This new album is the second release from the conductor Franz Welser-Möst and his Cleveland Orchestra on Welser-Möst’s own label. It also marks their final performances before their entire tour around Europe and the UAE was cancelled due to coronavirus. This recording took place on March 12, 2020 in front of a few donors and staff members under Ohio’s strict state rules. This feeling permeates Franz Welser-Möst’s rendition of Andante con moto from Schubert’s 9th Symphony and it sounds as though the conductor is conscious of the fact that this would the last time he would be conducting his orchestra for a while. This gives the calm, quiet work a very personal twist. The album also includes a work by Ernst Krenek commissioned for the Swiss patron Paul Sacher in 1972. Static and Extatic consists of ten short movements for chamber orchestra, percussion and piano. They are like musical haikus, each one lasting between one and three minutes. They are written in a serial style and present a retrospective of Ernst Krenek’s compositional technique that he developed throughout his long career. The resulting atmosphere is unexpected, enchanting and truly poetic. © François Hudry/Qobuz