Happy With Their Choice

The Cleveland Orchestra must really like its new music director. Just a year into the Franz Welser-Möst era, the orchestra has extended the young conductor’s contract through 2012, a nearly unprecedented move obviously designed to showcase the organization’s confidence in him. Welser-Möst’s appointment was somewhat controversial, as might be expected when a young and relatively unknown conductor takes the helm of an ensemble widely regarded to be among the top five in the world. But the musicians are reportedly more than happy with Welser-Möst’s leadership, and he is now guaranteed a place in Cleveland for the next decade.