CLEVELAND, Ohio - Think this centennial season is special? Wait until you see what the Cleveland Orchestra has in store for next year.
This 100th anniversary season does indeed boast its share of special projects and guests, but the 2018-19 season announced Sunday also stands apart as a year full of debuts, premieres, unusual repertoire, and significant undertakings.
"I think we approach every season that way, as an opportunity to bring something new to the audience," said chief artist officer Mark Williams.
Even a casual glance over the calendar is revealing: a new production of Strauss's "Ariadne auf Naxos," Mahler's "Resurrection" Symphony No. 2, Bartok's complete "The Wooden Prince," little-known works by Mozart, Prokofiev, Strauss, and Debussy, a Schubert Mass, a recital by Simon Keenlyside, Martinu's Concerto for Two Pianos. The list goes on and on.
Then there are the premieres of works new and old. In addition to giving numerous first Cleveland performances of works by canonic composers, the orchestra also will introduce several newer musical authors, including a new Composer in Residence, Bernd Richard Deutsch. It also will perform a work by one of its own, oboist Jeffrey Rathbun.
"It's a very special thing to have a voice from so deep within the ensemble paying homage to his colleagues," Williams said of Rathbun's work.
The list of guest conductors and soloists is also on par with this year's.
Besides music director Franz Welser-Most, patrons also can look forward to hearing again from conductors Herbert Blomstedt, Jakub Hrusa, Stephane Deneve, Jane Glover, Semyon Bychkov, composer John Adams, and former Clevelander Brett Mitchell.
On the soloist front, there'll be several new faces but also return visits by violinists Christian Tetzlaff and Leila Josefowicz, and from pianists Yefim Bronfman, Mitsuko Uchida (for Bartok, not Mozart), Emanuel Ax, Garrick Ohlsson, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Lang Lang, and Katia and Marielle Labeque.
And that's just the calendar for Cleveland. In addition to Severance Hall, the orchestra also plans residencies in Miami and Bloomington and a tour of China, where it last visited in 1998, during the tenure of music director laureate Christoph von Dohnanyi.
Unlike that of several other major American orchestras of late, Cleveland's presence in China has been "rather light," Williams said. "We felt it was time to go back."
No one at the Cleveland Orchestra consciously set about designing a season of new and unusual music. In this case, that's just how it turned out.
Welser-Most, Williams, and others began with a few firm ideas, then allowed themselves to be led by their own senses of curiosity and the ideas of their guests. In that way, before long, "The season just started to develop its own personality," Williams said.
Subscription packages, $81-$1,863, are available now. Individual tickets, prices not yet determined, go on sale mid-August. All prices subject to change. To order, or to request more information, go to clevelandorchestra.com or call 216-231-1111.
CLEVELAND ORCHESTRA'S 2018-19 SEVERANCE HALL SEASON
Thursday and Saturday, Sept. 20 and 22
Franz Welser-Most, conductor; Alexandre Tharaud, piano
Rathbun: Pantheon
Abrahamsen: Left, alone
Tchaikovsky: Suite from "Swan Lake"
Thursday and Sunday, Sept. 27 and 30
Welser-Most, conductor; Yefim Bronfman, piano
Prokofiev: Symphony No. 1
Bartok: Piano Concerto No. 2
Prokofiev: Symphony No. 3
Saturday, Sept. 29 Gala
Welser-Most, conductor; Lang Lang, piano
Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 24
Strauss: "Die Frau Ohne Schatten" Fantasy
Strauss, Jr.: "Wiener Blut" Waltz
Ravel: La Valse
Thursday-Saturday, Oct. 4-6
Welser-Most, conductor; Joelle Harvey, soprano; Sasha Cooke, mezzo-soprano; Cleveland Orchestra Chorus
Mahler: Symphony No. 2
Thursday-Saturday, Oct. 18-20
Gustavo Gimeno, conductor; Mark Kosower, cello
Barber: Overture to "The School for Scandal"
Ginastera: Cello Concerto No. 2
Rimsky-Korsakov: Scheherazade
Thursday and Saturday, Oct. 25 and 27
Ingo Metzmacher, conductor; Christian Tetzlaff, violin
Webern: Passacaglia
Berg: Violin Concerto
Schoenberg: Pelleas und Melisande
Thursday-Saturday, Nov. 1-3
Matthias Pintscher, conductor; Kirill Gerstein, piano
Rachmaninoff: Piano Concerto No. 3
Bartok: "The Wooden Prince" (complete)
Thursday and Saturday, Nov. 8 and 10
Alain Altinoglu, conductor; Joshua Smith, flute
Debussy: Suite from "Pelleas and Melisande"
Pintscher: Transir (for flute and orchestra)
Ravel: Rapsodie espagnole
Ravel: Pavane for a Dead Princess
Ravel: Bolero
Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday, Nov. 15, 17, and 18
Jakub Hrusa, conductor; Emanuel Ax, piano
Kabelac: "Mystery of Time"
Stravinsky: Capriccio
Shostakovich: Symphony No. 5
Friday-Sunday, Nov. 23-25
William Preucil, leader and violin
Vivaldi: The Four Seasons
Schumann: "Rhenish" Symphony No. 3
Thursday-Saturday, Nov. 29-Dec. 1
John Adams, conductor; Leila Josefowicz, violin; Robert Walters, English horn; Michael Sachs, trumpet
Adams: Short Ride in a Fast Machine
Copland: Quiet City
Copland: Suite from "Appalachian Spring" (1945 orchestration)
Adams: Scheherazade.2
Thursday-Sunday, Dec. 6-9
Jane Glover, conductor; Lauren Snouffer, soprano; Tamara Mumford, mezzo-soprano; Paul Appleby, tenor; Henry Waddington, bass-baritone; Cleveland Orchestra Chamber Chorus
Handel: Messiah
Sunday, Jan. 13; Thursday, Jan. 17; and Saturday, Jan. 19
Welser-Most, conductor; Tamara Wilson, soprano; Andreas Schager, tenor; Daniela Fally, soprano; Kate Lindsey, mezzo-soprano
Strauss: "Ariadne auf Naxos"
Friday, Jan. 18
Welser-Most, conductor
Mozart: Divertimento No. 15
Strauss: Symphony for Winds: "Froliche Werkstatt"
Thursday and Saturday, Feb. 7 and 9
Alan Gilbert, conductor; Garrick Ohlsson, piano; Men of the Cleveland Orchestra Chorus
Haydn: Symphony No. 100
Busoni: Piano Concerto
Thursday-Sunday, Feb. 14-17
Harry Bicket, conductor; Kiera Duffy, soprano
Mozart: Fantasia: Piece for Mechanical Clock
Mozart: Exsultate, Jubilate
Mozart: Eine Kleine Nachtmusik
Mozart: Symphony No. 38
Thursday-Saturday, Feb. 21-23
Herbert Blomstedt, conductor
Beethoven: Symphony No. 6
Mendelssohn: Symphony No. 3
Thursday and Saturday, Feb. 28 and March 2
Francois Xavier Roth, conductor; Patricia Kopatchinskaja, violin
Debussy: "Reve"
Eotvos: Seven (for violin and orchestra)
Stravinsky: "Petrushka" (1947 revision)
Thursday-Sunday, March 14-17
Welser-Most, conductor; Paul Jacobs, organ
Haydn: Symphony No. 34
Bernd Richard Deutsch: "Okeanos" (for organ and orchestra)
Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 5
Thursday and Saturday, March 21 and 23
Welser-Most, conductor
Webern: Six Pieces for Orchestra
Schubert: "Tragic" Symphony No. 4
Strauss: Ein Heldenleben
Thursday and Saturday, April 25 and 27
Stephane Deneve, conductor; Jean-Yves Thibaudet, piano
Higdon: "Blue Cathedral"
MacMillan: Piano Concerto No. 3
Debussy: Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun
Scriabin: The Poem of Ecstasy
Thursday-Sunday, May 2-5
Michail Jurowski, conductor; Vadim Gluzman, violin
Tchaikovsky: Violin Concerto
Shostakovich: Symphony No. 11
Thursday and Saturday, May 9 and 11
Semyon Bychkov, conductor; Katia Labeque, piano; Marielle Labeque, piano
Glanert: "Distant Land: Music with Brahms"
Martinu: Concerto for Two Pianos
Smetana: Three Selections from "Ma Vlast"
Thursday-Saturday, May 16-18
Welser-Most, conductor; Mitsuko Uchida, piano; Martina Jankova, soprano; Tamara Mumford, mezzo-soprano; Werner Gura, tenor; Matthew Plenk, tenor; Dashon Burton, bass-baritone; Cleveland Orchestra Chorus
Bartok: Piano Concerto No. 3
Schubert: Mass No. 6
Sunday, May 19 (Reinberger Chamber Hall)
Simon Keenlyside, baritone
Schubert: Die Winterreise
Thursday and Saturday, May 23 and 25
Welser-Most, conductor; Keenlyside, baritone
Grieg: Suite from "Peer Gynt"
Sibelius: Selected Songs
Strauss: Aus Italien
Thursday-Saturday, May 30-June 1
Brett Mitchell, conductor
Gershwin: "An American in Paris" (film with live orchestra)