The Cleveland Orchestra's New Recording of Julius Eastman’s Symphony No. 2 and Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 2

Conducted by Franz Welser-Möst, the orchestra's newest album has been released exclusively on Apple Music Classical

The Cleveland Orchestra released a new spatial audio recording of Eastman’s Symphony No. 2 and Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 2, led by Music Director Franz Welser-Möst.

Welser-Möst will remain Music Director until 2027, making him the longest-serving music director of The Cleveland Orchestra. He has received several major honors and awards, including the Honorary Membership of the Vienna Philharmonic, bestowed upon him in 2024.

Born in New York City and raised in Ithaca, New York, composer Julius Eastman was a student at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia before joining the new music scene at SUNY Buffalo.

In the 1970s, Eastman identified himself as a Black gay man who was considered radical in many circles.

“What I am trying to achieve is to be what I am to the fullest,” Eastman remarked in a 1976 interview. “Black to the fullest, a musician to the fullest, a homosexual to the fullest.”

By the 1980s, East­man’s life had begun to unravel. He was unable to secure a permanent faculty appointment and was in strained relationships with his family. Eventually, he became difficult to locate, residing either outdoors or in homeless shelters. He passed away in a Buffalo hospital in 1990 from cardiac arrest at the age of 49. Only eight months after he died, a notice appeared in any newspaper or media outlet.

Eastman’s Second Symphony, dedicated to his former lover, is a chronicle of their failed relationship. The work requires 100 musicians and takes anywhere from 12 to 20 minutes to perform. It offers opportunities for asynchronous and improvisatory music-making, but the challenge is to ensure that the ensemble also performs certain musical phrases or cadences at the right moments.

Tchaikovsky found inspiration for his Second Symphony while relaxing at his sister-in-law’s estate in the Ukrainian village of Kamianka (about 250 miles south of Kyiv). There, he heard the folk songs of rural Ukrainian peasants, who had been emancipated from serfdom less than a decade earlier.

Orchestras around the world subsequently performed Tchaikovsky’s Second Symphony with the programmatic title “Little Russian.” In light of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, many have since pivoted away from this title, instead calling it the “Ukrainian” Symphony in honor of those who have lost their lives, those who were displaced, and those who continue to valiantly defend their homeland.

The recordings are available exclusively on Apple Music Classical as part of a continued partnership with the streaming platform. They were produced by Elaine Martone, who just secured her third Grammy Award for Classical Producer of the Year and her sixth Grammy overall.

To purchase and listen to the album, click here.