Photos by Pete Vonder Haar

The Chieftains with the Houston Symphony
Jones Hall
February 15, 2013

When your band's been around for half a century, you could probably be forgiven for reliving past glory and staying safely within the established confines of whatever envelope you've developed for yourself. Just don't tell that to the Chieftains, who celebrated their 50th anniversary last year by releasing an album (Voice of Ages) and now embarking on a 28-city tour.

That kind of longevity also brings a certain amount of respect from your peers (or so you'd hope), and any Chieftains show is likely to be loaded with special appearances and surprises. That was certainly the case Friday night at Jones Hall, where the Chieftains were joined by the Houston Symphony and several guests, providing a satisfying mix of Irish tradition and classical sensibility.

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Courtesy Houston Symphony

Andrés Orozco-Estrada, the new musical director for the Houston Symphony.

Although some say that metropolitan orchestras are on the decline with symphonies including Philadelphia and Louisville declaring bankruptcy over the past decade, the Houston Symphony is going full steam ahead as it announces its lineup for its action-packed centennial season. Here are the concerts not to miss as the symphony says goodbye to musical director Hans Graf and welcomes newly announced musical director Andrés Orozco-Estrada, whose official debut will be in October 2013.

Centennial 100th Birthday Concert
Friday, June 21, 2013

The first ever performance of the Houston Symphony, sponsored by Houston philanthropist Ima Hogg, was on June 21, 1913. Exactly 100 years later, this kickoff event of the new season will celebrate the centennial milestone by bringing the power of music to all with a free concert in Miller Outdoor Theater. Selections will include popular works such as Beethoven's Ode to Joy, Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker, and selections from Holst's The Planets.

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Recently, Discovery Green presented something of a rarity: a premiere viewing of a new(ish) silent film complete with original score as performed live by Houston's own invaluable symphonic oddball geniuses Two Star Symphony.

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Best-selling author Katherine Howe signs and discusses her new book, The House of Velvet and Glass, at Murder by the Book on Friday. Howe, who was born in Houston, was trained as an art historian and Velvet and Glass, like her debut release, The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane, features a detailed, accurate depiction of the physical world her characters live in, from architectural details to popular art to, in this case, the spiritualist practices of the upper classes. The book is set in 1915, a time that, Howe notes, saw a great cultural and social change. Like the other women of that time, Howe's main character, Sibyl Allston, was born in the Victorian era but lived to see the dawn of the 20th century.

Katherine Howe appears at 6:30 p.m. on Friday at Murder by the Book, 2342 Bissonnet. For information, visit the bookstore's Web site or call 713-524-8597.

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Associate Conductor Robert Franz signed a two-year extension to his contract and will remain with the Houston Symphony through the 2013-2014 season according to a press release. Franz, in his fourth season with the symphony, leads programming for the David Dewhurst Student concerts and is the front person for the family concert series.

"I am thrilled and humbled to have the opportunity to extend my relationship with the incredible musicians of the Houston Symphony," Franz said in the release. "Making music with my colleagues brings me great joy, and performing for our incredible audiences is like icing on the cake. I look forward to many more exciting performances together."

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If you are looking for a new holiday tradition, consider the Houston Symphony's "Handel's Messiah in Candlelight," which is the perfect blend of sacred Christmas music, easily accessible for the casual symphony listener, with a stunning setting in the dim of candlelight. This year's annual performance took place this past weekend at Jones Hall.

Handel's Messiah premiered in Dublin, Ireland, as a part of a charity concert to benefit a Dublin hospital in April of 1742. When Handel brought it to London, it was received poorly due to its combination of religious components and the use of elaborate singing, which was considered sacrilegious. By 1750, however, the composition gained notoriety and has remained an homage to the birth of Christ and the Christmas spirit since.

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Composer Christoph König

In December 1877, leading up to the premiere of Johannes Brahms's newest composition (which would be performed by the Vienna Philharmonic), the German told friends as well as the publisher of his work to watch out for the most emo piece of music ever written. It was a sardonic trick.

"It's so melancholy that you will not be able to bear it," said Brahms in an article published on November 22, 1877. "I have never written anything so sad, and the score must come out in mourning."

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Who gets the George R. Brown?

Fiscal Affairs Committee Meetings of Houston City Council are among the last places you go expecting to see a first-rate tirade, complete with a door-slamming storming-out, but that was just what Hair Balls found there yesterday.

It happened when city Development Director Andy Icken (of Heights Wal-Mart email leak infamy) and Houston Convention Center Hotel Corporation Board Chairman Ric Campo briefed the committee on the proposed consolidation of the city's Convention & Entertainment Facilities Department with Campo's HCCHC.

You can read all about the ramifications of that deal here, here, and in the mayor's office's own words, also here.

Basically, the merger would create a non-profit organization called the Houston First Corporation. Pending council approval on May 18, Houston First would lease out the George R. Brown Convention Center, the Wortham Theater, Jones Hall, Jones Plaza, Miller Outdoor Theatre, Sesquicentennial Park, Root Memorial Square and several other smaller park and performing arts facilities from the city for a one-time cash payment of $8.6 million, followed by yearly payments of $1.4 million over the next five years.

Amid the drone of acronym-laden, jargon-heavy talk that followed (amid the alphabet soup, we got to hear the word "visioning" quite a bit), and a few questions from mostly contented council members, there suddenly erupted a volcano in the form of Councilman James Rodriguez, whose District I encompasses downtown, the site of most of the venues and the home of many arts donors and patrons.

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Who gets the George R. Brown?

The City of Houston wants out of the fun business. Over the weekend, a plan was announced to sell off its Convention and Entertainment Facilities department, which oversees operations at taxpayer-built venues such as the Wortham Center, Jones Hall, the George R. Brown Convention Center, and Miller Outdoor Theatre.

The plan's backers say it will inject a much-needed $10 million influx into the stagnant our cash-poor city's coffers.

Specifically, the idea is being bandied about for the City of Houston to sell off its Convention and Entertainment Facilities department, which oversees the operations at prime, taxpayer-built venues such as the Wortham Center, Jones Hall, the George R. Brown Convention Center, and Miller Outdoor Theatre. Backers of the plan say it will bring a much-needed $10 million rainfall into a city whose finances are as cash-dry as our withering lawns are drought-stricken.

Opponents of the plan say it is little more than a scheme by which the city will rid itself of 120 union jobs (with benefits, and more importantly, pensions) and replace them with low-paid, minimally-benefited workers.

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Abby Koenig

This weekend the Houston Symphony presented three pieces in its classical series including Sibelius's "Violin Concerto in D minor" and Mendelssohn's famous composition "Scottish."

The crowd was fortunate enough that violinist Leila Josefowicz served as the main attraction for the Sibelius concerto. Josefowicz, a 2008 MacArthur Fellow, has been performing nationally and internationally since her Carnegie Hall debut in 1994. Her performance was astounding. The "Violin Concerto" came in and out in waves and Josefowicz never missed a beat nor string. At various stanzas she bowed so intensely that if she had broken a string, no one would have been surprised. The third movement shook you wide awake (especially the elderly woman sitting next to me) and concluded with a bang. It has previously been described by the famous musicologist Sir Donald Tovey as a "polonaise for polar bears" which sounds super exciting, although I'm not sure what that means.

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