Thu 10/31 @ 7:30PM
Sat 11/2 @ 8PM
“Hearing one of the greatest creative minds in history tackling the biggest questions in human existence is profoundly inspiring,” says the Cleveland Orchestra about their upcoming program featuring Beethoven’s Mass in C Major.
The piece in question is nowhere near as familiar as another of the composer’s big choral works, his Symphony No. 9, receiving only a fraction the number of performances.
This weekend it receives two performances, featuring the Cleveland Orchestra chorus and four soloists: soprano Luba Orgonášová in her Severance Hall debut, mezzo-soprano Kelley O’Connor, tenor Herbert Lippert in his Cleveland Orchestra debut, and baritone Ruben Drole.
The Mass in C Major leads off an evening of music that also includes Beethoven’s Grosse Fuge, and Olivier Messiaen’s Trois petites liturgies de la Présence Divine, another piece that tackles big existential issues. It includes use of ondes martenot, a pioneering electronic instrument, which will be played by Cynthia Millar. Cleveland Orchestra keyboard player Joela Jones is also featured in the piece on piano.
Franz Welser-Möst is back on the podium.
Ticket holders can also take in a pre-concert talk in Severance Hall’s Reinberger Chamber Hall by Baldwin-Wallace Conservatory professor Michael Strasser titled “Grandeur and Mystery: Two Visions of the Divine.” That takes place an hour before each concert.
Tickets are $49-$162.
Photo: Luba Orgonášová
http://www.clevelandorchestra.com/index.aspx