Mark Gresham | 27 MAY 2023
A towering figure in late Romantic and early modernist music, German composer Richard Strauss is celebrated not only for his symphonic and operatic compositions but also for his profound affinity with the soprano voice.
The Houston Symphony’s upcoming season-capping two-week Strauss Festival, which begins this week at Jones Hall, celebrates Strauss’s enduring legacy and his impact on the repertoire for soprano voice, as well as symphonic and operatic repertoire.
Strauss’s relationship with the soprano voice was both professional and personal. He married the famous soprano Pauline de Ahna, whose voice and temperament influenced his compositions. His operas and songs often required exceptional vocal prowess and emotional depth, traits that Pauline embodied. This personal connection to the soprano voice is evident in his meticulous and innovative vocal writing.
Rachel Willis-Sørensen (credit: Lukas Beck)
Led by the orchestra’s music director, Juraj Valčuha, the festival’s opening program scheduled for this weekend, June 1 & 3, includes Strauss’s profoundly moving Vier Letzte Lieder (“Four Last Songs”)featuring soprano Rachel Willis-Sørensen as soloist. The soprano solo is given soaring melodies against a full orchestra with prominent horn parts—an autobiographical nod to both the composer’s wife and his father, Franz Strauss, a virtuoso professional horn player. Composed near the end of Strauss’s life, these settings of poetry of Hermann Hesse and Joseph von Eichendorff exude a lyrical beauty in their profound contemplation life and death.
The program pairs Vier Letzte Lieder with two orchestral works that contain autobiographical aspects. Träumerei am Kamin (“Dreaming by the fireplace”), is one of four orchestral interludes from Strauss’s 1924 two-act opera Intermezzo. The opera is autobiographical as the self-written libretto was inspired by incidents in Strauss’s marriage to his wife, Pauline—that soprano connection again.
The concert’s second half will feature Ein Alpensinfonie Op 64, one of Strauss’s largest non-operatic works, requiring 125 musicians and lasting around 50 minutes. The massive tone poem portrays the composer climbing an Alpine mountain, a day’s journey from pre-dawn to nightfall—an spectacular demonstration of the composer’s orchestral mastery and his ability to create rich, evocative soundscapes.
Jennifer Holloway (credit: Simon Pauly)
Then on June 7 and 9, Valčuha leads the orchestra and soloists in what has been touted as “the biggest concert production in Houston Symphony history” and one of the most significant aspects of Strauss’s work with the soprano voice: a semi-staged presentation of his 1905 opera Salome, based on Oscar Wilde’s play.
Soprano Jennifer Holloway takes on the demanding role of Salome, bringing to life the intense psychodrama with a stellar cast that includes baritone Mark S. Doss (Jochanaan), tenor John Daszak (Herodes), and mezzo-soprano Linda Watson (Herodias). The title role, which requires extraordinary vocal power and dramatic ability, remains one of the most challenging and coveted parts for sopranos. Strauss’s use of the soprano voice in Salome goes beyond mere technical display; it becomes a vehicle for exploring deep psychological and emotional states. Moreover, the inclusion of Salome in the Houston Symphony’s lineup underscores the composer’s revolutionary approach to opera, providing audiences with a deep dive into his operatic genius.
But that is not all that’s on board for the week for the City of Houston, Texas: These final Houston Symphony concerts fall in the same week as the League of American Orchestras National Conference which runs June 6 to 8, hosted for the first time ever in Houston with nearly a thousand “orchestra administrators, conductors, musicians, board members, and volunteers” expected to attend.
As part of the conference, on June 8, the 2013 Cliburn Competition gold medalist Vadym Kholodenko joins the young musicians of the critically acclaimed Texas Music Festival Orchestra, led by its music director and chief conductor Franz Anton Krager, will perform yet another work by Richard Strauss, the Burleske in D Minor for Piano and Orchestra paired with Igor Stravinsky’s 1919 version of The Firebird Suite at Jones Hall. A big tie-in with the Houston Symphony is that patrons who buy a ticket for either of the HS Strauss Festival concerts can receive a free general admission ticket to this Texas Music Festival Orchestra concert. The Texas Music Festival itself runs June 1 – 22 at the University of Houston. ■
EXTERNAL LINKS:
- Houston Symphony: atljazzfest.com
- Juraj Valčuha: jurajvalcuha.com
- Rachel Willis-Sørensen: rachelwillissorensen.com
- Jennifer Holloway: jennholloway.com
- League of American Orchestras: liljohnroberts.com
- Texas Music Festival, University of Houston: uh.edu/kgmca/music/events/festivals/tmf
Read more by Mark Gresham.
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