In a failed mash-up, the Houston Symphony performed only the first movement (the three-minute “Prelude: Maestoso”) of Ives’ Fourth Symphony and continued attacca into the 80 minutes of Mahler's "Resurrection."
Houston Symphony’s program starring John Corigliano’s Conjurer: Concerto for Percussionist and String Orchestra and Maurice Ravel’s Daphnis et Chloé crept through mists.
In a program with Chabrier’s España and Falla’s The Three-Cornered Hat, the Houston Symphony ambitiously unearthed Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco’s Cello Concerto, last heard at its premiere with the New York Philharmonic in 1935.
On a program with unusually slow tempos in Tchaikovsky’s Sixth Symphony and Mendelssohn’s The Hebrides, Argentine pianist Ingrid Fliter gave a cursory performance of Mendelssohn's First Piano Concerto.
While passion, supreme technical mastery, and inspiration all come to mind watching a celebrity like Ma perform, camaraderie, perhaps, is the best word for this concert.
More than today’s expert on Brahms, Ax promotes a revolutionary approach to the soloist persona: the soloist who is a chamber musician first and a diva second.
It is odd to pair a seven-minute world première with a 72-minute Mahler Symphony, but there is so much life packed in to John Corigliano’s STOMP for Orchestra, that the two halves of Houston Symphony Orchestra’s concert felt surprisingly well balanced.
From the American national anthem to An American in Paris and back to New York City for West Side Story with Joshua Bell, Stravinksy’s Firebird stuck out as the most remarkable piece on the program.
Thanks to wild talent of soloist and conductor, a strikingly new take on some familiar work and a standout concert in Houston Symphony's season so far.
