Welser-Möst Takes Beethoven's 'Missa Solemnis' from Cleveland to Carnegie

Franz Welser-Möst will conduct The Cleveland Orchestra in Beethoven's "Missa Solemnis" on Jan. 14 and 16, before the production moves to Carnegie Hall on Jan. 19. The run pairs one of America's major orchestras with a distinguished vocal cast, per an announcement credited to The Cleveland Orchestra.

The first two performances take place Thursday, Jan. 14 at 7:30 p.m. and Saturday, Jan. 16 at 7:30 p.m. at Mandel Concert Hall in Severance Music Center, the orchestra's flagship home in Cleveland. The tour then heads to New York: Tuesday, Jan. 19 at 8 p.m. at the Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage at Carnegie Hall.

Who is singing?

Both the Cleveland dates and the Carnegie performance feature the same lineup of soloists:

• Golda Schultz, soprano
• Taylor Raven, mezzo-soprano
• Julian Prégardien, tenor
• Anthony Robin Schneider, bass

The Cleveland Orchestra Chorus, directed by Lisa Wong, completes the vocal forces. A mass setting scored for four soloists, chorus and orchestra, the "Missa Solemnis" demands exactly this kind of combined machinery — and Wong's chorus carries a substantial share of it.

What does the schedule tell us?

Three performances in six days is a compact itinerary by orchestral standards. It's also a familiar pattern for this ensemble: open at home, then carry the program to Carnegie, the room where American orchestras make their national case. Cleveland audiences get first hearings; New York gets the verdict.

The casting rewards attention. Schultz, an established soprano on international stages, tops a bill that mixes experience with rising names. Prégardien brings one of Germany's most recognizable lieder and opera pedigrees to the tenor part. Raven and Schneider round out a quartet that must function as a chamber ensemble one moment and a wall of sound the next.

Welser-Möst's involvement is the constant. His long partnership with The Cleveland Orchestra (he holds its music directorship) makes this a house event rather than a visiting-conductor pickup, and Beethoven's choral writing sits squarely in the Austro-German repertoire where that relationship has done much of its work.

For listeners keeping calendars, the details are simple:

• Jan. 14, 7:30 p.m. — Mandel Concert Hall, Severance Music Center, Cleveland
• Jan. 16, 7:30 p.m. — Mandel Concert Hall, Severance Music Center, Cleveland
• Jan. 19, 8 p.m. — Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage, Carnegie Hall, New York

Why it matters

The "Missa Solemnis" is a summit the composer himself reportedly considered his finest achievement, and it remains a stern test of choral discipline, solo stamina and conductor architecture. Any orchestra that programs it in consecutive weeks, then takes it on the road, is making a statement about its chorus as much as its strings. Jan. 19 will show whether the statement travels.