
Haydn: Cello Concerto No. 1
Beethoven: Symphony No. 6
Thursday, Feb. 29-Saturday, March 2
Susanna Malkki, conductor
Isata Kanneh-Mason, piano
Bach: Musical Offering: Ricercare
C. Schumann: Piano Concerto
Hindemith: Mathis der Maler (Symphony)
Thursday-Saturday, March 7-9
Fabio Luisi, conductor
Mary Kay Fink, piccolo
Weber: Overture to “Oberon”
Zehavi: “Aurora” Concerto for Piccolo
Brahms: Symphony No. 4
Sunday, March 10
Yefim Bronfman, piano
Schubert: Piano Sonata No. 14 in A Minor
R. Schumann: “Carnival Scenes from Vienna”
Salonen: “Sisar”
Chopin: Piano Sonata No. 3
Thursday, Saturday and Sunday, March 14, 16-17
Welser-Most, conductor
Igor Levit, piano
Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 27
Bruckner: Symphony No. 4 “Romantic”
Thursday-Saturday, March 21-23
Dalia Stasevska, conductor
Josefina Maldonado, mezzo-soprano
Rautavaara: “Cantus Arcticus”
Perry: Stabat Mater
Sibelius: Symphony No. 2
Thursday and Saturday, April 4 and 6
John Adams, conductor
James McVinnie, organ
Timothy McAllister, saxophone
Smith: “Breathing Forests”
Debussy: Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun
Adams: “City Noir”
Thursday-Saturday, April 11-13
Klaus Makela, conductor
Thomas Hampson, conductor
Sol Gabetta, cello
Cleveland Orchestra Chorus
Lopez: “Peru Negro”
Elgar: Cello Concerto
Walton: “Belshazzar’s Feast”
Sunday, April 14
Evgeny Kissin, piano
Matthias Goerne, baritone
R. Schumann: Dichterliebe
Brahms: Selected Songs
Thursday-Saturday, April 18-20
Klaus Makela, conductor
Yuja Wang, piano
Ravel: Piano Concerto for the Left Hand
Stravinsky: Concerto for Piano and Wind Instruments
Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring
Friday-Sunday, April 26-28
Lahav Shani, conductor
Beatrice Rana, piano
Chin: “Subito Con Forza”
Rachmaninoff: Piano Concerto No. 2
Bartok: Concerto for Orchestra
Thursday-Saturday, May 2-4
Welser-Most, conductor
Lang Lang, piano
Saint-Saens: Piano Concerto No. 2 Berlioz: Symphony fantastique
Thursday and Saturday, May 16 and 18; and Friday and Sunday, May 24 and 26
Welser-Most, conductor
Nikolaus Habjan, director
Julian Pregardien, tenor
Ludwig Mittelhammer, baritone
Christina Landshamer, soprano
Mozart: “The Magic Flute” (staged production)
Thursday and Friday, May 23 and 24
Welser-Most, conductor
Leila Josefowicz, violin
Trina Struble, harp
Wagner: Prelude and Liebestod from “Tristan and Isolde”
Reinvere: Concerto for Violin and Harp
Mozart: Serenade No. 10 “Gran Partita”
