A study in control and proportion: the Clevelanders’ Verdi Requiem

Franz Welser-Möst and Asmik Grigorian

Franz Welser-Möst conducts The Cleveland Orchestra and Chorus

By Edward Sava-Segal, 21 January 2026

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“Asmik Grigorian resisted any temptation to turn the Libera me into an operatic summation”

Reviewed at Carnegie Hall: Stern Auditorium, New York City on 20 January 2026

Verdi, Messa da Requiem

The Cleveland Orchestra

Franz Welser-Möst, Conductor

Asmik Grigorian, Soprano

Deniz Uzun, Mezzo-soprano

Joshua Guerrero, Tenor

Tareq Nazmi, Bass

The Cleveland Orchestra Chorus

Lisa Wong, Choirmaster / chorus director

Barbara Hannigan surveys American voices with The Cleveland Orchestra

Sam Jacobson, 14th February

Works by Crumb, Ruggles, Barber and Gershwin offer four distinct ideas of what American music can sound like in Barbara Hannigan’s explorative Cleveland Orchestra program.

***11

The Cleveland Orchestra at Carnegie Hall: symphonic extremes

Sam Jacobson, 21st January

Following a polished account of Mozart’s Jupiter Symphony, Shostakovich’s Eleventh erupted with visceral force, as Franz Welser-Möst led The Cleveland Orchestra in a performance of gripping intensity.

*****

An uneven symphonic pairing from Franz Welser-Möst in Cleveland

Frank Kuznik, 10th January

Mozart and Shostakovich make an uncomfortable fit in a program designed to highlight their differences.

***11

Yuja Wang serves an iridescent musical feast in Cleveland

Sam Jacobson, 28th November

Yuja Wang does double duty in demanding piano concertos by Ravel and Ligeti, while conductor Petr Popelka shows his chemistry with the orchestra in Pictures at an Exhibition.

****1

Gripping, somber Mahler 6 from Sokhiev and The Cleveland Orchestra

Sam Jacobson, 13th November

Tugan Sokhiev memorably debuts with The Cleveland Orchestra to lead a recent concerto for English horn and Mahler’s Tragic.

****1

Franz-Welser Möst leads a profound Cleveland Orchestra pairing

Sam Jacobson, 5th October

The Cleveland Orchestra couples a war-torn symphony of Arthur Honegger with Gustav Mahler’s sublime orchestral song cycle Das Lied von der Erde.

*****

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Edward Sava-Segal

Edward has been living in New York for the last 25 years, one of the reasons being the extraordinarily rich cultural life in this city. He has studied piano and classical music in his early years. He switched later on to computer science and data architecture but he kept an unwavering interest in following the classical music phenomenon here in New York and in his travels. Edward occasionally reviews fine arts events for the most prestigious literary magazine in Romania, his home country.