The Cleveland Orchestra

Renowned for its virtuosity, tone, elegance and a range of colour, the Cleveland Orchestra has been one of the USA’s “Big Five” orchestras – and has reinforced this status under the direction of Franz Welser-Möst with its unmistakable sound and the precise subtlety of its playing. In Berlin, this storied ensemble will be conducted by its long-standing Music Director to present the orchestral piece “Can You See?” by American composer and flautist Allison Loggins-Hull: a sombre reflection on “The Star Spangled Banner”, the USA’s official national anthem that celebrates America as “the land of the free” even though, as the composer says, its history “is rooted in colonialism, slavery and violence.” Next John Adams offers his “Guide to Strange Places”, with a wealth of colour and full of energy, a piece inspired by a French guide book containing weird facts about Provence: “I had in mind certain composers like Berlioz, Mussorgsky or even a piece like ‘The Sorcerer’s Apprentice’  – pieces that are very colourful and somewhat fantastique,” Adams notes. More powerful sounds then take over for the finale with a performance of Sergei Prokofiev’s “cubist” Second Symphony. Written in Paris following a visit to the USA, it paints a brutal but sublime sonic fresco of “iron and steel” (Prokofiev) whose mechanistic furore anticipates sections of Alexander Mosolov’s futuristic “Iron Foundry”.