Cleveland Orchestra to play Sunday

While Oberlin breeds a conservatory full of potentially (and likely) active career-bound musicians, it's also nice to be 30 miles away from an excellent group of professionals, the Cleveland Orchestra.

For those of us without a car, they come to Finney Chapel at 3 p.m. Sunday for a performance featuring Canadian pianist Louis Lortie and guest conductor Franz Welser-Most.

The program includes Haydn's 93rd symphony, as well as shorter works by Mendelssohn, Schumann, and Richard Strauss.

The almost 80-year-old orchestra is conducted by Franz Welser-Most, who has recorded many albums with the London Philharmonic and Philadelphia Orchestras, in addition to conducting ensembles in Zurich, Vienna, and Berlin. Despite this concert's selection, he often prefers relatively unknown pieces and composers. These pieces will certainly be no cakewalk for the orchestra, though decidedly enjoyable for the crowd.

"Canada's foremost pianist" Lortie will be playing Schumann's wonderful piano concerto with the orchestra. Born in Quebec, he made his debut at age 13 with the Montreal Symphony. Since then he has played with the London Philharmonic, Tanglewood, and the Philadelphia Orchestra. Lortie's command of the keyboard is brilliant, handling insane arpeggios and lyrical passages equally well. He should do justice to this beautiful piece.

Good music is a meal that feeds the soul, and few are better cooks than the Cleveland Orchestra. As Conservatory first-year Adam Friedberg said, "They're the best orchestra in the world."

The Cleveland Orchestra plays 3 p.m. Sunday in Finney Chapel. Admission for Oberlin Students is $14.