Mahler's Work Being Celebrated at Severance Hall on February 11th-13th

Pierre Boulez leads The Cleveland Orchestra in program featuring Mahler’s Des Knaben Wunderhorn at Severance Hall on February 11, 12, and 13th

In the second week of Cleveland concerts marking the 85th birthday year and the 45th anniversary year of Pierre Boulez’s American professional orchestra debut with The Cleveland Orchestra, the conductor/composer will lead the Orchestra in a program of music by Mahler at Severance Hall on Thursday, February 11; Friday, February 12; and Saturday, February 13, at 8:00 p.m. Mr. Boulez will also conduct the Orchestra in an all-French program on February 4, 6, and 7. (A separate concert announcement has been issued.)

The program for February 11, 12, and 13 begins with Gustav Mahler’s Adagio from Symphony No. 10 in F-sharp major. After intermission, the program concludes with Mahler’s Des Knaben Wunderhorn (“The Youth’s Magic Horn”), Songs for Voice and Orchestra. Vocal soloists joining the Orchestra will be mezzo-soprano Magdalena Kožená, in her Cleveland Orchestra debut, and baritone Christian Gerhaher.

In observance of the 150th birthday (July 7) of Gustav Mahler in 2010 (and the 100th anniversary of his death in 2011, on May 18), Universal Edition, which publishes Mahler music, has launched a new Mahler blog, where they are publishing all information regarding performances, festivals, interviews, new editions, recordings, and reviews up to and during the two Mahler anniversary years. The blog includes separate video interviews with Pierre Boulez and Franz Welser-Möst, among other leading conductors. The Universal Edition Mahler blog may be accessed at www.universaledition.com/mahler.

Pierre Boulez, who from 1970-72 served as musical advisor of The Cleveland Orchestra, turns 85 on March 26. He has been a regular and favorite guest conductor of the Orchestra, leading more than 200 concerts. Among his many recordings with the Orchestra, five have won Grammy Awards, including the 1969 award in the “Best Classical Performance, Orchestra” category, for their album including Debussy’s Images.

Hailed as “a great communicator, with strong dramatic instincts and a distinctive mezzo voice” (The Times, London), Magdalena Kožená has established a career as a major concert, opera, and recital artist, with appearances throughout Europe and across the United States, including at the Deutsche Staatsoper Berlin, the Metropolitan Opera, the Royal Opera House Covent Garden in London, and the Salzburg Festival. Recent orchestral engagements include Mahler’s Rückert Songs with the Berlin Philharmonic and Sir Simon Rattle, the Lucerne Festival Orchestra and Claudio Abbado, and the Simon Bolivar Venezuelan National Youth Orchestra and Gustavo Dudamel.

Praised as “a wonderfully intelligent artist who uses all the shades in his voice to extract the maximum from every song” (The Guardian), baritone Christian Gerhaher has in recent seasons appeared as soloist in performances of several works by Mahler, including Des Knaben Wunderhorn with the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Kindertotenlieder with the Camerata Academica Salzburg, Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen with the Orchestra della Scala and also with the NHK Symphony on tour in Japan, and Das Lied von der Erde with the Montreal Symphony Orchestra.