Moving On Up

Just a quick note here to let you know that we will be firing up the blog again as the Houston Symphony's season begins.

But this blog is moving to a new home with a better address.

Visit the Houston Symphony Critic for continued analysis and review of Houston Symphony performances and the orchestra's search for its next music director.

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Juanjo Mena Spurns Houston Symphony Engagement

The Boston Symphony recently published its brochure for the 2012-2013 season. Included among the offerings is a subscription concert the first week in November involving one of our erstwhile contenders, Juanjo Mena.

Gee, that's funny. I thought Maestro Mena was supposed to be conducting the Houston Symphony on those dates.

He was.

Was.

Past tense. At least I hope so.

Would it strike you as needy if someone took to stalking the big man on campus who broke up because he got a "better" offer from a sexier prom date? I think so.

An orchestra that feels like it has something to offer to the world ought not go chasing someone who won't keep his word to the organization--let alone make the type of commitment to the orchestra's excellence that true leadership requires.

Don't get in a hurry, Houston Symphony. And don't settle. The Cincinati Symphony spent two years searching for its new music director, and it got Louis Langree. The Chicago Symhpony courted Ricardo Muti from 2006 and was willing to go without a music director until the 2010 season. 

The New York Philharmonic got Alan Gilbert. Compare and contrast.

"Good" orchestras should not kiss on the first date, let alone propose. The last 10 years show what happens if you do.

Review: Heras-Casado, Beethoven and Petrushka

Music has a pulse.

This is not to say that it ticks along at the same tempo and never alters. A healthy pulse changes tempo moment to moment with the tempo of life.

When I stand up from this keyboard, my heart rate will rise. And every part of my heartbeat, all the little subdivisions, will rise together and in harmony. When I exercise today, it will rise some more.

But a heartbeat with arhytmia will not do that properly or naturally.

Saturday night's performance by the Houston Symphony with Pablo Heras-Casado and Jon Kimura-Parker showed the difference between pulse (with and without rubato) and arhythmia. When the orchestra or the soloist laid down the pulse it worked. When they did not, it didn't.

Aftere the jump, one person's take.

Preview: Meet Jon Kimura Parker; Meet Beethoven

Jon Kimura Parker is proof positive that a Canadian can survive in Houston, Texas without dying of spontaneous human combustion.

On second thought, I don't know if he stays here in July and Augus, so that undermines my hypothesis.

Anyway, Jon Kimura Parker is one of several authentically world class musicians who live and work in Houston. I've known of him since I was a child and he appeared on the cover of my piano-teacher/mother's Clavier Magazine. Now, in addition to performing the world over, he teaches at the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University.

He will join the Houston Symphony this week to perform Beethoven's First Piano Concerto. After the jump, a demonstration, by Mr. Parker himself, of 21st century tools put to great artistic use and a preview of the concerto.

Preview: Heras-Casado and Petrushka

Pablo Heras-Casado

Next up on the Houston Symphony's classical season is Pablo Heras-Casado.

The main event for the orchstra will be Petrushka, by Igor Stravinsky, another of the composer's collaborations with Sergei Diaghilev and the Ballets Russes during the first decades of the 20th Century. Like "The Right of Spring," Pierre Monteaux conducted the premiere.

This is a piece I've never had the chance to play, and alas there is no score available in the public domain to which I could link. But there is a fantastic, full length performance by the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra on Youtube. Even in that format you, can hear the accoustical magnificence of their hall.

(And you can become bitter about the musical sound suck that is Jones Hall. But I digress.).

After the jump, a few words about Petrushka and a chance to hear and see some amazing playing by the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra.

Coming Soon: Pablo Heras-Casado

The Houston Symphony's next classical concert will bring Pablo Heras-Casado to the podium to lead the orchestra in a program to include Schumann: Overture to Manfred, Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 1, and Stravinsky: Petrouchka (1947).

Jon Kimura Parker will be the piano soloist and the concerts will take place on April 13, 14 and 15.
Heras-Casado is listed among The Contenders to become the next music director of our HSO, so I have looked around for some resources to preview his upcoming performance.

You will find some of those after the jump.

Review: Getting It Together

Saturday night's performance by the Houston Symphony, with conductor Alexander Shelley and violin soloist Hilary Hahn, had moments of exceptional individual and section playing. It had moments where the mind of the composer were clear to the listener.

For example, solo flutist Aralee Dorough was a fully equal partner with Hilary Hahn in the melodies that they share at the begining of Prokofiev's first violin concerto. Ms. Dorough alone had the theme at the recapitulation in the first movement and again matched a wonderful soloist. Their communication and music making was first rate.

Moments like those make a night at the Symphony something worth doing. But beautfully played moments do not make a complete concert or a fully satisfying performance. After the jump, one person's view on the potential source of the discontent.