Tuesday, October 30, 2012

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.


Sunday, October 28, 2012

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.


Sunday, October 21, 2012

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. 

Friday, October 19, 2012

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.

Monday, October 15, 2012

Heras-Casado Returns

Pablo Heras-Casado
Next among the contenders in the dock is Pablo Heras-Casado. 

The Spanish conductor puzzles me. He is everywhere doing everything, generating great buzz and press, conducting major orchestras in major musical capitals of the world.Witness this NY Times Profile, a positive NY Times Review from the Mostly Mozart fetival, another favorable NY Times Review of an outdoor Beethoven and Ravel concert, and a glowing early review from the San Francisco Chronicle. 

If he is half as good as his clippings, this is a rising star that would benefit the Houston Symphony, were we to latch onto him. To hear some, he's the second coming of Gustavo Dudamel.

So what's the problem?

Maybe nothing. Maybe I'm just old and cynical. Maybe my earlier review of Heras-Casado was too cranky. Maybe the unsatisfying concert was fluke.

But just because I am old and cynical doesn't mean I'm necessarily wrong--or that I am right. After the jump some reasons why all of us (me included) ought to give Heras-Casado a fresh listen--a fresh and very objective listen.
 

Saturday, October 13, 2012

Review: Brahms, Biss and Storgårds


Jonathan Biss
Our guest mystery critic attended the Houston Symphony’s third and final installment in a series of Brahms concerts. This Sunday Matinee featured the Second Piano Concerto in B-flat major and the Third Symphony in F major, with Jonathan Biss at the piano and conductor John Storgårds at the podium.  

Making allowances for the matinee sluggishness, it was still possible to tell something of the performers, including Storgårds. Perhaps most important to the task of conducting, our critic believes that this program exhibited Storgårds’ excellent sense of rhythm and clear understanding of the architecture of the two pieces on the program. Of course, he had tremendous help from an orchestra full of great musicians.

After the jump the guest review.