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Cleveland Orchestra music director Franz Welser-Most, seen here last weekend at Blossom Music Center, has resigned from Austria's Vienna State Opera, where he served as general music director.

(Roger Mastroianni)

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Cleveland Orchestra music director Franz Welser-Most is making headlines in Europe two days ahead of schedule.

Just as the group was preparing Friday for performances Sunday and Monday in London, the first stop on a two-week tour of Europe, the conductor announced his resignation from Austria's renowned Vienna State Opera, where he has served as general music director since 2010.

The resignation, tendered via letter to Vienna State Opera artistic director Dominique Meyer, is effective immediately and leaves the company without a conductor for several new and revived productions in the 2014-15 season.

Welser-Most was not available for comment Friday but explained his decision in greater detail in a follow-up statement to the announcement's broad citing of "irreconcilable differences of opinion" over artistic matters.

"I regret very much this situation," reads the statement. "The differences of opinion . . . have not merely occurred overnight. We have attempted on many occasions to find a resolution. . . . This is a very painful decision for me . . . [and] I did not take it without deep consideration."

Meyer himself also weighed in Friday with a brief statement describing Welser-Most's departure as a great loss and expressing his urgent need to find a replacement for at least 34 performances, including productions of Verdi's "Rigoletto" and Strauss' "Elektra."

Whether and how Welser-Most's resignation in Vienna could affect the Cleveland Orchestra was unclear Friday.

However, in a statement released Friday to the media, Cleveland Orchestra executive director Gary Hanson said the conductor's ongoing commitment to the orchestra – his contract here runs through the 2017-18 season – is "not at all in doubt."

Later Friday, a letter to the musicians from Hanson and Dennis LaBarre, president of the Musical Arts Association, reiterated that sentiment. "[W]e understand and support him in his decision," it said. "Franz's commitment to his work in Cleveland remains steadfast . . ."

Welser-Most, a native of Austria, first performed at Vienna State Opera in 1987, as a replacement for conductor Claudio Abbado. Nearly a decade later, he began appearing there more regularly, and was soon invited to conduct new productions, including one of Wagner's four-part "The Ring of the Nibelung." His appointment as general music director came in 2007.

Vienna State Opera has a history of tumultuous relationships with its artistic leaders. Over the last century, several prominent conductors have walked away from the institution, including Abbado, former Cleveland Orchestra music director Lorin Maazel, Herbert von Karajan and – perhaps most famously – Gustav Mahler.