With a lengthy schedule of concerts and recitals in Northeast Ohio, choosing a few events to recommend is like throwing darts at the list. Here are some especially interesting performances.
ORCHESTRAS
The first big production of the Cleveland Orchestra season will be Mahler's "Resurrection Symphony" led by Franz Welser-Möst, with soprano Joélle Harvey and mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke on Oct. 4, 5 and 6.
German violinist Christian Tetzlaff will be featured in Alban Berg's concerto, along with music by Webern and Schoenberg, on Oct. 25 and 27.
Composer John Adams will lead the orchestra on Nov. 29 and 30 and Dec. 1 in two of his own works, including "Scherazade.2" with violinist Leila Josefowicz.
As part of the Severance Hall holiday festival, Jane Glover will lead four performances of Handel's "Messiah" from Dec. 6 to 9.
Jeannette Sorrell's period instrument ensemble Apollo's Fire begins its season with three performances of Magnificent Mozart from Oct. 12 to 14, then launches a new series, Baroque Bistro. AF continues its exploration of Middle Eastern music with "O Jerusalem!" and celebrates the holidays with Handel's "Messiah" and a revival of "Christmas on Sugarloaf Mountain."
Akron's Tuesday Musical will present Montreal's Les Violons du Roy with countertenor Anthony Ross Costanzo in an Oct. 16 E.J. Thomas Hall program of music by Glass and Handel.
Vinay Parameswaran will lead the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra in its first concert on Nov. 16 in Severance Hall, when violinist Célina Béthoux will be featured in Samuel Barber's "Concerto."
The next evening, Nov. 17, the Contemporary Youth Orchestra will play music by Michael Daugherty, Christopher Rouse and Michael McIntosh under Liza Grossman in Waetjen Auditorium at Cleveland State University.
And on Dec. 12, in Finney Chapel, Atlanta Symphony conductor and Oberlin alum Robert Spano will lead Oberlin Orchestra in the premiere of Stephen Hartke's "Cello Concerto" with Darrett Adkins.
OPERA
Two conservatories are offering unusual titles in November. Oberlin Opera Theater's production of Bernstein's Trouble in Tahiti (along with music from Candide and West Side Story), and CIM opera's staging of Stravinsky's Le Rossignol and Ravel's L'Enfant et les Sortilèges will run simultaneously between Nov. 7 and 11.
CHORAL MUSIC
Oberlin College Choir offers the rare opportunity on Oct. 18 to hear Igor Stravinsky's "Le Noces (The Wedding)" for chorus, soloists, four grand pianos and percussion. The Finney Chapel performance includes Sofia Gubaidulina's "Canticle of the Sun."
Composer Margaret Brouwer has revised her "Voice of the Lake," an oratorio about Lake Erie's slide toward crisis, for a performance at the Cleveland Institute of Music on Oct. 19. Domenico Boyagian conducts, and soloists include soprano Angela Mortellaro, tenor Brian Skoog and bass Bryant Bush.
Jay White takes the reins of Quire Cleveland this season. Its first concert at St. John's Cathedral on Nov. 2 includes Requiem Mass movements and elegies. In December, the French Baroque ensemble Les Délices will join Quire under guest conductor Eric Milnes for three performances of Charpentier's charming "Midnight Mass."
The Cleveland Museum of Art will kick off its performing arts series in Gartner Auditorium on Oct. 24 with a concert of Bach Motets by the Belgian choir Vox Luminus, Lionel Meunier conducting.
Among a number of community chorus concerts, Good Company's Nov. 4 performance of music by Ola Gjeilo at Lakewood Presbyterian Church stands out. The composer will be present.
CHAMBER MUSIC
AND SOLO RECITALS
Les Délices continues its chronicle of Mozart's visit to Paris with three concerts on Oct. 4, 6, and 7 in Akron, Lakewood and Shaker Heights featuring fortepianist Sylvia Berry.
The Cavani Quartet will appear in two concerts with poet Mwatabu Okantah: the Arts Renaissance Tremont series at Pilgrim Church on Oct. 14, and the John Knox Performance Series in North Olmsted on Nov. 2.
Baldwin Wallace saxophone professor Steven Banks will be featured in an Oct. 14 Music from the Western Reserve recital at Christ Church in Hudson.
Burning River Baroque (soprano/cellist Malina Rauschenfels and harpsichordist Paula Maust) will bring 18th century music into the #metoo era with performances of "Destructive Desires" on Oct. 19 in a private home, and on Oct. 20 and 21 in Cleveland Heights and Lakewood.
On Oct. 26, Keith Fitch's CIM New Music Ensemble will mark the centennial of Igor Stravinsky's "A Soldier's Tale (L'Histoire du Soldat)" with the premiere of a new video by Kasumi, along with other Stravinsky and Kasumi pieces and Esa-Pekka Salonen's "Catch and Release."
The Baltimore Consort will visit Akron's Arts at Holy Trinity Lutheran series on Oct. 28 with a program of early and traditional Scottish music.
On Nov. 3, at First Unitarian Church in Shaker Heights, the celebrated Los Angeles Guitar Quartet will be a highlight of the fall Cleveland Classical Guitar Society's season.
Heights Arts will begin its four-performance Close Encounters season with "We Too," works by women spanning a millennium. Cleveland Orchestra members will play music from Hildegard von Bingen to Joan Tower on Nov. 11 in a private residence in Herrick Mews.
Canadian violin virtuoso James Ehnes will bring his quartet to the Cleveland Chamber Music Society at Plymouth Church in Shaker Heights for Haydn, Elgar, and Bartók on Nov. 13.
And finally, fans of former Cleveland Orchestra assistant conductor James Feddeck will want to catch his Gala Serenade Evening on the Rocky River Chamber Music Society series at West Shore Unitarian Universalist Church on Nov. 19. He'll conduct Cleveland Orchestra members and friends in serenades by Dvorák and Brahms.
