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    The Review Is In

    Eschenbach mania is back: A standing ovation & five curtain calls in HoustonSymphony night

    Joel Luks
    Dec 7, 2011 | 5:16 pm

    In anticipation of Christoph Eschenbach's first downbeat, there was an air of feverish excitement I haven't felt before at Jones Hall, evident by the confabulation in the long lines formed outside by concert goers standing by to claim their tickets for Tuesday night's sold-out performance.

    The maestro hadn't stepped on the Houston Symphony podium since 2002 when he conducted Berlioz's Harold en Italie and Le Carnaval Romain and Mendelssohn's Symphony No. 4 "Italian." As it was shortly after the death of Michael Hammond, National Endowment of the Arts director and former dean at the Shepherd School of Music, Berlioz's Overture to Benvenuto Cellini was replaced with Barber's soulful Adagio in his memory that night.

    The lapse was just too long for classical music junkies and those with fond memories of when Eschenbach was Houston Symphony's music director for 11 years (1988 to 1999).

    After Eschenbach led the Schleswig-Holstein Festival Orchestra featuring piano virtuoso Lang Lang in April 2010, it became evident that a Houston Symphony engagement was long overdue. The audience response was similar at this one-night concert. Just before the German-born (what is now Wroclaw, Poland) director strode on stage, guests were already on their feet, cheering.

     Eschenbach, in his usual black-on-black ensemble, emerged as slim, fit, yet larger than life, appearing much younger than 71 years of age.

     

    If a picture is worth a thousand words, Mahler symphonies are worth a thousand pictures. Music saved Eschenbach, just like Mahler's Symphony No. 5 awakens joy and triumph.

     The case for Mahler

    With limited rehearsal time, there was only one piece that was appropriate for what was verging on a decade-long absence: Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 5. During his tenure in the Bayou City, the monumental 1902 symphony, revised in 1911, was a signature work for Eschenbach and the Houston Symphony. It also crowned many performances during his tour, including in Vienna, where Mahler was principal conductor of the Vienna Philharmonic from 1898 to 1901.

    This year also commemorates the composer's centennial death anniversary.

    It is said the Mahler was disappointed at the premiere and shared a desire to conduct the first performance 50 years posthumously. He felt his composition was misunderstood. Perhaps it is Eschenbach's painful and traumatic childhood — he lost his mother at birth and his father as part of a Nazi punishment — leaving him mute for a year, that endows him the prowess to interpret Mahler's highly demonstrative works. If a picture is worth a thousand words, Mahler symphonies are worth a thousand pictures.

    Music saved Eschenbach, just like Mahler's Symphony No. 5 awakens joy and triumph moving from the somber, foreboding key of C-sharp minor of the opening Trauermarsch (Funeral March) to the pastorally jubilant D major in the Scherzo and Rondo-Finale.

     The Performance

    Mahler would have been beaming with pride at the performance, like everyone involved with the Houston Symphony, past and present, was on this night.

    Conducting without a score and using a gesture invisible from most audience members, Eschenbach signaled principal trumpet Mark Hughes to begin with the ominous triplet motif, a nod to Beethoven's Symphony No. 5 in C minor, giving way to the militant opening.

    With guillotine-like precision, a dramatic vertical baton movement summoned the rest of the orchestra to respond in kind, affixing a menacing and reverberant wall of sound.

     

      Eschenbach earned a well-deserved and immediate standing ovation and five curtain calls.

    But it was in the slight hesitations, stalling somewhat on pick-up notes, where music was made, shaping each and every sentimental phrase across the pages of the score. No note was passed over as less important. Everything had deliberate meaning.

    Mahler's first movement is a journey in orchestral color and Eschenbach's approach gave prominence to the constant shifting of instrumental couplings either connecting, adding or interrupting a melodic fragment. Melodies soared with intent, ending with a decisive and pizzicato in unison.

    The second movement opened with a strong and unruly tempest, just like Eschenbach's movements, arms oscillating from side to side in virile semi-circular motion. Magic was made in the cello soli, mingling elements of yearning appoggiaturas with just enough brightness when deemed harmonically appropriate. Continuing with apocalyptic whirlwind, the skies cleared to allow for a moment of quieter introspection at its conclusion.

    The third movement Scherzo shifts the path to a more carefree pastoral Ländler. The horn section shined, adapting to the quick changes in affect and achieving a seamless blend.

    It was impossible not to shed a tear in the Adagietto, Mahler's best known composition. It is often heard in isolation, though in context, it is much more emotionally powerful. A descending harp figure gives slight forward motion to a delicate and subtle broadening strings, finding repose in delayed melodic resolutions. I can't recall a time when the string section sounded so sublime, so gorgeous, so exquisite.

    In the closing movement, the horn, bassoon and oboe broke the silence and laid the foundation for the bucolic, cheerful and playful musical ride. D major, after all, is the happiest of all keys, the key of glory according to baroque beliefs.

    Eschenbach demands musicians be in constant contact and stay attuned to his every nuance. The performance was by no means technically perfect, perhaps due to the endurance required to master Mahler. But when artistic brilliance takes center stage, nothing else matters.

    And that's why Eschenbach and the Houston Symphony earned a well-deserved and immediate standing ovation and five curtain calls.

    If only the Houston Symphony could find someone like Eschenbach post Hans Graf.

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    Best July Art

    Where to see art in Houston now: 9 fun new exhibits opening in July

    Tarra Gaines
    Jul 9, 2025 | 4:30 pm
    ​Artechouse presents "Blooming Worlds"
    Photo courtesy of Artechouse
    Artechouse presents "Blooming Worlds"

    Art blooms in our world class museums but also on our city streets this July. From exhibitions featuring traditional paintings and sculptures to high tech immersive and interactive shows, we’re weaving art into the best of summertime fun and dreaming up beautiful new artistic creations all over Houston.

    “Town Meeting 1978-2028” at Art League Houston (now through July 20)
    Pioneering Houston-based interdisciplinary artists Nick Vaughan and Jake Margolin continue their decades-long project to create new and sometimes monumental artworks in response to little-known pre-Stonewall queer histories. For this latest exhibition, the duo explore a more recent and influential piece of Houston history, “Town Meeting I,” the pivotal convening of 4,000 LGBTQIA+ Houstonians at the Astro Arena in 1978. For this show at Art League, they’ve used their “wind drawing” technique of stenciling unfixed charcoal powder on paper and blowing it away, leaving a ghost-image. Using archival images of “Town Meeting I” as the bases of their stenciling, the finished “wind drawings” highlight the ephemerality, beauty, and loss of queer histories. In addition to these new works, Vaughan and Margolin hope to inspire, facilitate, and develop programming in 2028 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of “Town Meeting 1.”

    “Fragmentos de un sueño que yo también soñé (Fragments of a Dream I Also Dreamed)" at Art League Houston (now through July 20)
    “Every house is a body, and every individual body is a house full of memories and hopes,” says award-winning Venezuela born, Chicago-based artist, Jeffly Gabriela Molina, of her artistic focus. Molina’s fragmented, layered, and figural compositions explore that idea of home and memories. Delving into memories and stories, these figurative compositions, depicting people and relationships, fluctuate between stories of the present, past, and future. Taken together, the works in “Fragmentos de un sueño” aim to visually capture the feelings of vulnerability, nostalgia, and hope embedded in the experience of many immigrants. Art League notes that Molina’s pieces emphasize optimism over hardship, specifically addressing the longing for a home that no longer exists while striving to create a new one.

    “Every Fiber of Their Bodies” at Art League Houston (now through July 20)
    Working with natural fibers such as linen, paper collage, and hand-spun paper yarn made from calligraphy paper and book pages, textile artist Lin Qiqing weaves stories ofhuman relationships, gender, immigration, and language. As the title hints, the labor-intensive weaving process brings thematic depth to the images of bodies depicted in the pieces. The woven pieces also make connections to the natural world, as when Lin crumples then smooths handmade mulberry paper to resemble human skin, or when she uses handwoven fiber to mimic the body’s movement. Lin process includes research and experimenting with natural materials to explore themes of the internal human struggle for existence and our interactions with the world around us.

    “Annual Juried Exhibition” at Archway Gallery (now through July 31)
    For the 17th year, the artist owned Archway Gallery celebrates Houston artists with its juried exhibition of area artists who are not members of the space. This year’s exhibition is juried by Project Row Houses founder and MacArthur "genius" fellow, Rick Lowe. The acclaimed artist and social activist has selected work from over 35 area artists representing a diversity of medium and styles. Sales from the exhibition will go to Houston’s Brave Little Company, the theater company for Houston’s kids and their gown ups.

    “Foyer Installation: René Magritte” at Menil Collection (now through August 3)
    After a critically acclaimed trip to Australia, some of our favorite Belgian-born Houstonians are back home. Yes, the Magritte paintings have returned to the Menil Collection after taking a star turn in a monumental Magritte retrospective at Sydney’s Art Gallery of New South Wales. Now the Menil is celebrating their return with a special installation in the main building foyer. The Menil Collection owns the largest collection of work by René Magritte outside the artist’s native Belgium, and this display focuses on a core group of paintings from the 1950s and ’60s that truly represent Magritte’s status as a master creator of impossible painted worlds and an icon of the Surrealist movement. The paintings were purchased within a couple years of their making by the museum’s founders, John and Dominique de Menil. They represent and important part of 20th century art history, as the de Menils became Magritte’s biggest champions in the United States, helping to shape the artist’s reception and reputation in the postwar American art world. Stop by to welcome them home and slip into their enigmatic wonder.

    “Blooming Wonders” at Artechouse (now through September)
    The latest immersive exhibition from the Houston venue that brings art, science, and technology home together, Artechouse, lets the flowers blossom. The exhibition contains several dynamic installations, including “Timeless Butterflies,” a 270 degrees projection space that puts visitors in the middle of a butterfly cloud. Audiences journey with a flock of butterflies into an immense garden of flowers. Another immersive piece, “Infinite Blooms” takes audiences on a journey through an endless digital forest of cherry blossoms. The installation, “Akousmaflore et Lux” creates a very different type of garden where plants transform into musical instruments. “Clay Pillar” by Interactive Items / Vadim Mirgorodskii invites visitors to sculpt new forms using clay and a little help from an AI program. Note that “Blooming Wonders” runs simultaneously with the rock ‘n’ roll exhibition, “Amplified” with “Wonders” open during the daytime.

    “Weci | Koninut” at Avenida Houston (now through September 1)
    Houston is a place for big dreams, and this wondrous outdoor exhibition near George R. Brown Convention Center gives us the space to do so. Created by First Nations artists Julie-Christina Picher and Dave Jenniss, this interactive installation weaves together visual arts, Indigenous storytelling and sensory technologies in the form of six immense sculptural dreamcatchers. Each of these dreamcatchers are unique and represent one of the six seasons from the Atikamekw culture, an Indigenous people in Canada. Activated by people passing by, the dreamcatchers come to life with lights, sounds, and story, making the whole installation truly interactive. “Weci | Koninut” creators say that they want the installation to offer a total immersion experience for visitors, to create a moment where nature and dreams converge. Each piece offers a place for the public to slow down, sit, reflect, and yes, dream.

    New Murals in the East End and Midtown (ongoing)
    We could spend days viewing all the new murals painted across town, just in the last few years. But in honor of summer outdoor art viewing, we thought we’d spotlight two noteworthy new additions to our city-wide gallery of murals. As part of his major exhibition last spring at the CAMH, Vincent Valdez worked with San Antonio muralist Rubio and local students to create “Memoria, Memory.” Dedicated to his mother Theresa Santana Valdez (1947–2020), the vivid mural on historic Navigation Boulevard features her favorite bird and flower. Over in Midtown, check out “Stellar Illumination,” the latest installation in the city’s Big Walls Big Dreams mural series. Created by Robin Munro, also known as Dread, the seven stories high “Illumination” depicts a celestial scene of an astronaut gazing at Earth from space.

    “The Weight of Place” at Anya Tish Gallery (July 11-August 23)
    This group exhibition will explore themes of memory and the emotional, psychological, and physical landscapes memories can evoke. The will showcase three contemporary Texas-based female artists: Megan Harrison, Marisol Valencia, and Lillian Warren. While these artists work in different mediums–including large-scale paintings, mixed media works, and elegant porcelain sculptures–they are inspired by personal reflection and nature to create artworks that reflect on the ways we hold onto the past through sensory experience.

    “In Residence: 18th Edition” at Houston Center for Contemporary Craft (July 12-June 27, 2026)
    This annual exhibition celebrating the Center’s Artist Residency Program reaches it’s big 18th anniversary. Over the many years, the residency program has supported so many emerging, mid-career, and established artists working in all craft media. The program gives them a space for creative exploration, exchange, and collaboration with other artists, arts professionals, and the public. Now arts and craft lovers will get a chance to see the culmination of that work with this exhibition featuring pieces in fiber, clay, copper, and found objects by 2024-2025 resident artists Prerata Bradley, Stephanie Bursese, Atisha Fordyce, Nela Garzón, Gbenga Komolafe, Gabo Martinez, Preetika Rajgariah, Macon Reed, Jamie Sterling Pitt, Adam Whitney, and Dongyi Wu.

    “My Texas” at Our Texas Cultural Center (July 27-August 22)
    Award winning, Russian-born photographer, Anatoliy Kosterev, chronicles his personal exploration of Texas with photographs he took around the Lone Star State. The photos offer extraordinary views of Texas, from our dynamic cities to dramatic and sometimes lonesome landscapes. Kosterev’s photographic style blends science and technology with an artistic eye. He puts those two perspectives into practice when documenting all facets of life in Texas. Using HDR, drone imaging, macro photography, and traditional camera methods, he captures a diversity of subjects from quiet human moments to vast landscapes to delicate close-ups of insects and flowers.

    \u200bArtechouse presents "Blooming Worlds"
      

    Photo courtesy of Artechouse

    Artechouse presents "Blooming Worlds."

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