A New Century, Vol. 2

Album review

The Cleveland Orchestra has been widely applauded among the world’s handful of top orchestras. Having celebrated their 100th year in 2018, the ensemble launches its own recording label for its own second hundred years. The three-part album, featuring three pairs of works, is conducted and curated by Music Director Franz Welser-Möst.
The tracks of the new release were all recorded in the acclaimed acoustic of Severance Hall, with the second volume of "A New Century" pairing the world premiere recording of Stromab by the Austrian composer Johannes Maria Staud with Richard Strauss’ earliest — and oft neglected — tone poem Aus Italien. Welser-Möst believes each of these composers was looking both to the past, and forward beyond their own time, bringing a through-line to musical history carried forward by of each new generation of innovation and change. By listening to Strauss and Staud together, we can begin to see how these different channels of thought progressed in the larger river of music’s evolution. ©: Cleveland Orchestra/PIAS