Remembrance and Reflection:
Franz Welser-Möst and The Cleveland Orchestra
Premiering Tuesday, November 9 at 7:00PM, Remembrance & Reflection pairs the works of two masters: Mozart’s Adagio and Fugue in C minor, K. 546, and Mieczysław Weinberg’s Symphony No. 2 for strings. This program marks the anniversary of Kristallnacht (Crystal Night or the Night of Broken Glass), when the Nazi party carried out violent attacks on Jewish communities across Germany, Austria, and parts of what is now the Czech Republic on November 9 and 10, 1938. For Weinberg, who was Jewish and living in Warsaw, these events were harbingers of the terrorism that would be inflicted upon Poland’s Jewish population. The composer was the only member of his family to escape the country alive, having fled to the Soviet Union in 1939. Composed in 1946, Weinberg’s Symphony No. 2, written for string orchestra contains hallmarks of what would become his musical language: propulsive motion and serene rest. It is preceded by Mozart’s Adagio and Fugue, a musical love letter to the Baroque masters Bach and Handel. Mozart wrote his Adagio and Fugue in 1783, built on a theme he earlier penned for two pianos. This magisterial work for strings offers serious and animated expression from the depths of Mozart’s genius.
