<<  -- 2 --  Kelly Ferjutz    EUROPEAN TOUR

On the program with the two Birtwistle works will be Schubert's Symphony No 9 in C 'The Great' (Lucerne, 20 August, and Edinburgh, 25 August). The other concert in Lucerne will feature Rossini's William Tell Overture, Haydn's Military Symphony and Symphony No 15 of Shostakovich. This is also the bill for the first evening in Edinburgh, which was sold out.

Although the Cleveland Orchestra and Mr Welser-Möst had a week-long residency in Vienna last October, this is their first trip together to other music festivals of Europe. It also marks the beginning of a three-year partnership between Roche, the Swiss-based giant pharmaceutical company, the Lucerne Festival, Carnegie Hall in New York and The Cleveland Orchestra with music director Franz Welser-Möst. The Roche commissions promise a new composition, in each of the three years, which will be given its world première at the Lucerne Festival, followed by the US première to be performed in Cleveland, and lastly the New York première at Carnegie Hall.

Last weekend (13 and 14 August), the Cleveland Orchestra treated its home fans to a pair of concerts at its summer home -- the Blossom Music Center -- featuring all but the Birtwistle and Schubert pieces. I heard only the second night with Debussy and Mahler. Being out-of-doors, the tune-up was, unfortunately, affected adversely by noises not usually heard in concert halls, so my thoughts on the overall performance are not particularly valid.

To be sure, the Mahler, especially, was big and brassy as it should be in those suitable places, while the lighter more intricate parts were sometimes inaudible. (Jeux suffered from the same problem.)

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