CLEVELAND — The Cleveland Orchestra released a new spatial audio recording of Sergei Prokofiev’s Symphony No. 6, led by Music Director Franz Welser-Möst.
The recording is available exclusively on Apple Music Classical as part of a new partnership between Apple Music and The Cleveland Orchestra, which will highlight exclusive releases, curated playlists, and editorial features.
Apple Music Classical is a dedicated music streaming app designed specifically for classical music lovers and musicians. The app provides users with access to the world’s largest classical music catalog, with fully optimized search, and allows them to enjoy the highest audio quality available and experience many classical favorites in new ways with immersive Spatial Audio. Additionally, users can browse expertly curated playlists, insightful composer biographies, and descriptions of thousands of works, including many recent and historical Cleveland Orchestra recordings. For more information about Apple Music Classical, visit Apple’s product launch announcement here.
Prokofiev: Symphony No. 6 is the first digital release by The Cleveland Orchestra in 2024 and was recorded live on September 28 and October 1, 2023, in the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Concert Hall at Severance Music Center, home of The Cleveland Orchestra.
It follows the 2023 releases of Prokofiev: Symphony No. 5, Berg: Three Pieces from Lyric Suite – Strauss: Suite from Der Rosenkavalier, Schubert: Mass No. 6, and Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 4. Visit The Cleveland Orchestra’s recordings website for more information on all recent recordings.
2024 marks the centennial year of The Cleveland Orchestra’s first-ever recording: a shortened version of Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture, conducted by the Orchestra’s first Music Director, Nikolai Sokoloff, and released in 1924. In the 100 years since, the Orchestra has consistently been among the most acclaimed and recorded in the world, receiving eight Grammy Awards and many international prize ratings.
An enthusiastic adopter of emerging techniques—ranging from the long-playing record in the George Szell era to early digital recording technologies under Lorin Maazel—The Cleveland Orchestra has consistently led the industry as a recording orchestra of the highest caliber, and the Orchestra’s performances have been heard by millions through radio and television broadcasts, physical media, and most recently, streaming online.
About Prokofiev’s Symphony No. 6
Prokofiev composed his Sixth Symphony soon after the triumph of his Fifth. But while he called the Fifth “a symphony of the greatness of the human spirit, a song of praise of free and happy mankind,” its successor somberly reflects on “the wounds that cannot be healed” as World War II came to a devastating close.
The first movement has been described as a melancholy landscape, in which a funeral march, a furious expression of angst or outrage, moments of happiness, and other scenes progress. Framed by painful dissonance at its beginning and end, the middle movement is truly the soul of the Sixth Symphony, filled with ardor, solace, and conflicted rage. The third-movement finale, in
contrast, is positive and upbeat. But before the symphony can close, there comes a long descent on the bassoon, which ushers in a return of a melancholy theme from the first movement. A swift and noisy coda brings about an enigmatic ending.
The Sixth Symphony was a success at its premiere, but shortly thereafter Prokofiev was among the composers denounced by the Soviet government for “formalist and antipopular tendencies.” As a result, the Sixth never achieved the same popularity as its predecessor, though it is often considered the most profound of Prokofiev’s seven symphonies.
Media Reviewing Access
Advance access to the recording for media reviewing is available upon request. Album cover art, audio files, digital booklet, high-resolution images, and further information can be found in the press kit.
Product Information
The album will be released on Friday, April 5, 2024, exclusively on Apple Music Classical.
The Cleveland Orchestra
Franz Welser-Möst,conductor
Sergei Prokofiev (1891–1953)
Symphony No. 6 in E-flat minor, Op. 111
Track 1: I. Allegro moderato
Track 2: II. Largo
Track 3: III. Vivace
About The Cleveland Orchestra
Now firmly in its second century, The Cleveland Orchestra, under the leadership of Franz Welser-Möst since 2002, is one of the most sought-after performing ensembles in the world. Year after year the ensemble exemplifies extraordinary artistic excellence, creative programming, and community engagement. In recent years, The New York Times has called Cleveland “the best in America” for its virtuosity, elegance of sound, variety of color and chamber-like musical cohesion, “virtually flawless,” and “one of the finest ensembles in the country (if not the world).”
Founded by Adella Prentiss Hughes, the Orchestra performed its inaugural concert in December 1918. By the middle of the century, decades of growth and sustained support had turned the ensemble into one of the most admired around the world.
The past decade has seen an increasing number of young people attending concerts, bringing fresh attention to The Cleveland Orchestra’s legendary sound and committed programming. More recently in 2020, the Orchestra launched several bold digital projects, including Adella, its digital streaming platform, and its own recording label. New initiatives for audience growth and community service have been launched in recent years, including new technological infrastructure and capabilities at its home, Severance Music Center, to capture the Orchestra's unique artistry and the musical achievements of the Welser-Möst and Cleveland Orchestra partnership.
The 2023–24 season marks Franz Welser-Möst’s 22nd year as Music Director, a period in which The Cleveland Orchestra has earned unprecedented acclaim around the world, including a series of residencies at the Musikverein in Vienna, the first of its kind by an American orchestra.
Its acclaimed opera presentations, including Puccini’s La fanciulla del West (2023), Verdi’s Otello (2022), Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos (2019), Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande (May 2017), Bartók’s The Miraculous Mandarin and Bluebeard’s Castle (2016), and Janáček’s The Cunning Little Vixen (2014 and 2017), have showcased the ensemble’s unique artistry and collaborative work ethic.
Since 1918, seven music directors—Nikolai Sokoloff, Artur Rodziński, Erich Leinsdorf, George Szell, Lorin Maazel, Christoph von Dohnányi, and Franz Welser-Möst—have guided and shaped the ensemble’s growth and sound. Through concerts at home and on tour, broadcasts, and a catalog of acclaimed recordings, The Cleveland Orchestra is heard today by a growing group of fans around the world. Find out more.
About Franz Welser-Möst
Franz Welser-Möst is among today’s most distinguished conductors. The 2023–24 season marks his 22nd year as Music Director of The Cleveland Orchestra. With the future of their acclaimed partnership extended to 2027, he will be the longest-serving musical leader in the ensemble’s history. The New York Times has declared Cleveland under Welser- Möst’s direction to be “America’s most brilliant orchestra,” praising its virtuosity, elegance of sound, variety of color, and chamber-like musical cohesion.
With Welser-Möst, The Cleveland Orchestra has been acclaimed for its inventive programming, its ongoing support for new musical works, and for its innovative work in presenting semi-staged and staged operas. An imaginative approach to juxtaposing newer and older works has opened new dialogue and fresh insights for musicians and audiences alike. The Orchestra has also been hugely successful in fostering a new and, notably, young audience. To date, the Orchestra and Welser-Möst have been showcased around the world in more than 20 international tours together. In 2020, despite shutdowns caused by the global pandemic, the ensemble launched its own recording label—and new streaming broadcast performances on Adella, the Orchestra’s new digital
home—to continue and extend sharing their artistry globally.
In addition to his commitment to Cleveland, Welser-Möst enjoys a particularly close and productive relationship with the Vienna Philharmonic as a guest conductor. He conducted its celebrated New Year’s Concert three times, and regularly leads the orchestra in subscription concerts in Vienna, as well as on tours in Japan, China, Australia, and the United States. He is a regular guest at the Salzburg Festival, where his work leading a series of opera performances has been widely admired. These have included Rusalka, Der Rosenkavalier, Fidelio, Die Liebe der Danae, Reimann’s Lear, Strauss’s Salome and Elektra, and Puccini's Il Trittico.
In 2019, Welser-Möst was awarded the Gold Medal in the Arts by the Kennedy Center International Committee on the Arts in recognition of his long-lasting impact on the international arts community. Other honors include The Cleveland Orchestra’s Distinguished Service Award (given during the ensemble’s 100th season celebrations for his focus on community and education), two Cleveland Arts Prize citations, the Vienna Philharmonic’s “Ring of Honor” for his personal and artistic relationship with the ensemble, recognition from the Western Law Center for Disability Rights, honorary membership in the Vienna Singverein, appointment as an Academician of the European Academy of Yuste, and the Kilenyi Medal from the Bruckner Society of America.
Franz Welser-Möst’s book From Silence: Finding Calm in a Dissonant World was published in Austria in July 2020, under the title Als ich die Stille fand, and rapidly rose to number one on the [German-language] bestseller lists, where it remained through much of 2021. The English version of From Silence was released worldwide in summer 2021. Read more about Franz Welser-Möst.
About Apple Music Classical
Apple Music Classical is the standalone music streaming app that gives classical music lovers and musicians the optimal streaming experience by making it easier to find any recording in the world’s largest classical music catalog with fully optimized search; enjoy the highest audio quality available and experience many classical favorites in a whole new way with immersive Spatial Audio; browse expertly curated playlists, insightful composer biographies and descriptions of thousands of works, and so much more. Existing Apple Music subscribers can immediately enjoy Apple Music Classical at no additional cost. For more information, visit apple.com/music and follow @appleclassical on Twitter.
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Media Contacts:
(United States)
Christophe Abi-Nassif, The Cleveland Orchestra, cabinassif@clevelandorchestra.com, 216-231-7441
Jen Steer, The Cleveland Orchestra, jsteer@clevelandorchestra.com, 216-231-7637
Amanda Ameer, First Chair Promotion, amanda@firstchairpromo.com, 212-368-5949
(United Kingdom and other international territories)
Katy Rogers-Davies, LSO Live Marketing & Partnerships Manager, Katy.Rogers-Davies@lso.co.uk, +44 20 7382 2543
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