“Forget Punxsutawney Phil. The real sign that spring is near is the annual announcement of the Blossom Festival,” writes Zachary Lewis in Sunday’s (2/5) Plain Dealer (Cleveland). “On Sunday … the Cleveland Orchestra revealed what it will be doing this summer … a pleasant, 21-concert mix of classical standards, pops and family programs, and a few surprises…. Former resident conductor and Blossom Festival director Jahja Ling kicks off the summer … with a program of Gershwin and Tchaikovsky. He then returns two weeks later to lead Dvorák’s Symphony No. 9 and the concerto debut of Cleveland Orchestra first assistant principal second violinist Eli Matthews,” in Paganini’s Violin Concerto No. 1. Music Director Franz Welser-Möst will lead “three programs in a row, including an evening of opera, two symphonies by Beethoven and Milhaud’s rarely-heard ballet ‘Le Boeuf sur le toit.’ … The program likely to attract the biggest audience is the season finale: John Williams’ ‘E.T.,’ in a live performance in time with the film.” Also planned are Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 24, Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 5, the Korngold and Dvorák Violin Concertos, Holst’s The Planets, Strauss’s Till Eulenspiegel, Debussy’s Iberia, and Falla’s Suite from El Amor Brujo.
Posted February 7, 2017
