Review: Dausgaard Conducts, Orchestra Survives

Thomas Dausgaard

My work and travel schedule this week do not permit the type of extended review that I prefer to give.

But it turns out not to be necessary in this case. Before the season started, I would have picked this candidate as perhaps the leader to be the next music director.

Having seen him, he clearly is not.
After the jump a few words concerning why.

Profile: Thomas Dausgaard

Thomas Dausgaard
(photo by Per Morten Abrahamsen)

This Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, our Houston Symphony will perform with a leading candidate for the position of its next music director: Thomas Dausgaard.

On the program will be Beethoven's Leonore Overture No. 3, Liszt Piano Concerto No. 1 with Stephen Hough at the piano, and Nielsen Symphony No. 4, subtitled The Inextinguishable.

Follow the links for some exemplar performances.

I'm a huge fan of the Nielsen, and Leonore 3 is always a good way to get going with a bang. Liszt makes about three war horse concerti in a row, but they are war horses for a reason.

So get out there, buy some tickets, and listen for yourself.

Looking at the list of contenders before the season, Thomas Dausgaard is one that I would have rated as highly probable to be able to fill the role of music director. But as I've said before, its a very curious business trying to hire an alchemist.

So after the jump, let's take a look at some of what can be known before the music is heard.

Review: Alexander Shelley Conducts Tchaikovsky (and Tchaikovsky)

Alexander Shelley

Patrons who attend the Houston Symphony this week are in for a surprise and a treat. But the treat ought come as no surprise.

The surprise is that Augustin Hadelich was unable to travel to Houston to perform the Bartok violin concerto that had been scheduled. We get an all Tchaikovsky performance conducted by Alexander Shelley. Buy a ticket and go.

The treat is that our soloist, for the second week in a row, comes from the ranks of the orchestra. Concertmaster Frank Huang steps out front on short notice and pulls a War Horse from his hip pocket.

As I said, this treat should come as no surprise. If the orchestra decided to do so, it could program an entire season of concerti performed by members of the orchestra. Lots of people play golf and lots of people make music. But to be in an orchestra on the level of our Houston Symphony is the musical equivalent of aspiring to play on the PGA Tour.

"These guys are good."

(Ladies too, obviously, but the PGA marketing tag line is not a good fit for them.)

Shelley's performance in this mini-crisis was much more solid and impressive than his visit last spring. After the jump, a detailed review.

Profile: Alexander Shelley

Alexander Shelley

Next on the podium of your Houston Symphony is Alexander Shelley, who will conduct Bartok Violin Concerto No. 2 (with Augustin Hadelich as soloist) and Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 5.

***UPDATE*** Mr. Hadelich had his travel plans disrupted by Sandy the Snowicane. Our own concertmaster, Frank Huang, has swooped in to save the day. Instead of Bartok, it will be an all Tchaikovsky evening with Huang performing the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto.

(Follow the links to view some exemplar performance).

So, for two weeks in a row, the soloist with our orchestra come from the orchestra itself. Bravo.

Now, on to the conductor.

Alexander Shelley, a good looking young chap from Great Britain, is one of a new type of artist that seems much more prevalent since I disconnected from classical music a couple of decades ago.

After the jump, a warning about me and my biases. With any luck, a little objective background too on the training and experience that Mr. Shelley brings to the task at hand this week.

Review: Andrés Orozco-Estrada, The Real Deal

Andrés Orozco-Estrada

Saturday evening, our Houston Symphony performed Berlioz's Roman Carnival Overture and Symphonie Fantastique around the Strauss First Horn Concerto with William Vermeulen as soloist and Andrés Orozco-Estrada on the podium.

Anyone who doubts whether a conductor really makes a difference or who wonders what impact a conductor can have need only have attended listened to our Houston Symphony for the last two weeks.

It did not even sound like the same orchestra. Indeed, our Houston Symphony has not sounded this good, this capable, this powerful, this transparent, this precise or this exciting in a very, very long time.

Orozco-Estrada invited this orchestra into the type of musical collaboration in which conductor and orchestra influence each other to make spontaneous musical decisions in real time. He connected with the orchestra, and out of the resulting music, he made a warm connection with the Houston audience.

***UPDATE*** Sources tell me that the Sunday matinee was even better than Saturday night's performance. That is a very special thing indeed when an orchestra raises its game in the sonnaumbulistic forum of Sunday afternoon.

This conductor is the genuine article, and right now he should be at the top of an extremely short list. After the jump, a detailed review.

Profile: Andrés Orozco-Estrada

Andrés Orozco-Estrada

This week brings another contender to our Houston Symphony for a series of four performances to include Strauss' First Horn Concerto with principal hornist William Vermeulen and Berlioz's Symphony Fantastique.

That contender is Andrés Orozco-Estrada. I don't mind saying I'm a little excited, and its not just because I have a thing for Vienna and its musicians. 

My excitement is not quite the Chris Matthews thrill up my leg. Unlike Matthews, I'm not looking for a messiah. But there are lots of traces in this contender's background that give me reason to hope that he's the real deal. And if he is the real deal, he ought to be topping the short list. 

After the jump, some pros, some cons and some examples of why Orozco-Estrada's conducting that make me sit up and take notice. 

Review: Pablo Heras-Casado Conducts Houston Symphony and Lang Lang

Thursday night, the Houston Symphony and Lang Lang performed pieces Lindberg, Beethoven, and Schumann with Pablo Heras-Casado, presumptive contender for the music director post being vacated by Hans Graf. I have reviewed the young maestro before, and came away not nearly as impressed as one would think given the nimbus surrounding his name. But knowing that I can be overly cranky, I undertook to return afresh with an objective eye.

I think I did so. And while I found things to like and things that impressed me, there were profound defects in the precision and the performance that I can only attribute to the podium. Part of the problem (but only part) is Heras-Casado’s election not to use a baton.

After the jump, a detailed review.