DA CAMERA OF HOUSTON ANNOUNCES 2009/2010 SEASON OF CHAMBER MUSIC AND JAZZ CONCERTS, THE ROMANTIC SPIRIT

Houston, TX, February 15, 2009 – Inspired by the bicentennials of three giants of classical music, Da Camera of Houston, the presenter of chamber music and jazz events, announces its 2009/2010 season of concerts, The Romantic Spirit. Da Camera brings to the theme of Romanticism in music its signature mix of classical masterpieces and music from today’s most original composers.
“The bicentennials of Robert Schumann, Felix Mendelssohn and Frédéric Chopin present the ideal opportunity to celebrate the Romantic generation, and to explore romanticism in music through the centuries,” says Artistic Director Sarah Rothenberg. “From highly expressive works of the baroque period to the sultry ballads of jazz vocalist Dianne Reeves, the romantic spirit finds expression in multiple musical styles. With an emphasis on emotion, virtuosity and sheer expressive power, Da Camera’s audiences will hear the music that captures the romantic spirit.”
The Romantic Spirit theme informs a fascinating variety of programs, ranging from The Spirit of England, to Italian Romantics to The Twilight of Romanticism. Renowned musicians and ensembles visiting Houston for Da Camera programs include the Juilliard, Ensō and Orion String Quartets, cellist Steven Isserlis, tenor Andrew Kennedy, guitarist Eliot Fisk and pianists Seymour Lipkin and Orion Weiss.
Da Camera’s jazz series reflects its signature mix of established veterans and rising stars. This season’s series features the saxophonists Charles Lloyd and Kenny Garrett, Dianne Reeves’s Christmas Time Is Here, bassists Ben Allison and Esperanza Spalding, and the Da Camera debut of Houston native trumpeter Brandon Lee.

OPENING NIGHT CONCERT CELEBRATES SCHUMANN AND MENDELSSOHN
Da Camera kicks off the season-long exploration of Romanticism with the renowned Juilliard String Quartet, presenting the Quartet’s first Houston appearance with new first violinist Nick Eanet. The program features performances celebrating the 200th anniversary of the births of two geniuses, Felix Mendelssohn (b. 1809) and Robert Schumann (b. 1810). The Quartet performs Mendelssohn’s String Quartet in D Major, Op. 44, No. 1 and Beethoven’s String Quartet in F Major, Op. 135. Da Camera Artistic Director and pianist Sarah Rothenberg joins members of the Quartet for Schumann’s lyrical, exuberant and quintessentially romantic Piano Quartet in E-flat Major, Op. 47. The Romantic Spirit is Saturday, October 3, 2009 at 7:30 PM at the Cullen Theater, Wortham Theater Center. The Juilliard String Quartet’s members are Nick Eanet, violin; Ronald Copes, violin; Samuel Rhodes, viola and Joel Krosnick, cello. Just the third violinist in the Quartet’s illustrious 62-year history, Eanet is currently the concertmaster of the Metropolitan Opera orchestra.

CELEBRATION OF ROMANTICISM CONTINUES WITH VARIETY OF CONCERTS AND STYLES
Da Camera’s series at The Menil Collection transforms the museum’s lobby into an intimate concert venue for chamber music. The series begins with favorites of Da Camera audiences and virtuoso soloists, guitarist Eliot Fisk and harpsichordist John Gibbons joining forces in an unusual duo recital, Tuesday, October 27, 2009 at 7:30 PM at The Menil Collection. Fisk and Gibbons perform separately and together in this concert of music by Bach, Italian Baroque masters Vivaldi, Corelli and Scarlatti and two great Spanish Romantics, Isaac Albéniz and Ernesto Halffter.

Guitar virtuoso Eliot Fisk teams up with one of today’s most acclaimed young chamber ensembles for an Italian sojourn. Italian Romantics with Fisk and the Ensō String Quartet is Friday, October 30, 2009 at 8:00 PM at the Wortham Theater Center’s Cullen Theater. Among other musical delights is rarely heard string music by two legendary opera composers, Puccini’s Chrysanthemums for string quartet and Verdi’s String Quartet in E Minor. The concert also features Paganini’s Sonata Concertata for violin and guitar in A Major, Op. 61 MS 2 and Caprice No. 24 in A Minor; Hugo Wolff’s Italian Serenade in G Major and Boccherini’s Fandango for guitar and string quartet. The Ensō String Quartet’s members are Maureen Nelson, violin; John Marcus, violin; Melissa Reardon, viola and Richard Belcher, cello.

The idea of the virtuoso originated in the Romantic period and continues into the present day. Da Camera celebrates Modern Virtuosos on November 17, 2009 at 7:30 PM at The Menil Collection. The Menil Collection offers the ideal setting for the Houston premiere of a major new piano work inspired by the great paintings of American artist Cy Twombly, written for contemporary music virtuoso Marilyn Nonken. The work is Liza Lim’s Four Seasons (after Cy Twombly). Australian composer Lim, known for the visceral energy and vibrant color of her compositions, is winner of Australia’s most prestigious composition prize and recipient of commissions from such ensembles as the Los Angeles Philharmonic and BBC Symphony. 2008 Grammy Award nominee and Avery Fisher prize-winning violinist Jennifer Koh makes her Da Camera debut performing Kaija Saariaho’s Nocturne for solo violin and Esa-Pekka Salonen’s Lachen verlernt. Saxophonist Valerie Vidal, on the faculty of the Moores School of Music, brings her own virtuosity to Luciano Berio’s Sequenza IXb for alto saxophone.

A giant of the keyboard, known for his recordings of the complete sonatas of Beethoven and Schubert, makes a rare Houston appearance when Seymour Lipkin gives a piano recital on Tuesday, January 26, 2010 at 7:30pm at The Menil Collection. Lipkin’s all-Beethoven repertoire includes two of the best known sonatas, the “Moonlight” Sonata No. 14 in C-sharp Minor, Op. 27, No. 2 and the “Hammerklavier” Sonata No. 29 in B-Flat, Op. 106, as well as the Fantasy in G Minor, Op. 77 and 32 Variations in C Minor. A student of Rudolf Serkin and Mieczyslaw Horszowski at the Curtis Institute of Music, Seymour Lipkin won the prestigious Rachmaninoff Competition at age 19 and went on to a distinguished career recording, appearing with orchestras and playing chamber music. Da Camera Artistic Director Sarah Rothenberg was herself a student of Mr. Lipkin’s at the Curtis Institute.

Two gems of the British chamber music repertoire are featured in The Spirit of England, Friday, February 12, 2010 at 8:00 PM in the Wortham Theater Center’s Cullen Theater. The two works are Vaughan Williams’s atmospheric settings of A.E. Housman poems, On Wenlock Edge, and Elgar’s majestic Piano Quintet in A Minor, Op. 84. British tenor Andrew Kennedy, known for his dramatic performances in song and opera, and celebrated rising-star pianist Orion Weiss make their Da Camera debuts in an ensemble which also features Laurie Smukler, violin; Kyung-Sun Lee, violin; Wayne Brooks, viola and Brinton Averil Smith, cello.

Acclaimed worldwide as one of the leading cellists of his time, British musician Steven Isserlis makes his Houston recital debut in a dramatic program evoking 100 years of romantic music. Steven Isserlis: The Romantic Cello is Friday, March 26, 2010 at 8:00 PM at Hobby Center for the Performing Arts’ Zilkha Hall. From 19th-century Romantics Chopin and Schumann -- whose bicentennials Da Camera celebrates this season -- to the 20th-century American composer Samuel Barber, born 100 years ago, the audience hears the passionate Romantic spirit masterfully expressed within the classical sonata form. Isserlis’s program is Barber’s Sonata in C Minor, Op. 6; Schumann’s Violin Sonata No. 3 in A Minor (arranged by Isserlis); Dohnanyi’s Sonata in B-flat Minor for cello and piano, Op. 8 and Chopin’s Sonata in G Minor, Op. 65. Isserlis is joined by Denes Varjon, piano.

George Rochberg’s monumental String Quartet No. 3 represented a seminal break in 20th-century music. Radically marking a return to tonality, the quartet’s overt romanticism provoked discussion and controversy at its premiere in 1973. Rochberg’s quartet is the centerpiece of Modern Romantics on Tuesday, April 6, 2010 at 7:30pm at The Menil Collection. Rochberg set the stage for composers of succeeding generations to carry on the Romantic spirit. John Harbison’s November 19, 1828 is a poignant memorial to Franz Schubert, who died on that date. The Shepherd School’s Pierre Jalbert, winner of the prestigious Stoeger Award for achievements in chamber music, is represented with the Houston premiere of a major new work, the Sonata for cello and piano. Performing the works are Curtis Macomber, violin; Andrew Jennings, violin and Jalbert’s Shepherd School colleagues Ivo-Jan van der Werff, viola; Norman Fischer, cello and Jeanne Kierman Fischer, piano.

The celebration of Romanticism concludes with The Twilight of Romanticism, Saturday, May 1, 2010 at 8:00 PM at the Wortham Theater Center’s Cullen Theater. Da Camera welcomes back the brilliant Orion String Quartet and proudly presents soprano Kelly Nassief in her Da Camera debut for an evening of works on the cusp between Romantic and modern. The seminal compositions of Richard Wagner and Johannes Brahms -- represented here by Wagner’s Wesendonck Lieder and Brahms’ String Quintet No. 2 in G Major, Op. 111 -- viewed as musical opposites in their own time, each provided irreplaceable inspiration for the young Arnold Schoenberg. Both influences are heard in Schoenberg’s passionate and fiery Chamber Symphony No. 1 in E Major, Op. 9 (arranged by Webern), for which pianist Sarah Rothenberg joins the Quartet. Of the Wesendonck Lieder, Wagner wrote, “I have done nothing better than these songs.” The Orion String Quartet’s members are Daniel Phillips, violin; Todd Phillips, violin; Steven Tenenbom, viola and Timothy Eddy, cello.

Da Camera Jazz Series

Da Camera’s 2009/2010 jazz series features its signature mix of established stars and outstanding talent from the younger generation of emerging jazz artists.

The series kicks off on Saturday, October 16, 2009 at 8:00 PM in the Cullen Theater of the Wortham Theater Center with a performance by the legendary saxophonist Charles Lloyd. From his groundbreaking ‘60’s quartet which recorded the best-selling Forest Flower, to his Sangam ensemble with percussionist Zakir Hussain, to his recent quartet with some of today’s best young players, saxophonist Charles Lloyd has always been a singular voice in jazz. The Charles Lloyd New Quartet includes Houston natives Jason Moran on piano and Eric Harland on drums, and Reuben Rogers, bass. Their new recording on the ECM label, for which Lloyd has recorded for many years, is Rabo de Nube.

The series continues with saxophonist Kenny Garrett. Kenny Garrett Presents is presented on Friday, November 6, 2009 at 8:00 PM at the Wortham Theater Center’s Cullen Theater. Garrett is well known for the five years he spent playing with Miles Davis during Miles’ electric period. His latest album Sketches of MD: Live at the Iridium, features Pharoah Sanders and was released in 2008.

Ring in the holiday season with the return of vocalist Dianne Reeves to the Da Camera stage on Friday, December 4, 2009 at 8:00 PM at the Cullen Theater, Wortham Theater Center. Dianne Reeves performs music from her beloved recording Christmas Time is Here, which includes her renditions of Carol of the Bells, Let it Snow, Little Drummer Boy, I'll Be Home for Christmas and other holiday favorites.

The series continues with the Houston debut of bassist/composer Ben Allison and Man-Size Safe on Saturday, February 6, 2010 at 8:00 PM at the Cullen Theater, Wortham Theater Center. Ben Allison is a “visionary composer, adventurous improviser, and strong organizational force on the New York City jazz scene, [who] has emerged as a rising star over the past decade” says JazzTimes and has been cited in the “Best Bassist” category three years running in the Down Beat Readers’ Poll. Allison’s Man Size Safe quintet mixes joyous exuberance and good-humored irreverence with textured grooves and an occasional political jab. Houston native trumpeter Brandon Lee makes his Da Camera debut on Saturday, March 20, 2010 at 8:00 PM at the Cullen Theater, Wortham Theater Center.

A graduate of Houston’s High School for the Performing and Visual Arts and the youngest faculty member in the jazz studies program at The Juilliard School, Brandon Lee appears on the heels of the release of his debut album, From Within. Lee has performed with Benny Golson, Frank Wess, Clark Terry, Joe Wilder, Wynton Marsalis, Wycliffe Gordon, Tom Harell, Hank Jones, Ray Brown, Eddie Henderson, Bob Leslie Hurst, Billy Childs, Peter Washington, Carla Cook, Carl Allen, Ernestine Anderson and Lewis Nash.

Da Camera’s jazz series concludes with the Da Camera debut of 23-year-old bass player and vocalist Esperanza Spalding on Saturday, April 24, 2010 at 8:00 PM at the Cullen Theater, Wortham Theater Center. A musical prodigy since her childhood in Portland, Oregon, Spalding enrolled in the Berklee College of Music at 18 and not only excelled but eventually became the youngest professor in the school’s history. Her debut recording, Esperanza, was released in May. “Those following jazz ought to keep an ear on the bassist Esperanza Spalding, who is going about things her own way…The Esperanza Spalding experience is light, melodic, joyful, always sort of minimalist and airborne,” said Ben Ratliff in The New York Times.

Subscriptions for Da Camera’s 2009/2010 season are on sale now. For tickets or a season brochure, contact Da Camera of Houston, 1427 Branard, at 713-524-5050 or go to www.dacamera.com.

Click a star to rate!

Rating: 4.00 / 5.00 - Pretty good
1 ratings