Don't forget the Webster Trio

Houston's classical music must sees: To the Symphony & beyond

Richard Belcher, cello, River Oaks Chamber Orchestra
Bruce Conner's "BREAKAWAY" from "Dance with Camera"
Kris Becker, executive director, Impulse Artist Series
Photo by Jack Opatrany
The 5 Browns
Photo courtesy of The 5 Browns
Michael Webster and Leone Buyse of The Webster Trio

Classical music with a capital “C” is a diverse genre some think of as narrow. Recent and passionate discussions regarding the KTRU sale have certainly uncovered some misconceptions about its relevance and importance in defining Houston’s art identity.

Houston’s rich classical music heritage

Began and supported by Ima Hogg aka the “First Lady of Texas,” the Houston Symphony is one of the oldest performing arts organizations in the United States. The Symphony will celebrate its centenary in 2013, which happens to coincide with the end of Hans Graf tenure as music director to become Conductor Laureate. A time of new beginnings, turning 100 is a milestone not many reach.

The Houston Grand Opera was founded in 1955 and has been regarded as one of the world's leaders in commissioning and producing new works. To be exact, HGO’s 40 world premiers (soon to be 41) and six American premiers have earned it a Tony Award, two Grammy Awards, two Emmy Awards, and a Grand Prix du Disque. This achievement elevates HGO as the only opera company in the world to have won all four honors.

Also in 1955, the Houston Ballet Academy was established. In 1969, it evolved into a professional company and it is now the fourth largest in the country. Ballet without a live orchestra? For some contemporary works that is the norm. But picturing the Nutcracker without it is like a margarita without tequila: What’s the point?

Whether rocking out to an obnoxious loud movement of a Shostakovich symphony, feeling like the woodwind section is nearing spontaneous combustion while maneuvering through the virtuosic passages at the end of Ravel’s "Daphnis and Chloe," or enjoying the seeming lightness of technical hell in Prokofiev's "Classical Symphony" — I can’t help it, I’m a flutist — listening to a full-size symphony orchestra perform, sometimes with chorus, is akin to watching a virile football team charge the field with raw forcefulness. Plain sexy.

At other times, a string orchestra performing Barber’s "Adagio" aches and moves the spirit while experiencing Tristan and Isolde can lead to reckless makeout sessions with a stranger.

Classical music is more than symphony concerts

Small ensembles and solo recital performances allows the listener to get up close and personal. In chamber music, like being naked lights on or off, there is absolutely no nuance that is missed or forgiven for that matter.

The stakes are high and the experience can be transcendent.

There is beauty in the intimacy between listener and performer and a playful spontaneity that evolves out of the interaction.

Curious to explore the scene? Get out and experience it. Here are some suggestions.

The Webster Trio — Shepherd School of Music at Rice University

All Webster Trio performances are enchanting. They include something familiar, something new, something traditional, and something that will challenge your musical ear.

Perhaps it is after 23 years of marriage that Leone Buyse, flute professor, and Michael Webster, clarinet professor, have developed a musically delicious chemistry that teases the ear between the virtuosic and the sublime.

Often blending colors to perfection, their sound be endearingly described as a “clute” or a “flarinet.” Pianist Robert Moeling collaborative style is transparent at times, allowing the winds to sail through, and rich at others, taking a more predominant role when the work requires it.

On Sept. 18, the trio will perform music by Houston composers Arthur Gottschalk and the Houston premier of Karim Al-Zand’s “Cabinet of Curiosities for Clarinet and Piano,” which recalls a repository of exotic and unusual objects. Also on the program is an arrangement by Webster of Bizet’s Jeux d’Enfants (Children’s Games) original for piano four-hands and the Martinu Flute Sonata, a standard in the repertory of most pipers.

“Music with Camera” — Musiqa

In collaboration with the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, the Loft Concert Series are intimate and tie in music with the what is on display at CAMH. The first Loft Concert of the fall season is on Sept. 23 and will merge live modern classical repertoire with with video artists Be Johnny.

Musiqa’s aesthetic makes contemporary music accessible by allowing listeners diverse entry points into the piece. Perhaps it is the familiar video format combined with the relaxed ambience of CAMH that makes the Loft Concerts hip. Or maybe, I'm just into cool art in cool places.

Need a dose of local music? Musiqa programming includes works from composers living right here in Houston, their influences, and works that tie to the evening’s theme.

Richard Belcher, Cello — River Oaks Chamber Orchestra

Aside from their interactive concert programming, ROCO Solo performances are free recitals given by musicians who regularly play in the orchestra at Dowling Music. Richard Belcher, cellist, kicks off the season on Sept. 26.

I first met him while we were both students at Rice. While its true that most wind players are somewhat in awe of string instruments’ versatility, Richard’s playing is sublime with an inexhaustible range of colors, textures and personalities that extend the instruments physical capabilities. Or maybe it’s the charming New Zealand accent?

Although you can hear Belcher in many recordings with the Enso String Quartet — recently nominated for “Best Chamber Music Performance” for their recording of the Ginastera String Quartets — an opportunity to listen to him, solo, is on my list of must dos.

What’s on the program? It doesn’t matter. It will rock. Families are welcome also.

Kris Becker — Impulse Artist Series

Houston’s Kris Becker is as comfortable whipping through a Chopin impromptu with gentle and warm virtuosity as he is composing and performing his own classical, jazz or multi-genre works. As Jade Simmons, executive director of the Impulse Artist Series whimsically puts it, Becker is “a white guy with ridiculous rhythm.”

Seeing Becker perform is understanding what it means to create art in the moment. There is something fresh and spontaneous about his approach, like the piece is taking shape in the present and the audience has the privilege to be a witness to this experience.

Featured in the “Alter Ego” series of the Impulse Artist Series, catch Becker on Nov. 12 for his classical performance (venue TBA) and his club gig with Frozen Heat and his band the Literary Greats on Nov. 6.

The 5 Browns — Society for the Performing Arts

Because one piano is never enough, five is an indulgence that must be experienced live. Following in the music steps of too-close-for-comfort sibling ensembles like the Ahn Trio or the Ying Quartet, The 5 Browns tear any preconceived ideas of classical music.

Ryan, Melody, Gregory, Deondra and Desirae were all admitted to Juilliard simultaneously; a first for the famous school. From Bach to Star Wars, their program is varied and will be presented on Nov. 6 at Jones Hall.

Not familiar with SPA? You should be as they are almost always successful in finding and bringing exquisite, vibrant and unique talent to Houston in all art disciplines.

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Movie Review

Meta-comedy remake Anaconda coils itself into an unfunny mess

Photo by Matt Grace

Jack Black and Paul Rudd in Anaconda.

In Hollywood’s never-ending quest to take advantage of existing intellectual property, seemingly no older movie is off limits, even if the original was not well-regarded. That’s certainly the case with 1997’s Anaconda, which is best known for being a lesser entry on the filmography of Ice Cube and Jennifer Lopez, as well as some horrendous accent work by Jon Voight.

The idea behind the new meta-sequel Anaconda is arguably a good one. Four friends — Doug (Jack Black), Griff (Paul Rudd), Claire (Thandiwe Newton), and Kenny (Steve Zahn) — who made homemade movies when they were teenagers decide to remake Anaconda on a shoestring budget. Egged on by Griff, an actor who can’t catch a break, the four of them pull together enough money to fly down to Brazil, hire a boat, and film a script written by Doug.

Naturally, almost nothing goes as planned in the Amazon, including losing their trained snake and running headlong into a criminal enterprise. Soon enough, everything else takes second place to the presence of a giant anaconda that is stalking them and anyone else who crosses its path.

Written and directed by Tom Gormican, with help from co-writer Kevin Etten, the film is designed to be an outrageous comedy peppered with laugh-out-loud moments that cover up the fact that there’s really no story. That would be all well and good … if anything the film had to offer was truly funny. Only a few scenes elicit any honest laughter, and so instead the audience is fed half-baked jokes, a story with no focus, and actors who ham it up to get any kind of reaction.

The biggest problem is that the meta-ness of the film goes too far. None of the core four characters possess any interesting traits, and their blandness is transferred over to the actors playing them. And so even as they face some harrowing situations or ones that could be funny, it’s difficult to care about anything they do since the filmmakers never make the basic effort of making the audience care about them.

It’s weird to say in a movie called Anaconda, but it becomes much too focused on the snake in the second half of the film. If the goal is to be a straight-up comedy, then everything up to and including the snake attacks should be serving that objective. But most of the time the attacks are either random or moments when the characters are already scared, and so any humor that could be mined all but disappears.

Black and Rudd are comedy all-stars who can typically be counted on to elevate even subpar material. That’s not the case here, as each only scores on a few occasions, with Black’s physicality being the funniest thing in the movie. Newton is not a good fit with this type of movie, and she isn’t done any favors by some seriously bad wigs. Zahn used to be the go-to guy for funny sidekicks, but he brings little to the table in this role.

Any attempt at rebooting/remaking an old piece of IP should make a concerted effort to differentiate itself from the original, and in that way, the new Anaconda succeeds. Unfortunately, that’s its only success, as the filmmakers can never find the right balance to turn it into the bawdy comedy they seemed to want.

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Anaconda is now playing in theaters.

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