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.
