The Cleveland Orchestra: Elgar’s Enigma Variations at Blossom Music Center

The over-100-members-strong Cleveland Orchestra has been hailed by The New York Times as “one of the finest ensembles in the country (if not the world)” with reason. The renowned orchestra continues to wow audiences from all walks of life season after season, bringing only the best to the stage. 

The Cleveland Orchestra comes home to the Blossom Music Centre every year for the Blossom Music Festival, a celebration every music lover looks forward to. The venue’s stunning park-setting, superb acoustics, amenities, and seating for up to 19,200 spread across a reserved seating area, boxes, and a general admission lawn area makes for a wonderful, magical, and most memorable outdoors music experience. 

This year, the Cleveland Orchestra has something truly special up their sleeve. Under the masterful baton of associate conductor Daniel Reith, the Cleveland Orchestra is slated to perform a brand new work commissioned from renowned composer Gabriella Smith in celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Cuyahoga Valley National Park. 

On top of that, audiences will also be treated to the rarely performed Bruch ‘Violin Concerto No. 2 in D minor, opus 44’, featuring the orchestra’s assistant concertmaster Stephen Tavani as soloist. This work promises to enthrall - from the ominous and gloomy opening to introspective passages delivered with technical ease, from the touching vulnerability of the first movement’s coda to the finale’s lovely lyrical second theme. 

The star of the evening: British composer Edward Elgar’s beloved ‘Variations on an Original Theme, opus 36’, more popularly known as the ‘Enigma Variations’. In the composer’s own programme notes for the work that had its premiere in 1899 in London, he described the work as something that “commenced in a spirit of humour and continued in deep seriousness, containing sketches of the composer’s friends. It may be understood that these personages comment or reflect on the original theme and each one attempts a solution of the Enigma, for so the theme is called.” 

The Enigma Variations is as good as classical music gets, and brings one delight after the other - from the pois of the woodwind opening of ‘R.B.T.’ to the hushed beginning of ‘Nimrod’, from the poignant cello contributions in ‘B.G.N.’ to the poetic and magical ‘Romanza’. It is undeniable: the Enigma Variations is a masterpiece unsurpassed by any British composer including Elgar himself, and should be experienced live by all music lovers. 

This performance is bound to sell out fast, so make sure to get your tickets now!