The Cleveland Orchestra, which was founded in 1918, was first recorded in 1924. Most of the orchestra's recordings have been made either in its concert home, Severance Hall, or in nearby Masonic Auditorium.
The Cleveland Orchestra's first recording, of Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture, was made for the Brunswick label with its first music director, Nikolai Sokoloff. [1]
The Cleveland Orchestra began a long-running association with the Columbia Masterworks label under conductor Artur Rodziński. Successors Erich Leinsdorf, George Szell, and Lorin Maazel all recorded for Columbia, with some early Szell records being assigned to Columbia's budget sub-label, Epic. Szell's recordings with Cleveland in particular have remained steadily in print. In the 1990s the Columbia catalogue was acquired by Sony Classics, which continues to issue the recordings.
The Cleveland Orchestra was one of the first to find new audiences via digital recording technology thanks to its collaboration with the locally-based audiophile label Telarc. This association, as well as one with Decca, began under Maazel and continued under his successor Christoph von Dohnányi. The orchestra's cycle of the complete Beethoven symphonies with Dohnányi was one of the first digitally recorded cycles by a major orchestra. The orchestra has also been recorded with a number of guest conductors, including Vladimir Ashkenazy, Riccardo Chailly and Pierre Boulez, who was musical advisor to the orchestra from 1970–1972.
The pace of the orchestra's recording activity slowed in the late 1990s when market demand dropped for new CDs. A project to record Wagner's complete Ring cycle with Dohnányi for Decca was left unfinished. Despite the many changes facing commercial record labels at the turn of the century, the orchestra continues to be featured in new releases. In 2007 the orchestra recorded Beethoven's Ninth Symphony under Franz Welser-Möst for Deutsche Grammophon. Pianist Mitsuko Uchida has begun a series of Mozart piano concertos with the orchestra for the Decca label.
In 2020, The Cleveland Orchestra announced they had started their own recording label, self-titled as The Cleveland Orchestra. [2]
The Cleveland Orchestra has long been known for performing newer music. Some notable world premiere recordings include:
The discography below is not comprehensive, but rather representative. [4] The listing only contains Compact Disc releases and does not contain 78rpm, LP, Cassette, or 8-track tape releases. In addition to recordings issued on major labels, it includes limited edition releases on the orchestra's private label. The Cleveland Orchestra's complete discography up to 2000 can be found in Donald Rosenberg's book, The Cleveland Orchestra Story – Second to None.
Title/program | Conductor | Year(s) of recording | Record label |
---|---|---|---|
The Cleveland Orchestra 75th anniversary (10-CD set) [5] [6]
| Nicolai Sokoloff*, Artur Rodziński+, Erich Leinsdorf^, George Szell~, Pierre Boulez`, Lorin Maazel=, Christoph von Dohnányi# | 1928–1992 | Cleveland Orchestra |
Mahler
| Pierre Boulez | 2010 | Deutsche Grammophon |
Wagner
| Franz Welser-Möst | 2009 | Deutsche Grammophon |
Ravel
| Pierre Boulez | 2010 | Deutsche Grammophon |
Beethoven: Symphony No. 9
| Franz Welser-Möst | 2007 | Deutsche Grammophon |
Mozart: Piano Concertos 23 & 24
| Mitsuko Uchida (also pianist) | 2008 | Decca |
Busoni: Piano Concerto
| Christoph von Dohnányi | 1990 | Telarc |
John Adams: Century Rolls
| Christoph von Dohnányi | 1999 | Nonesuch |
Brahms: Piano Concerto in B-flat major, Op. 83
| George Szell | 1966–1979 | Sony Classical |
Beethoven & Mozart Piano Concertos
| George Szell | Columbia Masterworks Great Performances | |
Beethoven/Dvořák
| George Szell | 1968 & 1970 | Angel/EMI |
Beethoven: Piano Concertos 1-4
| George Szell | 1968 | Angel/EMI |
Beethoven: Piano Concertos 3 & 4
| George Szell | 1959 & 1961 | Sony Classical |
Brahms: Piano Concerto No. 1 / Handel Variations
| George Szell | 1968–1979 | Sony Classical |
Berlioz: Roméo Et Juliette, Les Nuits D'été
| Pierre Boulez | 2000 | Deutsche Grammophon |
Berlioz: Symphonie Fantastique
| Pierre Boulez | 1996 | Deutsche Grammophon |
Boulez Conducts Stravinsky
| Pierre Boulez | 1994–1996 | Deutsche Grammophon |
Debussy: Images
| Pierre Boulez | 1991 | Deutsche Grammophon |
Mahler: Symphony No. 7 | Pierre Boulez | 1994 | Deutsche Grammophon |
Debussy: La Mer
| Pierre Boulez | 1991–1993 | Deutsche Grammophon |
Mahler: Symphony No. 4
| Pierre Boulez | 1998 | Deutsche Grammophon |
Messiaen: Et Exspecto Resurrectionem Mortuorum
| Pierre Boulez | 1993 | Deutsche Grammophon |
Messiaen: Poèmes pour Mi , 7 Haïkaï
| Pierre Boulez | 1994–1996 | Deutsche Grammophon |
Schoenberg: Piano Concerto
| Pierre Boulez | 1998 & 2000 | Philips |
Ravel, Debussy
| Pierre Boulez | 1999 | Deutsche Grammophon |
Stravinsky: Pétrouchka, Le Sacre Du Printemps | Pierre Boulez | 1991 | Deutsche Grammophon |
Bartók, Lutoslawski: Concertos For Orchestra
| Christoph von Dohnányi | 1988–1989 | Decca |
Beethoven: Complete Symphonies (5-CD set)
| Christoph von Dohnányi | 1983–1988 | Telarc |
Berlioz: Symphonie Fantastique
| Christoph von Dohnányi | 1989 | Decca |
Brahms: Symphonies, Overtures & Violin Concerto (4-CD set)
| Christoph von Dohnányi | Warner Classics | |
Bruckner: Symphonies 3 & 8
| Christoph von Dohnányi | 1989 | Decca |
Bruckner: Symphony No. 4
| Christoph von Dohnányi | Decca | |
Bruckner: Symphony No. 5
| Christoph von Dohnányi | 1991 | Decca |
Bruckner: Symphony No. 6
| Christoph von Dohnányi | 1991 & 1993 | Decca |
Bruckner: Symphony No. 7
| Christoph von Dohnányi | Decca | |
Bruckner: Symphony No. 9
| Christoph von Dohnányi | Decca | |
Schubert: Symphonies Nos. 8 & 9
| Christoph von Dohnányi | Telarc | |
Mendelssohn: Symphony No. 3
| Christoph von Dohnányi | 1988 | Telarc |
Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 6
| Christoph von Dohnányi | 1986 | Telarc |
Dvořák: Slavonic Dances
| Christoph von Dohnányi | Decca | |
Dvořák: Symphonies 7, 8 & 9
| Christoph von Dohnányi | Decca | |
Dvořák: Symphony No. 6 / Janáček: Taras Bulba
| Christoph von Dohnányi | 1989 | Decca |
Ives: Symphony No. 4
| Christoph von Dohnányi | 1991–1994 | Decca |
Ives / Ruggles
| Christoph von Dohnányi | 1993–1994 | Decca |
Mahler: Symphony No. 1
| Christoph von Dohnányi | Decca | |
Mahler: Symphony No. 4
| Christoph von Dohnányi | 1992 | Decca |
Mahler: Symphony No. 5
| Christoph von Dohnányi | Decca | |
Mahler: Symphony No. 6 / Schoenberg / Webern
| Christoph von Dohnányi | 1991 | Decca |
Mahler: Symphony No. 9
| Christoph von Dohnányi | 1994 & 1997 | Decca |
Mozart: Concertos
| Christoph von Dohnányi | Decca | |
Mozart: Eine Kleine Nachtmusik
| Christoph von Dohnányi | 1991 & 1993 | Decca |
Mozart: Symphonies Nos. 35-41 / Webern: Orchestra works (3-CD set)
| Christoph von Dohnányi | Decca | |
Norton Memorial Organ
| Sir Andrew Davis, Jahja Ling | 2001 | Cleveland Orchestra |
Mussorgsky
| Christoph von Dohnányi | Teldec | |
Ravel
| Christoph von Dohnányi | 1989 & 1991 | Teldec |
Schumann: The Symphonies (2-CD set) | Christoph von Dohnányi | Decca | |
Smetana
| Christoph von Dohnányi | Decca | |
R. Strauss
| Christoph von Dohnányi | Decca | |
The Joshua Bell Edition Vol. 3 ( 2-CD set)
| Christoph von Dohnányi, Vladimir Ashkenazy* | 1988 & 1994 | Decca |
Wagner: Das Rheingold (2-CD set)
| Christoph von Dohnányi | 1993 | Decca |
Wagner: Die Walküre
| Christoph von Dohnányi | 1992 | Decca |
Stravinsky: The Fairy's Kiss
| Oliver Knussen | Deutsche Grammophon | |
The Original Jacket Collection – Mozart (10-CD set)
| George Szell, Louis Lane+, Robert Shaw,^ Erich Leinsdorf~ | Sony Classical | |
Prokofiev: Romeo & Juliet - Excerpts | Yoel Levi | 1983 | Telarc |
Sibelius
| Yoel Levi | 1984 | Telarc |
Beethoven: Symphony No. 9
| Lorin Maazel | 1978 | Sony Classical |
Berlioz / Tchaikovsky
| Lorin Maazel | 1981–1982 | Telarc |
Gershwin: Porgy & Bess (3-CD set)
| Lorin Maazel | Decca | |
Mussorgsky
| Lorin Maazel | 1978 | Telarc |
Prokofiev: Romeo and Juliet (2-CD set)
| Lorin Maazel | 1973 | Decca |
Respighi / Rimsky-Korsakov
| Lorin Maazel | Decca | |
Shostakovich / Tchaikovsky
| Lorin Maazel | 1981 | Telarc |
Stravinsky / Tchaikovsky
| Lorin Maazel | 1980 | Telarc |
Saint-Saëns / Schumann: Cello Concertos
| Sir Neville Marriner | Decca | |
Shostakovich: Symphony No. 15
| Kurt Sanderling | 1991 | Erato |
The Original Jacket Collection – The Complete Beethoven Symphonies (10-CD set)
| George Szell, Louis Lane* | Sony Classical | |
Beethoven: The Five Piano Concertos (3-CD set)
| George Szell | Columbia Masterworks | |
Brahms: Piano Concertos (2-CD set)
| George Szell | 1956–1962 | Sony Classical Masterworks Heritage |
Brahms: Violin Concerto
| George Szell | EMI Classics | |
Brahms: Symphonies Nos. 2 & 3
| George Szell | 1964–1967 | Sony ClassicalEssential Classics |
Brahms: Symphony No. 4
| George Szell | Sony ClassicalEssential Classics | |
Dvořák: Slavonic Dances (complete)
| George Szell | 1962–1965 | Sony ClassicalEssential Classics |
Dvořák: Three Great Symphonies (2-CD set)
| George Szell | 1962–1965 | Sony Classical Masterworks Heritage |
Franck / Rachmaninoff
| George Szell | Columbia Masterworks Great Performances | |
Mussorgsky / Rimsky-Korsakov
| George Szell | Sony Classical | |
Grieg / Schumann: Piano Concertos
| George Szell | Columbia Masterworks Great Performances | |
Haydn: Early London Symphonies (2-CD set)
| George Szell | Sony Classical | |
Kodály / Prokofiev
| George Szell | Columbia Masterworks Great Performances | |
Prokofiev / Bartók
| George Szell | 1959 & 1965 | Sony Classical Masterworks Heritage |
Schumann: The Four Symphonies (2-CD set)
| George Szell | 1958–1960 | Sony Classical Masterworks Heritage |
Mahler / Mozart (2-CD set)
| George Szell | CBS Masterworks | |
Mahler: Symphony No. 6
| George Szell | Sony Classical Great Performances | |
Mendelssohn: "Italian" Symphony
| George Szell | 1962–1967 | Sony Classical |
Mozart: Piano Concertos 21 & 26
| George Szell | Sony Classical Essential Classics | |
Mozart: Piano Concertos 21 & 24
| George Szell | CBS Masterworks Great Performances | |
Prokofiev: Piano Concertos 1 & 3
| George Szell | 1962–1966 | Sony Classical Great Performances |
Schubert: Symphonies 8 & 9
| George Szell | Sony Classical Essential Classics | |
R. Strauss Tone Poems
| George Szell | CBS Masterworks Great Performances | |
Strauss Waltzes
| George Szell | 1958 & 1962 | Sony Classical |
Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto No. 1
| George Szell | 1969 | CBS Masterworks Great Performances |
Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 5
| George Szell | 1958 & 1959 | Sony Classical Great Performances |
Orff: Carmina Burana
| Michael Tilson Thomas | 1974 | Sony Classical Great Performances |
Live in Tokyo (2-CD set)
| George Szell | 1970 | Cleveland Orchestra |
Beethoven: The Five Piano Concertos
| Vladimir Ashkenazy | Decca | |
Severance Hall reopening concert
| Christoph von Dohnányi | 2000 | Cleveland Orchestra |
The Cleveland Sound
| Christoph von Dohnányi | 2000 | Decca |
A New Century
| Franz Welser-Möst | 2020 | Cleveland Orchestra |
Schubert and Křenek
| Franz Welser-Möst | 2020 | Cleveland Orchestra |
Schnittke and Prokofiev
| Franz Welser-Möst | 2021 | Cleveland Orchestra` |
Strauss: Three Tone Poems
| Franz Welser-Möst | 2021 | Cleveland Orchestra |
George Walker
| Franz Welser-Möst | 2022 |
The San Francisco Symphony, founded in 1911, is an American orchestra based in San Francisco, California. Since 1980 the orchestra has been resident at the Louise M. Davies Symphony Hall in the city's Hayes Valley neighborhood. The San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra and the San Francisco Symphony Chorus (1972) are part of the organization. Michael Tilson Thomas became the orchestra's music director in 1995, and concluded his tenure in 2020 when Esa-Pekka Salonen took over the position.
The Cleveland Orchestra is an American orchestra based in Cleveland, Ohio. Founded in 1918 by the pianist and impresario Adella Prentiss Hughes, the orchestra is one of the five American orchestras informally referred to as the "Big Five". The orchestra plays most of its concerts at Severance Hall. Its current music director is Franz Welser-Möst.
The Philharmonia Orchestra is a British orchestra based in London. It was founded in 1945 by Walter Legge, a classical music record producer for EMI. Among the conductors who worked with the orchestra in its early years were Richard Strauss, Wilhelm Furtwängler and Arturo Toscanini; of the Philharmonia's younger conductors, the most important to its development was Herbert von Karajan who, though never formally chief conductor, was closely associated with the orchestra in the late 1940s and early 1950s. The Philharmonia became widely regarded as the finest of London's five symphony orchestras in its first two decades.
István Kertész was a Hungarian orchestral and operatic conductor who throughout his brief career led many of the world's great orchestras, including the Cleveland, Chicago, Philadelphia, New York, Los Angeles, Pittsburgh, Detroit, San Francisco and Minnesota Orchestras in the United States, as well as the London Symphony, Vienna Philharmonic, Berlin Philharmonic, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Israel Philharmonic, and L'Orchestre de la Suisse Romande. His orchestral repertoire numbered over 450 works from all periods, and was matched by a repertoire of some sixty operas ranging from Mozart, Verdi, Puccini and Wagner to the more contemporary Prokofiev, Bartók, Britten, Kodály, Poulenc and Janáček. Kertész was part of a musical tradition that produced fellow Hungarian conductors Fritz Reiner, Antal Doráti, János Ferencsik, Eugene Ormandy, George Szell, János Fürst, Peter Erős, Ferenc Fricsay, and Georg Solti.
Erich Leinsdorf was an Austrian-born American conductor. He performed and recorded with leading orchestras and opera companies throughout the United States and Europe, earning a reputation for exacting standards as well as an acerbic personality. He also published books and essays on musical matters.
Lorin Varencove Maazel was an American conductor, violinist and composer. He began conducting at the age of eight and by 1953 had decided to pursue a career in music. He had established a reputation in the concert halls of Europe by 1960 but, by comparison, his career in the U.S. progressed far more slowly. He served as music director of The Cleveland Orchestra, Orchestre National de France, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, and the New York Philharmonic, among other posts. Maazel was well-regarded in baton technique and possessed a photographic memory for scores. Described as mercurial and forbidding in rehearsal, he mellowed in old age.
Eugene George Istomin was an American pianist. He was a winner of the Leventritt Award and recorded extensively as a soloist and in a piano trio in which he collaborated with Isaac Stern and Leonard Rose.
George Szell, originally György Széll, György Endre Szél, or Georg Szell, was a Hungarian-born American conductor and composer. Considered one of the twentieth century's greatest conductors, he was music director of the Cleveland Orchestra of Cleveland, Ohio, and recorded much of the standard classical repertoire in Cleveland and with other orchestras.
Leon Fleisher was an American classical pianist, conductor and pedagogue. He was one of the most renowned pianists and pedagogues in the world. Music correspondent Elijah Ho called him "one of the most refined and transcendent musicians the United States has ever produced".
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Artur Rodziński was a Polish and American conductor of orchestral music and opera. He began his career after World War I in Poland, where he was discovered by Leopold Stokowski, who invited him to be his assistant with the Philadelphia Orchestra. This engagement led to Rodziński becoming music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Cleveland Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. He also prepared the NBC Symphony Orchestra for Arturo Toscanini before the Italian conductor's debut with them. A dispute in Chicago led to Rodziński's dismissal in 1948, whereupon he shifted his career to Europe, eventually settling in Italy, although continuing to maintain a home in Lake Placid, New York. In November 1958, beset by heart disease, he made his professional return to the United States for the first time in a decade, conducting acclaimed performances of Richard Wagner's Tristan und Isolde with the Lyric Opera of Chicago. Exhausted, he checked into Massachusetts General Hospital where he died 11 days later.
John Mack was an American oboist.
Nikolai Grigoryevich Sokoloff was a Ukrainian-American conductor and violinist.
Theodore Robert Bloomfield was an American conductor.
Adella Prentiss Hughes was a pianist and impresaria based in Cleveland, Ohio. She is best known for founding The Cleveland Orchestra.
Andreas Haefliger is a German-born Swiss pianist.
Nathan "Tossy" Spivakovsky, a Jewish, Russian Empire-born, German-trained violin virtuoso, was considered one of the greatest violinists of the 20th century.
Joseph Kalichstein was an American classical pianist who performed in the concerto, solo recital and chamber music repertoire, the latter mainly with Jaime Laredo and Sharon Robinson in the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio. He was also a professor at the Juilliard School in New York.
This is an undated alphabetical list of audio and video recordings by the Vienna Philharmonic orchestra. Founded in 1842, the orchestra has a long history of recording music dating back to 1905. The orchestra has made numerous critically acclaimed recordings, of which several have been ranked as the greatest classical recordings of all time, such as Beethoven's Symphonies Nos. 5 & 7 with Carlos Kleiber and Wagner's complete Ring des Nibelungen with Sir Georg Solti. The orchestra has primarily made recordings with the Deutsche Grammophon, EMI and Decca labels.
The conductor Bernard Haitink recorded works, especially symphonies and other orchestral works, with different orchestras. He made recordings for several labels, including Philips Records, EMI Classics, Columbia Records, LSO Live, RCO Live, and CSO Resound.