Above: Joseph introduces the clarinet and performs Bartók melodies to support the classroom lesson as part of the Elementary Residency at Crespo presented by BBVA Compass. Many Houston Symphony fans will remember the astonishing performance of the Nielsen Clarinet Concerto that earned Joseph Morris the 2017 Ima Hogg Competition top prize, or the equally spectacular rendition … Continued
Songs are a many-splendored thing in motion pictures. They book-end stories, serving as overture and coda, preparing canvases for directors and offering the audience a sense of ceremony as it enters and departs from the world of a film. The best original songs pull on us with lyrical hooks toward what really matters in a … Continued
Many have accused Bernstein of pretentiousness in associating his Serenade with Plato’s Symposium, suggesting that he merely tacked on the highfalutin subtitle after he had already composed it. Critics typically cite discrepancies between Plato’s classic and the Serenade, arguing that one has little to do with the other: compared with Plato’s book, the movements are … Continued
The Houston Symphony is excited to announce that the Dutch label Pentatone has released a new recording featuring Andrés Orozco-Estrada and the orchestra: Music of the Americas. Recorded over the course of two concert weekends in early 2017, the album brings together 20th century composers from North and South America with four lively, dance-inspired works, … Continued
This Valentine’s Day, you may be wondering how to let your Valentine know how you really feel. Here are five pieces of orchestral music guaranteed to help send the right message. Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture No list of romance-inducing classical music would be complete without Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture, which contains the … Continued
In January 1934, Dmitri Shostakovich scored one of the biggest triumphs of his career with the premiere of Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District, a work official critics hailed as the first great Soviet opera. Based on a nineteenth-century novella by Leskov, it follows the misadventures of Katerina, the illiterate wife of a well-to-do country … Continued