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Alisa Weilerstein is a powerful soloist with The Cleveland Orchestra in Barber’s Cello Concerto, while a new work by Allison Loggins-Hull and a rarely-heard Prokofiev symphony are intriguing but less convincing.

The semi-retired pianist offered a generous program of Schubert and Debussy that showcased her technical prowess and interpretive gifts.

Michael Tilson Thomas couples Mahler and Debussy at The Cleveland Orchestra, close contemporaries but worlds apart stylistically. Leif Ove Andsnes illuminates the latter’s sole work for piano and orchestra.

Having often been featured as a composer on Cleveland Orchestra programs, Thomas Adès makes his podium debut with the orchestra, leading his own music coupled with analogous works of Sibelius.

Franz Welser-Möst leads The Cleveland Orchestra in three stylistically distinct works, all of which put to test the orchestra’s new concertmaster, David Radzynski.

Klaus Mäkelä returns to Cleveland for a program of extremes in contrast and character: Mahler’s Fifth Symphony and a concerto for orchestra by Unsuk Chin.

Víkingur Ólafsson offers remarkable interpretations of major works of Mozart, placed alongside lesser-known pieces by four of the composer’s most important contemporaries for a memorable recital.

Thomas Søndergård make his Cleveland debut with the unabridged 1910 version of Stravinsky's score, while Britten’s Violin Concerto opened with an excellent Stefan Jackiw.

Daniel Harding and Antoine Tamestit impress in their Cleveland Orchestra debuts, tackling the complexities of a Widmann concerto and a Strauss tone poem.

Kissin’s Cleveland recital featured works of Bach, Mozart, Beethoven – and predictably, a hearty helping of Chopin.

For his Cleveland Orchestra debut, Kahchun Wong offered Bartók paired with the Beethoven Violin Concerto and Christian Tetzlaff.

Works of Adès and Walton – both of special significance to The Cleveland Orchestra – precede a lush Sibelius 5 at Severance Music Center. 

Gustavo Gimeno conducts The Cleveland Orchestra in works by Ravel and Franck, along with a recent Bryce Dessner concerto featuring the Labèque sisters.

Conductor Thierry Fischer steps in at short notice to conduct an early work by Messiaen, Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition and Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G major – a triumph for all concerned.

Jakub Hrůša conducts the program, which also includes stirring performances of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s rarely heard orchestral Ballade and Dvořák’s Symphony no. 6.

Franz Welser-Möst delivered a first-rate account of the Symphony in F sharp major, which was panned at its premiere but has seen a recent spike in popularity.

After 19 months without live performances, Franz Welser-Möst and The Cleveland Orchestra opened the 2021/22 season with brilliant performances of works by Strauss and Prokofiev, plus a new concerto by Joan Tower, written especially for cellist Alisa Weilerstein.

The rising American conductor led works by Dvořák and Tchaikovsky, along with a fine performance of Shostakovich’s Piano Concerto no. 1 with Behzod Abduraimov and Michael Sachs as soloists.

At age 94, Herbert Blomstedt led a superb all-Beethoven concert with the Cleveland Orchestra at the Blossom Music Center, with Garrick Ohlsson an exemplary soloist in the Fourth Piano Concerto.

Conductor Jane Glover capitalized on The Cleveland Orchestra’s affinity for Mozart in a Sunday evening concert at the Blossom Music Center, with the versatile pianist Conrad Tao.

As with so many performances this season, the Cleveland strings took front and center in works of Grieg and Korngold.

Ravel’s Sonatine – performed in transcription for oboe – prefaced a lush reading of Britten’s Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge.

Franz Welser-Möst conducts The Cleveland Orchestra in works by Dvořák and Corigliano, the latter featuring principal percussionist Marc Damoulakis.

TCO principal flute Joshua Smith stood out in seminal works for solo flute by Debussy and Takemitsu. Organist Paul Jacobs was a capable soloist in Poulenc’s concerto, while Franz Welser-Möst led imaginatively orchestrated segments of Prokofiev’s Visions fugitives.

The Cleveland Orchestra offered stark contrasts of feeling in Shostakovich’s bleak Chamber Symphony and the luminous closing movement of Messiaen’s Éclairs sur l’au-delà.

The Cleveland Orchestra string and percussion sections intensify the multi-hued quirkiness of Shchedrin’s 1967 musical love letter to his ballerina wife.

The musical intelligence of Weilerstein's approach made every movement a joyful experience while exploring Bach's musical universe. 

The Cleveland Orchestra and their newly promoted Assistant Conductor Vinay Paraneswaran shed light on the musical pattern-making of the minimalists. And Bach.

Familiar works by Bach, Handel and Corelli were enhanced by a fine performance of Mendelssohn's rarely played String Symphony no. 7.

Music of Haydn and Bartók made for a brief but contrasting Cleveland Orchestra program, the former bringing back regular guest Emanuel Ax.

Yefim Bronfman returned to Severance Hall for Schnittke’s intriguing Concerto for Piano and Strings, followed by a Beethoven quartet recast for string orchestra.

The familiar qualities of blend and precision were in evidence in familiar works by Respighi and Tchaikovsky, as well as George Walker's thorny but arresting Antifonys. 

Franz Welser-Möst returned to his home orchestra in a program of works by Křenek and Mendelssohn, as starkly contrasting as they are infrequently heard.

Herbert Blomstedt returned to Cleveland in a memorable and often transcendent performance of Bruckner’s Fifth.

The outgoing music director of the San Francisco Symphony made a brilliant impression with his own Meditations on Rilke, with Sasha Cooke and Dashon Burton as soloists. Berlioz’ Symphonie fantastique was given a revelatory performance.

While Herreweghe’s approach wasn’t always a successful one, when it was the results were marvelous – particularly in the Jupiter Symphony and Isabelle Faust’s take on the Beethoven Violin Concerto.

It’s been 97 years since The Cleveland Orchestra performed Frank Bridge’s The Sea, but this weekend’s performance was worth the wait. Paul Dukas’s evergreen The Sorcerer’s Apprentice received a precise and jovial performance.

Dvořák’s rarely heard Fourth Symphony and Janáček’s brassy Sinfonietta bookended a Mozart piano concerto with Yefim Bronfman in this varied Cleveland Orchestra program.

Piano icon Yuja Wang was an often self-effacing yet effective soloist in Rachmaninov’s neglected Piano Concerto no. 4. Poulenc’s 1948 Sinfonietta received its first Cleveland Orchestra performance since its 1949 US premiere here.

A brilliant programming decision paired Adams’s 9/11 memorial with Mahler’s life-affirming Symphony no. 4, with the fine soprano Joelle Harvey as soloist.

Jakub Hrůša led The Cleveland Orchestra in the politically-fraught First Violin Concerto of Shostakovich along with a suitably majestic Beethoven Eroica.

Mitusko Uchida’s hypnotic performance of three Schubert piano sonatas made for an enthralling afternoon at Severance Hall.

Dima Slobodeniouk’s Cleveland Orchestra program included music by Rachmaninov and Nielsen, along with a Liszt piano concerto with Marc-André Hamelin.

The young Finnish conductor, stepping in on short notice, led an incandescent performance of Beethoven’s Symphony no. 7. Augustin Hadelich was an excellent soloist in Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto no. 2.

Under Alan Gilbert’s baton, Kirill Gerstein presented the very recent piano concerto of Thomas Adès on an otherwise conservative program of Bach and Brahms.

Olga Neuwirth’s complex but arresting Masaot / Clocks Without Hands opened the program, but it was the orchestra’s Mahler’s Symphony no. 5 that the audience will remember for the overpowering effect of this performance.

Franz Welser-Möst selected a Schubert symphony and the first act of Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet to open the Cleveland Orchestra season.

Orion Weiss and Shai Wosner teamed up for thrilling accounts of pinnacles of the repertoire for two pianists by Schubert and Brahms.

Symphonies by Barber and Mendelssohn offered two distinct portrayals of Italy in Osmo Vänskä’s Cleveland Orchestra program.