Event
The Cleveland Orchestra
Visiting Orchestras Series
The Cleveland Orchestra
Franz Welser-Möst, music director
Tuesday Performance
Strauss — Metamorphosen
Beethoven — Symphony No. 5
Sunday Performance
Schubert — Symphony No. 6
J. Strauss — Overture to Carnival in Rome
Ballet Music from Carnival in Rome
Entr’acte from A Night in Venice
Angelica Polka
With Us at Home (Bei uns z’Haus) Waltzes
Quadrille from The Gypsy Baron
The Visiting Orchestras series returns with the first of two programs featuring the precision and refined artistry of The Cleveland Orchestra. Led by Music Director Franz Welser-Möst, the program brings together two works separated by more than a century yet linked by a shared sense of mourning, loss and reflection. The performance opens with Strauss’ Metamorpohsen, a masterful study in counterpoint and an elegiac meditation on the destruction of European cultural life during World War II. Subtly embedded within the score is a reference to Beethoven, pointing toward the evening’s second half. The program concludes with Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony, a work whose iconic opening and relentless forward momentum have come to define the symphonic tradition, reshaping its scale, structure and expressive force.
In their second of two performances, Music Director Franz Welser-Möst leads The Cleveland Orchestra in a masterfully curated program that balances symphonic depth with the buoyant charm of the Viennese ballroom. The evening opens with Schubert’s Sixth Symphony, a work often seen as a bridge between the Classical elegance of Haydn and the more expansive Romantic voice Schubert would later pioneer. The program’s second half turns to the music of Johann Strauss II as Welser-Möst steers the orchestra through a selection of the Waltz King’s polkas and waltzes, marked by rhythmic wit, color and a distinctive Viennese flair.
Music and Museum
Tickets include same-day admission to The Baker Museum. Special museum hours on day of The Cleveland Orchestra performances: January 26, 10am-7:30pm, Sunday, January 31, noon-7pm. In addition, the doors to Hayes Hall will open 90 minutes prior to these performances. Arrive early to enjoy the exhibitions and light fare available at Heidi's Place.
The Visiting Orchestras series is generously sponsored by Judy and Verne Istock.
The Cleveland Orchestra
The Cleveland Orchestra
The Cleveland Orchestra, under the leadership of Franz Welser-Möst since 2002, is one of the most sought-after performing ensembles in the world. Year after year, the ensemble exemplifies extraordinary artistic excellence, creative programming, and community engagement. In recent years, The New York Times has called Cleveland “the best in America” for its virtuosity, elegance of sound, variety of color and chamber-like musical cohesion.
Founded by Adella Prentiss Hughes, the orchestra performed its inaugural concert in December 1918. By the middle of the century, decades of growth and sustained support had turned the ensemble into one of the most admired around the world.
The past decade has seen an increasing number of young people attending concerts, bringing fresh attention to The Cleveland Orchestra’s legendary sound and committed programming. More recently, the Orchestra launched several bold digital projects, including the streaming platform, Adella.live, and its own recording label. Together, they have captured the orchestra’s unique artistry and the musical achievements of the Welser-Möst and Cleveland Orchestra partnership.
Since 1918, seven music directors — Nikolai Sokoloff, Artur Rodziński, Erich Leinsdorf, George Szell, Lorin Maazel, Christoph von Dohnányi and Franz Welser-Möst — have guided and shaped the ensemble’s growth and sound. Through concerts at home and on tour, broadcasts, and a catalog of acclaimed recordings, The Cleveland Orchestra is heard today by a growing group of fans around the world.
Franz Welser-Möst
Franz Welser-Möst
For 23 years, Franz Welser-Möst has shaped an unmistakable sound culture as music director of The Cleveland Orchestra. Under his leadership, the orchestra has earned repeated international acclaim for its musical excellence, continued its strong commitment to new music, and brought opera back to the stage of the Severance Music Center. In recent years, the orchestra also launched its own streaming platform, Adella.live, and a recording label. Today, it boasts one of the youngest audiences in the United States.
In addition to residencies in the U.S., Europe and China, Welser-Möst and the orchestra perform regularly at the world’s leading international festivals. He remains music director until 2027, making him the longest-serving music director of The Cleveland Orchestra.
As a guest conductor, Franz Welser-Möst enjoys a particularly close and productive artistic partnership with the Vienna Philharmonic. He regularly conducts the orchestra in subscription concerts at the Vienna Musikverein, as well as on tours in Europe, Japan, China and the U.S. At the Salzburg Festival, Welser-Möst has set new standards in interpretation as an opera conductor with performances including Rusalka, Fidelio, Aribert Reimann’s Lear and Puccini’s Il trittico.
Welser-Möst has also received major honors and awards, and many of his recordings have won international awards.
