The Cleveland Orchestra plays Lamentation on The Disasters of War

The Cleveland Orchestra performed Lamentation on The Disasters of War as part of their 2022–2023 season, under conductor Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider on October 13-16 in Severance Hall. The program featured Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3 Eroica and Bloch’s Schelomo: Rhapsodie Hébraïque for Violoncello and Orchestra. The theme of the concert, as expressed by David Patrick Stearns in his notes for the concert:

“Music created in times of war so often comes down to the question “Why?” On one level, we question the politics of war, an often confusing and complex web of governmental policies and prejudices. On another is the heartbreaking bloodshed and loss of soldiers and civilians. Why do we so often turn to music and art during these troubled times? Why can a tone poem, symphony, or concerto more clearly express what can be communicated in words, or, more to the point, beyond words.

The three composers on this program each confront — and transform — the question of “why” through pre-established musical forms. Karim Al-Zand’s Lamentation on The Disasters of War (2006) finds renewed resonance in Francisco de Goya’s tortured 19th-century etchings of Napoleon’s invasion of Spain; Ernest Bloch’s World War I–era Schelomo, Hebraic Rhapsody for Cello and Orchestra (1916), invokes the Old Testament wisdom of King Solomon; and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3 (1803–04) finds inspiration — and later criticism — in the conquests of Napoleon. In contemplating war, they illuminate dual sides of humanity: not only to endure through unimaginable hardship, but to find meaning, purpose, and eventually beauty in it.”

The program was also featured by Szeps-Znaider in his role as director of the Orchestre National de Lyon. [reviews: Cleveland Plain Dealer; Seen and Heard International]