Who doesn’t love Bach for his fugues? In Bach’s 1738 instructional book on counterpoint, Precepts and Principles for Playing the Thorough-Bass, he writes: “It is played with both hands on a keyboard instrument in such a way that the left hand… Continue Reading
Chamber music has always been my favorite genre to perform. It’s a thrill, but one that is often underestimated. Performers like Lars Vogt and Christian Tetzlaff show how deep the art form can go. Read my preview of their Da Camera Houston… Continue Reading
Synesthesia aside, it’s a fascinating thing to think about how different artistic media (and their creators) overlap. Da Camera of Houston presents a concert at the Menil Collection next Monday and Tuesday in conversation with the current Picasso exhibition and promises… Continue Reading
Hungarian violinist Kristóf Baráti and pianist Klára Würtz, performing Beethoven’s sonatas over two evenings, created a distinct familiarity with the music, the audience, and the art as the conclusion to Da Camera of Houston’s Menil Collection season. Following a night… Continue Reading
Friedrich Nietzsche once called Richard Wagner a clever rattlesnake for his ability to manipulate feeling through sound. It wasn’t a compliment. Since Pythagoras, we’ve known that music has the ability to affect us in unpredictable and untraceable ways, for better… Continue Reading
Read my preview at the Houston Chronicle. Update: And you can read Theodore Bale’s astute review as well, also at the Houston Chronicle.
In Aldous Huxley’s Point Counter Point (1928) a character attempts to use Beethoven’s String Quartet no. 15, Opus 132 as a scientific proof of God’s existence. Characters huddle around a gramophone and imagine heaven itself in the elongated notes simultaneously “hanging”… Continue Reading
A beautiful Onegin at Houston Grand Opera this weekend, and Beethoven’s String Quartet No. 15, Opus 132 on the horizon at Da Camera. November looks promising. Read my Onegin review at Bachtrack and my Elias String Quartet preview at Houstonia Magazine.
“Making Music with Wine Glasses and Washcloths.” Brandon Bell and Da Camera’s Young Artist Concert Series “Stop, Look, and Listen!” concert May 9.
Two phenomenal artists are coming together on Tuesday night in a concert filled with Britten and Dowland song cycles. Nicholas Phan, a spectacular tenor, is no stranger to Houston. From 2002-2005, Phan was a Houston Grand Opera Studio Artist.… Continue Reading