Cleveland Orchestra

Audiences often moan about the length of Handel's "Messiah," but the stirring performance this weekend by the Cleveland Orchestra and Chamber Chorus under Robert Porco quiets such concerns, carrying listeners in a fast-moving current of music and drama.  

The Cleveland Orchestra has announced a $2 million budget shortfall. It's the orchestra's first deficit since 2005, and officials blame it on the sagging global economy. WKSU's Kevin Niedermier reports.  

The practice of abridging Handel is probably here to stay in our hurried times. But audiences in Northeast Ohio will at least find out what they're missing this week at Severance Hall when the Cleveland Orchestra and Cleveland Orchestra chorus perform the composer's "Messiah" in its entirety.  

The Cleveland Orchestra's 2009 annual report shows the institution recorded its first deficit since 2005, a shortfall of $2 million. It also shows its endowment lost more than $27 million in value.  

Excellent as it is, David Robertson's new recording of John Adams's "Doctor Atomic Symphony" doesn't hold a candle to the live performance of the work being offered by the Cleveland Orchestra this weekend. Just as explosive is pianist Markus Groh's performance of Brahms' Piano Concerto No. 2.  

The public hasn't seen much of James Feddeck, the Cleveland Orchestra's new assistant conductor, since his appearance last summer at Blossom Music Center. But what he's been doing in the meantime became clear Sunday when he led the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra in the first concert of its new season.  

Any number of features on the Cleveland Orchestra’s program this weekend at Severance Hall could have served as the main attraction: a world premiere, a conductor’s debut, an orchestral showpiece. But it's Alisa Weilerstein, a cellist and native of Cleveland, who steals the show with Dvorak’s Cello Concerto.  

The Cleveland Orchestra is back from its international tour. Now the focus returns to Severance Hall and the guest artists including opera singers to be featured this season. Music Director Franz Welser Most is also excited about new programs for children and young adults. WKSU's Vivian Goodman reports.  

The Cleveland Orchestra has been playing Beethoven's Fourth Piano Concerto and the Fifth Symphony of Shostakovich for weeks now, both at home and on the road in Europe. Little wonder, then, they sounded sharper than ever Saturday at the Musikverein in Vienna.  

The Cleveland Orchestra and the Vienna Singverein performed Brahms' "A German Requiem" to a sold-out crowd Sunday night at the Musikverein in Vienna. So unified were the two ensembles, it sounded as if they'd been playing Brahms together for years.  

These days Franz Welser-Most, the Conductor of the Cleveland Orchestra is addressing a bit of a different crowd, by doing something that the orchestra hasn't done in decades, performing in the auditoriums of the Cleveland Municipal School District. The goal is to nurture the next generation of young classical musicians and build new audiences among those who may have heard of the Cleveland Orchestra, but have never actually attended a...  

Music director Franz Welser-Most clearly sought to make a distinctive impression Thursday by kicking off the orchestra’s five-day residency in Vienna with a program featuring not the music for which the Cleveland Orchestra or this region is famous, such as Bruckner or Mozart, but rather two out-of-the-way, lesser-known pieces.  

The Cleveland Orchestra's six-day residency in Vienna is nearly over. All that remains is a second performance of the Brahms Requiem tonight at the Musikverein. After that, a performance in nearby Linz, and they're on their way home.  

Zachary Lewis, The Plain Dealer Cleveland Orchestra music director Franz Welser-Most looks over scores in the archives office of the Vienna State Opera. Welser-Most is slated to become general music director of the famed institution next year ...  

Zachary Lewis/The Plain Dealer The Cleveland Orchestra and music director Franz Welser-Most receive applause and a bouquet of flowers at the ensemble's final concert of its European tour Tuesday in Linz, Austria. LINZ, AUSTRIA -- On the eve of their ...