Cleveland Orchestra

Jerry · Posted: Sat Apr 21, 2012 6:59 am Post subject: Cleveland Orchestra

I heard the Cleveland Orchestra live last night in San Diego: Oh My! Oh My! They were incredible. I can't remember when I heard an orchestra sound so fabulous.

They started off playing the Beethoven Violin Concerto. Nice overall sound to the orchestra.

After intermission, they played a modern piece that was OK.

Finished with three movements from Smetana's Ma Vlast. I hear the Moldau a lot on the radio but was never really excited by it until last night. The maestro's interpretation brought out subtleties I never heard before. I now understand why it's such a popular piece.

But all three movements sounded gorgeous. You could tell by their body language that the orchestra was really into playing them. There was a shimmer and brilliance to their sound, even from the strings. (I didn't know strings could sound like that.) And the trumpet playing brought tears to my eyes, literally. What an incredible sound; I want to be like Mike! If I were a young, aspiring trumpet student, that's who I'd want to study with.

Would anybody like to recommend to me any of their recent recordings?

dalmavs · Veteran Member Joined: 19 Jun 2008 Posts: 119

https://www.clevelandorchestra.com/cleveland-orchestra-store/cds-and-dvds.aspx

Plenty of new recordings along with several old ones.

Don Winters · Posted: Sat Apr 21, 2012 6:03 pm Post subject:

Jerry,

Cleveland played in Nashville a few weeks ago and, I agree with you, they sound fantastic. Sachs's off-stage solo on Pines of Rome was gorgeous, and on the final movement the brass filled up the hall as I had never heard before. They also did Beethoven's 3rd, but the trumpets used rotaries. I heard them 8-10 years ago, but this is a much improved orchestra. It was a thrilling performance.

Shemp · Posted: Thu Apr 26, 2012 7:57 pm Post subject: a few corrections...

Guys, glad you loved the concerts. Just for the record, it was Beethoven Sym. #6 in Nashville (German trumpets); also, German (rotary) trumpets on the Beethoven Violin Cto. in San Diego.

Jerry · Posted: Sun Apr 29, 2012 6:50 am Post subject:

Hmm. The trumpeters I saw warming up on stage before the first piece looked like they were blowing piston trumpets (the certainly weren't sidewinders). I looked several times. Does that mean they switched to rotaries when the concert actually began?

sweet-ribs chamberlain · Veteran Member Joined: 30 Oct 2007 Posts: 105

Shemp knows. Shemp played the shows...

sweet-ribs

aadak18 · Regular Member Joined: 30 Nov 2007 Posts: 74

I used to live near Cleveland ... boy I sure do miss seeing that orchestra perform!