The Cleveland Orchestra has announced the 2026-27 season that will serve as the farewell year for Music Director Franz Welser-Möst, who joined the ensemble in 2002. The season opens September 17, 2026, and concludes in spring 2027, marking the end of a tenure spanning 25 years and approximately 1,200 performances. Welser-Möst is expected to formally depart as music director in summer 2027.

The programming draws heavily from Welser-Möst’s signature repertoire and personal history with the orchestra. The fall programs include Strauss’s Four Last Songs with soprano Golda Schultz, Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 8, and a revival of Bohuslav Martinů’s Symphony No. 2, originally commissioned for Cleveland in 1943. January will feature Beethoven’s Missa solemnis, a work not performed by the orchestra in more than two decades. The spring closes with Mahler’s Symphony No. 9 and Haydn’s The Creation—the same work that marked Welser-Möst’s inaugural concert as music director.

The final concert on May 29, 2027, will celebrate Welser-Möst’s Viennese musical heritage with waltzes, dances, and a world premiere by composer Stephan Koncz. “After being here for so long, the Orchestra is like my family,” Welser-Möst said in a statement. “An institution needs fresh input, and the time is right” for the transition. The Cleveland Orchestra has not named a successor.

Source: SlippedDisc