Cleveland Orchestra Marathon on WCLV Thanksgiving Day!

On Thursday, November 26, WCLV 104.9 FM is presenting an unprecedented all-day, all-night marathon of music from Cleveland Orchestra performances.

WCLV will air eight full-length concerts from the past several years, including conductors Franz Welser-Möst, Robert Porco, Michael Tilson Thomas, Giancarlo Guerrero, and Mitsuko Uchida. Works include Beethoven's Symphony No. 3 ("Eroica"); Brahms's Symphony No. 1; Dvorak's Symphony No. 5; Lorin Maazel's arrangement of music from Wagner's Ring cycle (Ring Without Words); Bruckner's Symphony No. 5; and Mozart Piano Concertos conducted and performed by Mitsuko Uchida.

For the details, or to listen live online, visit wclv.com.

Fridays@7

To see all the fun, check out the slideshow below

All photos: Cleveland Orchestra Media Relations Alisa Weilerstein reaches poetic heights with Dvorak and Cleveland Orchestra An excerpt from cleveland.com by Zachary Lewis, The Plain Dealer November 20, 2009, 11:24AM Shuman AssociatesCellist and Cleveland native Alisa Weilerstein captures the spotlight at Severance Hall this weekend in a performance of Dvorak's Cello Concerto with the Cleveland Orchestra. Cleveland Orchestra What: Jonathan Nott conducts works by Dvorak, Strauss, and Anderson. When: 7 p.m. Friday and 8 p.m. Saturday. Where: Severance Hall, 11001 Euclid Ave., Cleveland. Tickets: $36-$110. Call 216-231-1111 or visit clevelandorchestra.com. Several aspects of the Cleveland Orchestra’s program this weekend could have served as the featured attraction: a world premiere, a conductor’s debut, an orchestral showpiece. Leave it to Alisa Weilerstein, though, cellist and hometown girl extraordinaire, to outshine them all with Dvorak’s Cello Concerto and handily steal the show at Severance Hall. Not that she’s an attention hog. No, it’s just that Weilerstein, a Cleveland native now acclaimed around the world, is an artist of uncommon expressive powers, one who employs her instrument not as a tool but as an extension of her voice. When she takes the stage, even the most well-known of scores becomes a new adventure. Riding what may be her ideal musical vehicle, Weilerstein unveils the many facets of her artistic personality. In addition to her technical accomplishment and deep knowledge of the score, she demonstrates playful, lyrical, and spellbinding sides, conveying solo and subordinate material with equal fervor. And that’s just the opening. In the Adagio, listeners partake of her mellifluous offering as if it were Communion, and in the Finale, she brings free, pulsating energy to a rendition full of fire but without brimstone. Throughout, conductor Jonathan Nott, in his Cleveland debut, keeps the orchestra taut and alert, while the horns make uniquely cohesive contributions. Nott and the orchestral showpiece, Strauss’s “Also Sprach Zarathustra,” come in a close second after Weilerstein. Leading from memory, the principal conductor of Germany’s Bamberg Symphony Orchestra turns in a reading high on momentum and drama if occasionally too light in weight. Although “Also Sprach” is based on the writings of Nietzsche, it isn’t philosophy that interests Nott. Instead, he zeros in on the music’s visceral potential, guiding a whirlwind tour of Strauss’s mystical sonic realm. Everyone has an idea of how the famous “Sunrise” portion should sound. To this listener, Nott’s account seems unjustly hurried. But no quibbles here with the ensuing movements, in which the conductor gives the strings license to sing at will and lets them show off their phenomenal sense of ensemble. In the “Science” music, Nott crafts a gripping crescendo, beginning with eerie stillness and culminating in a writhing contrapuntal peak. Every section of the orchestra is engaged in the journey, displaying individual or collective virtuosity. Concertmaster William Preucil makes a dashing leader in the “Dance Song,” presiding over a high-flying scene readily evocative of total immersion in sensuousness. But as the piece draws to its cogent close, it’s the flutes who lend the performance its serene, otherworldly aura. © 2009 cleveland.com. All rights reserved.

Artist-In-Residence Inspires Students

From what part of the body does a cellist need to draw strength when she plays? That was a question asked by Cleveland Orchestra Artist-in Residence Alisa Weilerstein, who led a cello masterclass at Reinberger Hall at Severance Hall on Wednesday, Nov. 18. (Her answer: the lower part of the body--legs and abdominal area in particular. The upper body should feel light and free.) Matthew Allen (shown here with Ms. Weilerstein), a student at the Cleveland Institute of Music, along with Mikala Schmitz, and Avery Waite -- both students at the Oberlin College Conservatory of Music -- played for Ms. Weilerstein on Wednesday. During the week they also had coachings with her, as well as the chance to hear orchestra rehearsals for concerts on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday featuring her in Dvorak's Cello Concerto.

A Flutist's Bach

Joshua Smith, principal flute of The Cleveland Orchestra since 1990, has released a collection of J.S. Bach Flute Sonatas now available on the Delos label. Smith teamed up with harpsichordist Jory Vinikour for the recording, which includes Sonatas BWV 1020, 1030, 1031, and 1032 as well as the Partita for solo flute, BWV 1013.

Anthony Kershaw wrote in the online journal Audiophilia, “The program begins with what I consider as the Everest of flute sonatas, the great B minor. All technical demands are taken in easy stride, allowing the gorgeous phrasing and limpid tone to caress the notes….Throughout [the recording] Smith takes the greatest care with phrasing — nothing sounds rushed or breathless, so easy to do in these fiendishly difficult works.”

View a video of Joshua talking about the recording:

The new recording is available at the Cleveland Orchestra Store. For information, call The Cleveland Orchestra Store at (216) 231-7478 or email mailto:TCOstore@clevelandorchestra.com

UH/CWRU Students to Severance

A group of 80+ University Hospital/Case Western Reserve University students attended the concert last Saturday; for many of them it was their first time to hear The Cleveland Orchestra.

Here's a photo slideshow below of their pre-concert dinner hosted by University Hospital. Cosandra Wheeler, Group Sales Manager for the Cleveland Play House, Gary Ginstling, General Manager of The Cleveland Orchestra, and Marjorie Williams, Director of Education and Public Programs at the Cleveland Museum of Art, spoke to the students about cultural opportunities in Cleveland. The students will be sending in comments about their experience. Thanks again to those who generously funded their visit.

Jamey Haddad brings eclectic percussion rhythms to Severance Hall Nov. 20

This Friday, November 20, following The Cleveland Orchestra’s Fridays@7 performance, internationally-renowned world percussionist Jamey Haddad brings together a diverse group of more than 20 musicians for an electrifying performance you won’t want to miss! ClevelandClassical.com caught up with Jamey and cellist Alisa Weilerstein about this week's program. Read their interviews at ClevelandClassical.com!

First up, The Cleveland Orchestra’s concert combines the power of the big theme from 2001: A Space Odyssey with the passionate music of a great concerto. Richard Strauss’s Also sprach Zarathustra (organ and full orchestra blasting) and the heartfelt music of Antonin Dvořák’s cello concerto. Britain’s Jonathan Nott conducts The Cleveland Orchestra, with cellist Alisa Weilerstein.

Plus…
After the concert, the evening continues with Jamey Haddad & Friends. Internationally renowned percussionist Jamey Haddad brings together a diverse group of more than 20 musicians for an electrifying performance you won’t want to miss. Plus a special appearance by cellist Alisa Weilerstein for an over-the-top musical experience.

Includes hyper-accordionist Michael Ward-Bergeman and percussionists Keita Ogawa and Dylan Moffitt, who performed with cellist Alisa Weilerstein and The Cleveland Orchestra in Osvaldo Golijov’s Azul in April 2009. For the post-concert performance, they’ll be joined by Weilerstein – the evening’s featured concert soloist in Dvořák’s Cello Concerto – along with a drum ensemble of 20 musicians from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music and the Cleveland Institute of Music.


How the evening goes:

@5:00 p.m.
>doors open.
>bars open, have a drink, snacks and light food. maybe dinner at the Severance Restaurant (call ahead for that at 216-231-7373).

@7:00 p.m.
>the music begins, there’s no intermission, it’s straight-through like a movie. exciting and to the point.@8:15 p.m. (or so)
>applause, and then it’s on for more. music, drinks, food, relaxing, chatting, Friday fun

@late…
>more music in a different style. ask someone to join you. for dessert, wine, beer, cocktails, and delicious food. drive safely home.

View a photo slideshow of the Orchestra's Fridays@7 performance on October 9:

Read more about Alisa in this week's Scene.

Tickets and more info: click here or call 216-231-1111.

Alisa Weilerstein performs at White House

On November 4, cellist Alisa Weilerstein performed at the White House Music Series. The event, focused on Classical music, included student workshops for 120 middle- and high-school students and an evening concert in the East Room hosted by the President and First Lady.



Ms. Weilerstein grew up in Cleveland and is The Cleveland Orchestra's 2009-10 Artist-In-Residence.



Below, view a video about the Classical music workshops for students, and you can also view video of the entire evening performance at whitehouse.gov. Click on “Photos and Video,” then choose the category “Music & the Arts.”

Classical Music Workshops at the White House




Ms. Weilerstein will perform Dvořák’s Cello Concerto with The Cleveland Orchestra on November 19, 20 and 21.

For more information about Ms. Weilerstein, visit alisaweilerstein.com.

Markus Groh to Fill In for Ailing Bronfman

Pianist Markus Groh will substitute for Yefim Bronfman, who is ill and sends his regrets, in performances of the Brahms Piano Concerto No. 2 on Thursday, Nov. 11, Friday, Nov. 12, and Saturday, Nov. 13 with guest conductor David Robertson and The Cleveland Orchestra at Severance Hall.

Mr. Groh will sign CDs at the Cleveland Orchestra Store after Saturday's concert.

Markus Groh was born in Germany in 1970 and has performed with the New York Philharmonic and the Philadelphia Orchestra. In October he substituted for Nelson Freire in another Brahms concerto -- the Piano Concerto No. 1 -- with the National Symphony in Washington, D.C.

Mr. Groh (pronounced grow) came to the world’s attention after winning the prestigious Queen Elisabeth International Competition in Brussels in 1995, the first German to do so. The Berliner Morgenpost has written, “Groh plays straight, just as God and Brahms instruct him…[he] now ranks at the top of the German tradition, a worthy heir to Backhaus, Edwin Fischer, Wilhelm Kempff.”

Click here for a YouTube video of Markus Groh performing Liszt’s “La Campanella” at the Leipzig Gewandhaus.

The Cleveland Orchestra on the Air

On Wednesday, Nov. 11, Performance Today will broadcast a Cleveland Orchestra performance of Sergei Rachmaninoff's Symphonic Dances, Op. 45, conducted by James Gaffigan at Severance Hall on Oct. 6, 2005.

American Public Media's Performance Today is broadcast on 245 public radio stations across the country and is heard by about 1.2 million people each week. Each station individually decides what time to air the program.

To find out where and when Performance Today is broadcast locally, please visit performancetoday.org.

Wednesday’s show will be available on American Public Media's website for seven days.

Boulez Wins 2009 Kyoto Prize

Frequent Cleveland Orchestra guest conductor and composer Pierre Boulez has been named a laureate of the 2009 Kyoto Prize, an international award now in its 25th year. Founded by Kazuo Inamori, founder and chairman emeritus of Kyocera Corporation, the prize is presented annually in three categories: advanced technology, basic sciences, and arts and philosophy. In a ceremony Nov. 10 in Kyoto, Mr. Boulez was honored in the third category as a composer who “has greatly contributed to contemporary music with his innovative works” and has “acted in a broader field of music as a conductor, a writer and an organizer” through his work as a conductor, composer, and honorary director of the Institute for Research and Coordination Acoustic/Music (IRCAM), which he founded and directed. Mr. Boulez was awarded a prize of 50 million yen (approximately $550,000).

Cleveland Orchestra patrons who would like to congratulate Mr. Boulez are encouraged to send correspondence to Severance Hall to be forwarded to him. Write to Pierre Boulez c/o Severance Hall Communications Dept., 11001 Euclid Ave., Cleveland OH 44106.

Pierre Boulez made his American professional orchestra debut in 1965 with The Cleveland Orchestra and became The Cleveland Orchestra’s first principal guest conductor in 1969. After Music Director George Szell’s death in July 1970, Mr. Boulez served as musical advisor through the 1971-72 season. He'll return to Severance Hall to lead The Cleveland Orchestra in two programs in February 2010 -- one of French works and one of music by Mahler. For more information, visit clevelandorchestra.com

"The Strategist Of Sound" - Reviews From Vienna: Kronen Zeitung

Kronen Zeitung
November 2, 2009

Musikverein: Cleveland, Welser-Möst: In Ideal Harmony
By Karlheinz Roschitz

At their first concert, The Cleveland Orchestra and its music director Franz Welser-Möst had demonstrated the best in romantic and impressionistic sound luxury—in Franz Liszt and Debussy! Now Welser-Möst juxtaposed Beethoven and Shostakovich—and presented Mitsuko Uchida as soloist.

Jubilation, enthusiastic bravo calls, ovations for Uchida and the Clevelanders on the second night. Once again, the orchestra showed how securely and with what consummate ease it can approach the thinking and the sound world of both Viennese classicism and Russian modernism.

Welser-Möst, who inherited the ensemble from his predecessors George Szell, Lorin Maazel and Christoph von Dohnányi, showed for the second time at the Musikverein how he has continued to shape the orchestra and refine its technique. This sound, which can be massive and thunderous as well as lithe and elegant, radiates youthful freshness; the sections are highly concentrated at every moment, the brass is technically excellent. They follow Welser-Möst, the strategist of sound, with impressive intensity.

Dmitri Shostakovich’s Fifth (his symphony in D minor from 1937) was downright riveting, walking a fine line between elemental power with resounding explosions, martial sounds, delicate scherzo moments and profound melancholy. Welser-Möst’s dramaturgy of sound was enchantingly beautiful.

Mitsuko Uchida played Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 4 with splendid feeling, a light touch and perfect balance, freshness, and elegance. The soloistic bravura and the ideal dialogs with Welser-Möst and the orchestra made the audience enthusiastic. It was a triumph for Uchida, who has been associated with the Musikverein since 1963.


Translation by Peter Laki

Reviews From Vienna: Die Presse

Die Presse
Monday, November 2, 2009

“Your Business Is Rejoicing! Your Business Is Rejoicing!”
The Cleveland Orchestra under Welser-Möst Enraptures the Audience in Debussy, Liszt, Beethoven and Shostakovich
By Daniela Tomasovsky

It has been known for a long time that the names of Franz Welser-Möst and his Cleveland Orchestra are synonymous with the greatest richness of color, the most delicate nuances and the cultivation of sound at the highest level. So our American guests have been met with high expectations on the fall 2009 tour – the more so, since Franz Welser-Möst will become the general music director of the Vienna Staatsoper as of 2010. And they did not disappoint: the first two concerts at the Musikverein were a well-deserved success.

On Saturday, the program began with Beethoven’s Fourth Piano Concerto with soloist Mitsuko Uchida. The conductor turned the soft first movement to a painting that left nothing to be desired in terms of clarity and transcendence. The dialog between the orchestra and the soloist evolved in a virtuosic way; Uchida’s interpretation was at once clever and passionate. The soloist didn’t just play the concerto: she lived it, with elaborate body language and gestures. She showed all her virtuosity in the development section and the recapitulation where she had expressive passagework, shimmering trills, powerful chords and chromatic runs to deal with.

Welser-Möst and Uchida infused the second movement, which Beethoven conceived as a confrontation with the dark powers, with high tension. Here is a powerful dialog between piano and orchestra: while the orchestra’s gloomy theme becomes increasingly timid, the heartfelt piano melody gains more and more in self-assurance. The theme of the dark powers, apparently invincible, loses the battle against the singer of love. The movement ends with an elementary outburst of pianistic storm. In the final movement (Rondo Vivace), the pianist displayed her cheerful side: the work concludes in an exuberant and light-hearted way.

After intermission, the concert continued with Dmitri Shostakovich’s Fifth Symphony. Would this highly sensitive conductor be able to give enough emphasis to a work that belongs to the world of social realism? There have been, no doubt, more striking renditions of the Fifth, richer in tempo contrasts. True to himself, Welser-Möst offered an interpretation that opened up new ways of looking at the work. The ironic, parodistic side of the symphony came clearly to the fore. Once again, the conductor placed richness of color and nuances above sheer power and cheap effects. In that, he lived up to what the composer had in mind. After all, the Fifth Symphony was officially seen as the return of the prodigal son under the wings of Soviet cultural policy. The final march was long seen as a glorification of the regime. Yet Shostakovich himself said: “I think that it is clear to everyone what happens in the Fifth. The rejoicing is forced, created under threat. It’s as if someone were beating you with a stick and saying, ‛Your business is rejoicing, your business is rejoicing.’” The rejoicing of the audience after the last movement was not created under threat: with calls of bravo and standing ovations, they brought Welser-Möst back on the podium so many times that finally he gave the Lohengrin Prelude as an encore.

Thursday night’s concert was likewise greeted with a lot of applause, although the Viennese audience had initially been somewhat skeptical because of the somewhat unusual program (witness some empty seats): Debussy’s Nocturnes and Liszt’s Faust Symphony are no regular warhorses. Yet thanks to a strong artistic vision, exquisite musicianship and discipline, even the less-known works turned out to be memorable events.

Monday at 7:30 p.m. at the Musikverein: Brahms Requiem and Widmann’s Chor.


Translation by Peter Laki

2009 Musikverein Residency and Tour - News and Reviews

Click on the highlighted links below to read full reviews and articles from The Cleveland Orchestra's 2009 Musikverein Residency and Tour.

“Cleveland Orchestra leaves on tour” – WKSU 89.7 FM, October 14, 2009

“Cleveland Orchestra’s latest European tour a premiere and an encore” – The Plain Dealer, October 18, 2009

“Cleveland Orchestra conducted by Franz Welser-Möst. Roy Thomson Hall, Toronto. Oct 20, 2009” – Audiophilia.com, October 21, 2009

“Cleveland Orchestra wows Toronto hall with Shostakovich’s Fifth” – The Globe And Mail, October 21, 2009

“Cleveland Orchestra dazzles Toronto audience in prelude to European tour” – The Plain Dealer, October 24, 2009

“Cleveland Orchestra – The highlight of the week-end” – Kulturkompasset, Sweden, October 27, 2009

“The return of Cleveland” – ConcertoNet.com, Paris, October 25, 2009

“Franz Welser-Möst. With the Clevelanders in the Musikverein, with the Philharmonic in the Opera. Going between two worlds.” – News, Austria’s Largest Newsmagazine, October 29, 2009

“Cleveland Orchestra opens Vienna residency with resplendent Liszt, Debussy” – The Plain Dealer, October 29, 2009

“A Dream Come True - Ovations for Welser-Möst and his Cleveland Orchestra” – Österreich, October 31, 2009

“Like ‘Grand Opera!’” – Kronen Zeitung, October 31, 2009

“There’s no better – Franz Welser-Möst and his Cleveland Orchestra” – Der Standard, Vienna, October 31, 2009

“Discipline has a name: Franz Welser-Möst in Vienna and Linz” – Neues Volksblatt, Linz, October 31, 2009

“Cleveland Orchestra's Shostakovich resonates with Vienna” – The Plain Dealer, October 31, 2009

“Cleveland Orchestra rehearsal in Vienna is enticing preview” – The Plain Dealer, October 31, 2009

“Cleveland Orchestra bestills Vienna with Brahms’s ‘German Requiem’” – The Plain Dealer, November 1, 2009

“Your Business Is Rejoicing! Your Business Is Rejoicing!: The Cleveland Orchestra under Welser-Möst Enraptures the Audience in Debussy, Liszt, Beethoven and Shostakovich” – Die Presse, November 2, 2009

“Musikverein: Cleveland, Welser-Möst: In Ideal Harmony” – Kronen Zeitung, November 2, 2009

“Cleveland Orchestra awaits Musikverein finale” – The Plain Dealer, November 2, 2009

“Cleveland Orchestra maestro Franz Welser-Möst will soon have two dream jobs on two different continents” – The Plain Dealer, November 4, 2009

“Cleveland Orchestra, Welser-Möst warmly received in Linz” – The Plain Dealer, November 5, 2009

Quotes from reviews in Amsterdam:

"Anyone who might have wondered whether The Cleveland Orchestra was still the best orchestra in the world under its present music director (since 2002), the 49-year-old Austrian Franz Welser-Möst, may rest assured after the opening measures of Debussy's Nuages. What a wonderful English-horn sound, what enchanting dynamic nuances and what a mysterious richness of colors!" - Parool, Amsterdam, October 24, 2009

"The evening began beautifully with two of Debussy's Nocturnes. With little apparent effort, Franz Welser-Möst drew the most magnificent colors and moods from the orchestra, as if he had been Eduard van Beinum's nephew." - Telegraaf, Amsterdam, October 24, 2009

You can also listen to daily tour reports from the road featured on WCLV 104.9 FM.

Conclusion of Musikverein Residency and Tour

The Cleveland Orchestra's six-city trip concluded tonight at the Brucknerhaus in Linz.

See images from the tour and hear Music Director Franz Welser-Möst speak about the accomplishments of the ten concerts.

Alisa Weilerstein to Perform at White House on Nov. 4

On Wednesday, November 4, Cleveland-native cellist and Cleveland Orchestra Artist-in-Residence Alisa Weilerstein will perform in the next White House Music Series event that will focus on Classical music. Ms. Weilerstein is one of four performers invited to take part in the event that will include student workshops for 120 middle and high school students followed by an evening concert featuring Ms. Weilerstein, violinist Joshua Bell, guitarist Sharon Isbin, and pianist Awadagin Pratt in the East Room.

The White House Music Series was created by First Lady Michelle Obama to celebrate the arts, demonstrate the importance of arts education and to encourage young people who believe in their talent to create a future for themselves in the arts community be it as a hobby or as a profession. Previous White House events have featured jazz, country and Latin musicians.

The concert will be streamed live at whitehouse.gov and rebroadcast on SIRIUS XM Radio’s Symphony Hall channel, SIRIUS channel 80 and XM channel 78 over the weekend. Video of the event will be available at whitehouse.gov following the performance.

Ms. Weilerstein will perform Dvořák’s Cello Concerto with The Cleveland Orchestra on November 19, 20 and 21.

For more information about Ms. Weilerstein, visit alisaweilerstein.com.

Partnership Pairs Preschoolers with Music

A new partnership with PNC called “Grow Up Great: a Great Early Start in the Arts” helped to bring preschoolers to the Orchestra's first concert in the PNC Musical Rainbow series on Friday, Oct. 31 in Reinberger Chamber Hall of Severance Hall. Children met “The Trusty Trombone” in a close-up, interactive program by former Cleveland Orchestra trombonist Allen Kofsky. Shown here, teachers and parents from the Early Learning Center at the Quadrangle brought preschoolers to the event.

The new "Grow Up Great" program is establishing “Musical Neighborhoods” in selected Cleveland Metropolitan School District preschool classrooms as well as at Catholic Charities Head Start sites, like the Fatima Early Learning Center in Cleveland.

On Nov. 1, Orchestra consultant Vanessa Bond visited a Fatima class, with the student shown here correctly identifying the trombone the class heard at last week’s Musical Rainbow concert. Bond kept the children moving with animal finger puppets, shakers, and drums for their first taste of the music enrichment they’ll receive over the coming months. The children were quick to identify the jungle animals, imitate rhythms, and sing along with the energetic visitor.

Teachers at each of the Orchestra’s five PNC partner sites will learn to incorporate Bond’s lessons into their own curriculum so that music becomes a seamless part of each preschool day. As the year progresses, musicians from the Orchestra will visit for small-group interactions, and parents will be involved, too.

History and Tradition in Vienna

Dr. Otto Biber has been the archivist at Vienna's Musikverein for 35 years. A historic collection, the Archives contains original manuscripts by Haydn, Beethoven, Brahms, Mahler and Bruckner. Dr. Biber displays clues about the composers' process of creating their work. The priceless music includes sketches for Beethoven's Fifth Symphony and Schubert's manuscript for his Unfinished Symphony.

Last night, The Cleveland Orchestra performed Daniel R. Lewis Young Composer Fellow Jörg Widmann's Chor and the Brahms Requiem in the large hall of the Musikverein. Below are some backstage photos of Franz receiving a fan in his studio and Gary Gintsling, Cleveland Orchestra general manager, congratulating soprano Malin Hartelius for her performance.

Plain Dealer Musikverein Review

Cleveland Orchestra bestills Vienna with Brahms' 'German Requiem'

By Zachary Lewis, The Plain Dealer

November 01, 2009, 6:31PM [Cleveland time - that's 12:31 am Vienna]

Photo: Zachary Lewis

Flanked to his right by soprano Malin Hartelius and his left by baritone Simon Keenlyside, Cleveland Orchestra music director Franz Welser-Möst looks over the applauding crowd after a performance of the Brahms Requiem Sunday night at the Musikverein with the Vienna Singverein.

VIENNA -- The customary response to exceptional performances is to erupt into applause more or less immediately. Sunday night at the Musikverein, however, the audience did something a bit different.

As the final notes of Brahms' "A German Requiem" wafted to the ceiling, sent aloft by the Cleveland Orchestra and the Vienna Singverein, all under the direction of Franz Welser-Möst, the sold-out house collectively held its breath, savoring the stillness before showering praise.

In part, this was a reflection of the sheer power of Brahms' grandest work, a massive gesture of consolation ending on the word "blessed."

But the reaction also spoke to the high caliber of the performance, the centerpiece of the orchestra's six-day residency in Vienna and the fruit of much labor. That the performance, the first of two, took place on All Saints' Day made the event doubly meaningful, while the sight of the historic Singverein chorus, forming a vast wall of humanity on the stage behind the orchestra, was unforgettable.

Only twice before Sunday's concert had the two ensembles rehearsed as one. Yet so unified were they in purpose, they sounded as if they'd been playing Brahms together for years.

Following a presentation of the work earlier this fall in Cleveland, the orchestra made first-rate collaborators here, mimicking vocalism and supporting the singers with utmost sensitivity. The Singverein, singing the German text as native speakers, was an expressive treat for American ears.

"Den alles Fleisch" ("For all flesh"), the second movement, was intimidating and comforting in equal measure, hinging on Paul Yancich's timpani and shaped by Welser-Möst so that each quality accentuated the other. "Selig sind die Toten" ("Blessed are the dead"), the finale, by contrast, embodied nothing but serenity.

Baritone Simon Keenlyside made for a dramatic vocal actor, sonorously imploring the heavens in "Herr, lehre doch mich" ("Lord, make me to know") and prophesying with conviction in the sixth movement. On his heels came the Singverein demanding with hurricane-like force an answer to "Death, where is thy sting?"

For her vital part, soprano Malin Hartelius delivered her hopeful message with radiant sincerity. The voice may not be big, but there's no question of its beauty.

A briefer, more stunned variety of pre-applause silence followed the first work on the program, Jörg Widmann's "Chor," a contemporary piece whose skillful but arduous exploration of acoustic space resonated with the Brahms and demonstrated the orchestra's interest in new music.

"Chor" also resonated rather nicely in the Musikverein. In between evocative passages for off-stage trumpet, instruments across the orchestra engaged in an alluring series of sonic tricks, passing single notes around the room without any discernible break. As trumpet turned into xylophone, then into violin, the effect in such a reverberant hall was bewitching.

It's an unforgiving piece for the musicians, demanding dovetailed transitions at the highest of pitches. But just like the Brahms, they conquered it.

© 2009 cleveland.com. All rights reserved.