{"id":31502,"date":"2015-10-30T10:30:09","date_gmt":"2015-10-30T14:30:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/?p=31502"},"modified":"2015-11-02T10:24:00","modified_gmt":"2015-11-02T15:24:00","slug":"the-classical-traveler-a-weekend-in-houston","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/2015\/10\/30\/the-classical-traveler-a-weekend-in-houston\/","title":{"rendered":"THE CLASSICAL TRAVELER | A Weekend in Houston"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Houston
Houston Symphony conductor Andr\u00e9s Orozco-Estrada (Photo: Werner Kmetitsch)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I<\/span>n the 1990s, I lived in the Houston area and found it to be one of the most vibrant arts communities in the country: Christoph Eschenbach had revitalized the Houston Symphony; the Houston Grand Opera featured the likes of Ren\u00e9e Fleming in Der Rosenkavalier<\/em> and Arabella <\/em>and Hildegard Behrens in Elektra<\/em>; the Alley Theatre regularly presented new work by Albee, Tennessee Williams, Alan Ayckbourn, and Horton Foote, and even imported the likes of Vanessa and Corin Redgrave for several memorable Shakespeare productions; Rice University featured a student orchestra trained by Larry Rachleff that could match most professional orchestras; the Houston Friends of Chamber Music (now known as Chamber Music Houston) offered world-class concerts year in and year out; numerous museums around town housed solid collections and hosted excellent travelling shows; and the Arts District had a movie theatre (the Angelika) featuring important foreign and independent films, with a caf\u00e9 offering gourmet meals.<\/p>\n

Today, more than 20 years later, the Angelika is gone, but Houston continues to thrive as a major center for the arts. Significantly, through floods and economic downturns, it has been able, and continues to maintain what it has and expand when the opportunity presents itself.<\/p>\n

On a recent weekend visit, I attended a Houston Symphony concert led by its charismatic young music director Andr\u00e9s Orozco-Estrada, took in a rollicking comedy at the newly-renovated Alley Theatre, and spent an enlightening and sobering afternoon with photographer Roman Vishniac at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Vishniac courageously documented Jewish life in Eastern Europe before World War II.<\/p>\n

The Houston Symphony has had a distinguished history, with music directors of the stature of Fricsay, Barbirolli, Stokowski and Previn, and the afore-mentioned Eschenbach. Several years ago, the board made a remarkably wise and ground-breaking decision; instead of bringing in another big name conductor, it hired a talented young \u2018rising star\u2019 from Colombia. Andr\u00e9s Orozco-Estrada had been highly-praised in Europe but was virtually unknown in the U.S when hired by the HSO. The orchestra\u2019s search committee clearly determined that not only did Orozco-Estrada have a bright future as a conductor, but also that as the Hispanic population grew in Texas, so too would the orchestra\u2019s Hispanic audience, making Orozco-Estrada \u201cthe right man in the right place\u201d as conductor of the Houston Symphony. In Orozco-Estrada, the orchestra has a dynamic young leader who can reach out to that emerging audience.<\/p>\n

Although it is too early to tell whether this strategy has been successful, there is no doubt that Orozco-Estrada is a breath of fresh air to both musicians and audience. Energetic and enthusiastic, he is also a solid musician. He and the orchestra are working their way through the symphonies of Charles Ives at the rate of one per season. In this program of Brahms and Ives (Symphony No. 2), the Houston Symphony sounded rich and full, especially in the strings.<\/p>\n

Ives worked on his Symphony N. 2 through the first decade of the Twentieth Century, and added some final touches around 1950, but the piece was not heard in public until Leonard Bernstein led a performance in 1951. The scoring, in its incorporation of American popular songs and hymns of the period within the traditional confines of a classical symphonic structure, is typical Ives The composer was way ahead of his time in creating this kind of \u2018Americana\u2019 and it proved baffling – even shocking – to some listeners. Judging by its reaction, the Houston audience \u2018got it\u2019 and enjoyed the piece immensely. While Orozco-Estrada\u2019s lively and informative introduction from the podium certainly helped, it was mainly the sheer joy of the performance that elicited such a positive response.<\/p>\n

The second half of the concert featured Emanuel Ax in Brahms\u2019 Piano Concerto No. 2. Ax has long been an exemplary Brahmsian, and this performance represented a lifetime of living with this composer\u2019s music. In the 1980s, Emanuel Ax made superb recordings of Brahms\u2019 solo piano music and chamber music with Isaac Stern and Yo-Yo Ma. Today, at age 66, he has lost none of his technical mastery of this very difficult music.<\/p>\n

Some \u201ctraditionalist\u201d interpreters of his music believe that the essence of Brahms is gravitas<\/em> \u2013 meaning slow tempo, deadly serious mood throughout and no smiling allowed. Emanuel Ax takes a different view. The opening bars of the Second Piano Concerto \u2013 a duet between horn and piano \u2013 are often taken so slowly that it is difficult to discern any tempo at all. Ax notes that this section is marked Allegro con brio<\/em> and that these bars are not introductory, but rather, the beginning of the exposition. What Brahms had in mind becomes obvious when one looks at the recapitulation, which must be played \u2018in tempo\u2019. Similarly, the slow movement, which is marked Andante<\/em> (moderately slow) not Adagio<\/em> (slow), can still be played espressivo<\/em>, as marked, if played \u2018in tempo\u2019, whereas it practically falls apart if the tempo is too slow.<\/p>\n

Although he has performed this work dozens of times and was authoritative in this performance, Ax was clearly enjoying every note of it, as if hearing it for the first time. When he was not attending to his own part, he spent every moment listening attentively to the orchestra.<\/p>\n

At the end of the performance, the audience called Emanuel Ax back to the stage several times, eventually persuading him to play an encore. It was then that he did something very unusual; he invited principal cellist Brinton Averil Smith to join him in a piece by Faur\u00e9, a transcription of the song Apr<\/em>\u00e8s un r<\/em>\u00eave. <\/em>Smith had played the solo part in the slow movement of the concerto magnificently and had also been outstanding in several solo passages in the Ives Symphony No. 2 earlier in the evening. This unusual \u2018encore\u2019, a wonderfully generous gesture on the part of a great soloist, was much appreciated by the audience \u2013 a grand way to end an exceptionally fine concert.<\/p>\n

Frank Huang, who has been concertmaster of the Houston Symphony for many years, was recently invited to become concertmaster of the New York Philharmonic. The Houston Symphony is now conducting a search for a successor to Mr. Huang and as part of the process has been trying out guest concertmasters. For this concert, Jing Wang, concertmaster of the Hong Kong Philharmonic, sat in the concertmaster\u2019s chair, and made an excellent impression. The 30-year-old Mr. Wang, who was born in China, grew up in Canada. Before taking up his position in Hong Kong, he was concertmaster of the Dallas Opera.<\/p>\n

The Alley Theatre opened its building in Houston\u2019s Arts District in 1968. In this building, the company has presented 47 seasons of theatrical excellence. Recently, it became apparent that the building was in need of major renovations. At a cost of $46.5 million, improvements were made to the washrooms, the lobby and the performing space. The theatre now has a large thrust stage and state-of-the-art equipment. The audience has the benefit of new seats and better acoustics.<\/p>\n

The first production in the newly-renovated building was Richard Bean\u2019s One Man, Two Guvnors<\/em> based on Goldoni\u2019s The Servant of Two Masters.<\/em> As directed by Gregory Boyd, this was a hilariously entertaining \u2018romp\u2019. The fine cast, headed by Jeffrey Bean as Francis Henshall, accomplished the outrageous physical comedy and endless double takes with aplomb. Behind all the crotch-grabbing and pratfalls, it was apparent that the show had been rehearsed meticulously for spot-on timing.<\/p>\n

Adding immeasurably to the fun was the presence of The Craze,<\/em> a four-piece band on stage throughout the show. The setting of the play was Brighton, England, 1963 and The Craze<\/em> captured the spirit of the times, playing music by Grant Olding. It was corny and delightful at the same time, and as did the actors, the four musicians combined indomitable energy with impeccable timing. The Alley Theatre\u2019s 2015-2016 season is off to a great start in a refurbished facility that is both actor and audience-friendly.<\/p>\n

Just a few miles to the southwest, bordering Rice University, one finds Houston\u2019s Museum District. There is so much to see here \u2013 there are a half-dozen museums within walking distance of each other – that a weekend visit is not nearly enough to do it justice. On this occasion, we visited the Museum of Fine Arts (MFA), Houston for the Roman Vishniac Rediscovered <\/em>exhibition.<\/p>\n

Vishniac (1897-1990), who was born in Moscow, grew up in Berlin in the 1920s and 30s. It was his mission in life to record everyday life in the Jewish communities of Eastern Europe, and his iconic images capture, among other things, the misery of life in the shtetls<\/em> as anti-Semitism gradually destroyed Jewish communities throughout Europe. It is a harrowing experience to walk through the galleries of this exhibition, seeing with one\u2019s own eyes the hopelessness of life under these conditions.<\/p>\n

Photographing the plight of the Jews and the Nazi presence was strictly forbidden in Nazi-occupied countries, but Vishniac persevered. Arrested and put in a concentration camp, he managed to escape and made his way to the United States (1941), where he went on to have a distinguished career as a photographer. Among his most important photographs from this period are portraits of Albert Einstein and Marc Chagall.<\/p>\n

The Vishniac exhibition at the MFA also includes some talks and concerts. A highlight of our visit was an hour spent with Rabbi Dan Gordon as he told stories and folktales from the old Jewish communities of Eastern Europe, a touching and often inspiring complement to the often troubling images that surrounded us in the galleries.<\/p>\n

#LUDWIGVAN<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

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On a recent weekend visit, I attended a Houston Symphony concert led by its charismatic young music director Andr\u00e9s Orozco-Estrada, took in a rollicking comedy at the newly-renovated Alley Theatre, and spent an enlightening and sobering afternoon with photographer Roman Vishniac at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":31507,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[118,4933],"tags":[5663,1143,5662],"yst_prominent_words":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2015\/10\/Andres_Orozco-Estrada_-_Photo_-by_Werner_Kmetitsch_-_\u00a95g-.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9bakr-8c6","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31502"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31502"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31502\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31528,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31502\/revisions\/31528"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31507"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31502"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31502"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31502"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=31502"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}