Leonard Bernstein first read Auden’s The Age of Anxiety: A Baroque Eclogue in the summer of 1947, shortly after it was published. Auden’s extravagant, book-length poem would go on to win a Pulitzer Prize in 1948, but it began to stir Bernstein’s musical imagination immediately. Between 1947 and 1949, he would compose an unconventional symphony … Continued
The Houston Symphony’s 2018 European Tour is underway! Get an insider’s view of the tour when Houston Symphony principal oboe Jonathan Fischer shares his experiences below. After celebrating a terrific first concert in Brussels, we had an easy bus trip over to Essen, Germany, passing through a little corner of Holland on our way. Transporting the orchestra along … Continued
Houston audiences may know Brad Sayles best as the Houston Symphony’s Grammy Award-winning audio engineer, but he is also an active composer of film and concert music. He has also hosted Music from the Movies, a radio show that explored both new and classic film scores. In advance of our The Best of John Williams … Continued
In 1909, the Russian impresario Sergei Diaghilev was running out of time. After a grand duke who had been a key backer of his ventures dropped dead and his widow refused to give him any more money, Diaghilev had been forced to abandon his plans to present Russian opera in Paris in the spring of … Continued
The Houston Symphony’s 2018 European Tour is off to a great start! Get an insider’s view of the tour when Houston Symphony horn player Rob Johnson shares his experiences of Brussels and Essen below. During our tour preview concerts, it was hard to think about the fact that we’d be playing these pieces overseas in … Continued
Led by Music Director Andrés Orozco-Estrada and joined by violin paragon Hilary Hahn, the Houston Symphony takes its talents to Europe March 9–March 19, 2018. One fantastic orchestra will tour eight illustrious cities and eight of the world’s most renowned concert halls and festivals. Klarafestival at BOZAR March 9 • Brussels, Belgium The Houston Symphony’s … Continued
Above: A member of Big Brothers Big Sisters tries out Community-Embedded Musician Anthony Parce’s viola during the annual Holiday Celebration at the Houston Symphony Family Concert. As music lovers, we know the power music has to change lives, so the Houston Symphony, is always looking for new and unexpected ways to harness this power to make … Continued
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
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
The year following Leonard Bernstein’s legendary debut as a conductor with the New York Philharmonic was one of seemingly miraculous success for the 25-year-old musician. After filling in for an ailing Bruno Walter on November 14, 1943, he became one of America’s most sought-after guest conductors, and by April he was conducting the premiere of … Continued
Culture wars, political dysfunction and rising ethnic tensions—these were the problems that plagued Austria-Hungary in the 1880s, and the Czech composer Antonín Dvořák would be caught in the cross-hairs. The immediate problems of the 1880s had deep roots, however; for centuries, Czech lands had been ruled by the Austrian Hapsburg monarchy, and Czech peoples were often relegated … Continued
Orchestra musicians love touring. The notion that the orchestra is building bridges, making connections, drawing together a diversity of people through music—while also enjoying ovations, sightseeing, history, and culture—make tours a memorable part of any musician’s career. For a while, every musician is removed from everyday concerns—laundry, dishes, what’s for dinner, traffic—and can really focus … Continued
February 2, 3 and 4, percussion rock star Colin Currie joins the Houston Symphony to perform American composer John Corigliano’s Conjurer for Percussion, Strings (and optional Brass). Who could provide a better introduction to this landmark percussion concerto than the composer himself? He did just that at a lecture at the University of British Columbia … Continued
Not long after the triumphant St. Petersburg premiere of Tchaikovsky’s Fourth Symphony in 1878, the composer received a letter from a woman who had recently become one of the most important people in his life. Nadezhda von Meck was the immensely wealthy widow of one of Russia’s first railroad magnates, and was an ardent admirer … Continued
Nancy Goodearl, a member of the Houston Symphony since 1981, received a Bachelor of Music degree in performance from the Eastman School of Music and a Master of Music degree in performance from Northwestern University. Since 1987, she has been a member of the Grand Teton Music Festival Orchestra in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. She has … Continued
In 1934, the Swiss conductor Paul Sacher married Maja Stehlin, the widow who had inherited the Roche pharmaceutical fortune. Finding himself now one of the richest men in the world, Sacher poured his wealth into one of his greatest passions: new music. In 1926, Sacher had founded the Basle Chamber Orchestra, an ensemble dedicated to … Continued
On the evening of November 13, 1943, the 25-year-old Leonard Bernstein was out celebrating the successful premiere of his first composition to appear before the New York public: I Hate Music, a charming, miniature song cycle about a child’s irreverent musings. After much carousing, Bernstein received a call informing him that the eminent conductor Bruno … Continued