Welser Most

The Cleveland Orchestra is the "aristocrat among American orchestras" (The Telegraph), and the ensemble's music director Franz Welser-Most, leads them with verve and precision. These three discs from Belvedere (DVD and Blu-ray) feature six and a half hours of music, presenting a cycle of all the major orchestral works of Johannes Brahms. Included are the complete Symphonies and Piano Concertos, the Violin Concerto, the Tragic Overture, the Academic Festival Overture, and the Haydn Variations. Soloists include violinist Julia Fischer and pianist Yefim Bronfman.

The Cleveland Orchestra is the "aristocrat among American orchestras" (The Telegraph), and the ensemble's music director Franz Welser-Most, leads them with verve and precision. These three discs from Belvedere (DVD and Blu-ray) feature six and a half hours of music, presenting a cycle of all the major orchestral works of Johannes Brahms. Included are the complete Symphonies and Piano Concertos, the Violin Concerto, the Tragic Overture, the Academic Festival Overture, and the Haydn Variations. Soloists include violinist Julia Fischer and pianist Yefim Bronfman.

Bruckner‘s Seventh – The master‘s homage to Richard Wagner With the mighty build-ups and monumental fortissimi of Bruckner’s Seventh, Welser-Möst and his Clevelanders have their work cut out for them. And they do not disappoint. The most popular, and perhaps most easily accessible, of Bruckner‘s symphonies, the Seventh casts its spell on the audience with its clear-cut architecture and the wealth and fullness of its melodies. From the sweeping opening theme of the first movement to the victorious chords of the finale, the Cleveland Orchestra and its conductor deliver a magisterial reading of Bruckner‘s masterpiece. Cleveland‘s Severance Hall is the venue for this performance. This hall, an eclectic yet elegant mix of Art Deco, Art Nouveau, Classicism, Egyptian Revival and Modernism was inaugurated in 1931 and is still hailed today as one of the world‘s most beautiful concert halls. The Cleveland Orchestra, founded in 1918, began its ascent to the upper ranks of the world‘s ensembles after it moved to Severance Hall in 1931.

Decidedly in the top handful of operettas, Die Lustige Witwe receives an exemplary performance in Zurich. The cast is having fun in this one. The main characters look the parts, there's not a weak voice among them and Franz Welser-Most conducts with zip and style. Costumes are excellent and the staging is convincing if a bit modest in the first two acts. Act 3 at Hanna's version of Maxim's in Paris, is pulled off with real panache - if you don't respond to the spine-tingling enthusiasm of the dances, check your heartbeat…By Bob Epstein

In 2008 the Opernhaus Zurich staged this magnificent production starring virtuoso tenor Jonas Kaufmann as Don Jose? and the Bulgarian Vesselina Kasarova as the flirtatious prima-donna of the title role. Mezzo-soprano Kasarova is dazzling as the tough-as-nails, beautifully unsentimental heroine – think classic Sophia Loren meets West Side Story.
Kaufmann, in the guise of a Spanish police officer, brilliantly portrays the blustering but naive Don Jose? as a modern contrast of hard-edged machismo and out-of-his-depths vulnerability.

Jealous men and unreliable women: Mozart's 'Opera buffa' Cosi fan tutte is a masterpiece of its genre. This operatic gem which is part comedy, part tragedy is a wry study in love, manipulation and trust. After having cooperated twice before (Le nozze di Figaro, Don Giovanni) Così fan tutte was the third and last collaboration of Mozart and librettist Lorenzo Da Ponte. It is a clear-sightedly view of the confusion of human relations and opens up an abyss that seems to go far beyond the framework of a 'Dramma giocoso'. In the tension between love and passion, security and self-negation, faithfulness and betrayal, the couples get lost in emotional chaos… by amazon

This production of Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro caused a sensation when it first came out, stunning critics and audiences alike with its perfect balance of joyous humor, improvisatory brilliance, and always subtle music-making.

Written in the final year of his life, Schubert’s Mass No. 6 in E-flat major is often regarded as the composer’s own requiem. In this recording, The Cleveland Orchestra is joined by soprano Joélle Harvey, mezzo-soprano Daryl Freedman, tenors Julian Prégardien and Martin Mitterrutzner, bass-baritone Dashon Burton, and The Cleveland Orchestra Chorus.