Prokofiev: Symphony No. 6; The Cleveland Orchestra, Franz Welser-Möst (TCO 0010)
Prokofiev composed his Sixth Symphony soon after the triumph of his Fifth. But while he called the Fifth “a symphony of the greatness of the human spirit, a song of praise of free and happy mankind,” its successor somberly reflects on “the wounds that cannot be healed” as World War II came to a devastating close. At times challenging or brash and others lyrical and introspective, The Cleveland Orchestra shines while navigating the profound score. This performance was recorded live at Mandel Concert Hall in October of 2023, opening the season.
Béla Bartók: String Quartet No. 3 (arr. Konopka), Suite from The Miraculous Mandarin; The Cleveland Orchestra, Franz Welser-Möst (TCO 0011)
Assistant Principal Viola Stanley Konopka’s relationship with the chamber music of Bartók goes all the way back to middle school. In his program note, he writes that he used to stay up late to record pieces he liked off the radio and then run to the library to find scores and recordings of these works. He writes “while my middle-school aged peers listened to Iron Maiden and Judas Priest, Bartók was my Metallica.” The Third Quartet is tumultuous and discordant, but also incorporates influences from folk music – all while Bartók forges a new musical path. The Miraculous Mandarin is a pantomime ballet that is full of duality: love and lust, wealth and poverty, overtures and failures, life and death. Bartók’s score is experimental and thrilling, owing – at least in spirit – much to the Second Viennese School. This performance was recorded live at Mandel Concert Hall in January 2024.
Bruckner: Symphony No. 4; The Cleveland Orchestra, Franz Welser-Möst (TCO 0012)
This upcoming release from The Cleveland Orchestra, recorded live in Mandel Concert Hall in March of 2024 shows many facets of Anton Bruckner the composer and Anton Bruckner the man. Throughout this symphony, dubbed “Romantic,” Bruckner seems to simultaneously find himself at odds with romanticism while also carving out a place for himself within it. Music Director Franz Welser-Möst describes it best:
"While Bruckner’s music has become more popular over the past decades, he was misunderstood for much of his life. He was a simple man who was dedicated to the church, yet he was also a genius whose symphonies were so expansive and expressive they are often called “cathedrals in sound.” This term might give the false notion that his music is merely religious in nature, but there’s so much more. His works can be obsessive, extreme, sentimental, highly emotional, sad, or aggressive. Sometimes he seems to be screaming out from the pages of the score, and at others he anticipates 20th-century modernism."