2022-2023 Arts Season Has Begun
Changes in music directors for a symphony orchestra are usually a rare occasion. The Houston Symphony has had superb artistic leadership in its DNA with such luminaries as Ferenc Fricsay, Leopoldo Stokowski, Sir John Barbirolli and Andre Previn. Since I moved to Houston in 1970, there have only been five at the Houston Symphony – Lawrence Foster, Sergiu Comissiona, Christoph Eschenbach, Hans Graf and Andrés Orozco-Estrada. Beginning this month a new Music Director, Juraj Valčuha, takes the helm.
Born and raised in Bratislava, Slovakia, Valčuha brings a large and impressive résumé to Houston. He was Music Director of the Orchestra Sinfonica National Della RAI in Turin, Italy and is currently Music Director of the Teatro di San Carlo, Naples, Italy as well as First Guest Conductor of the Konzerthausorchester Berlin. He has led many of the major ensembles of the world, including the Berlin Philharmonic, Dresden Staatskapelle, Leipzig Gewandhaus, Amsterdam Royal Concertgebouw, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Vienna Symphony, the NDR Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Swedish Radio Symphony, Orchestre de Paris, the Orchestre National de France, the BBC and Philharmonia Orchestras in London, Milan’s Filharmonia della Scala and the Montreal Symphony. In the United States, in addition to prior appearances with the Houston Symphony, he has conducted the orchestras of Boston, Chicago, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Dallas, Indianapolis, Los Angeles, St Louis, Utah, San Francisco, Minnesota, Pittsburg and New York.
When the announcement of his appointment to Houston was made, the Executive Director and CEO of the Houston Symphony, John Mangum, interviewed Valčuha in Berlin and it is available on YouTube and I highly recommend watching it at youtube.com – “Announcing Juraj Valčuha, Music Director Designate” – This is an excerpt of a much longer “A Conversation with Juraj Valčuha” – again, highly recommended watching.
The concerts of September and October are well-rounded and exciting.
September 23, 24, 25
Sibelius Violin Concerto, with Joshua Bell; Shostakovich Symphony 5, conducted by Valčuha.
It looks to me as if the relationship between HSO and violinist virtuoso Itzhak Perlman is really blossoming into meaningful collaboration. Perlman appears twice this season, first by performing the Beethoven Violin Concerto in October and returning in April 2023 leading the orchestra in two performances of the Mozart Requiem.
October 20, 22, 23
Beethoven Violin, Itzhak Perlman soloist; Coleridge-Taylor, The Bamboula, Rhapsodic Dance for Orchestra; Strauss, Der Rosenkavalier Suite, conducted by Valčuha.
October 28, 29, 30
All Mozart, Symphony 35, the “Hefner,” Simphonia Concertante, Music from “Thamos, King of Egypt,” conducted by Jane Glover.