Mimir Chamber Music Festival (July 5): Texas Christian University's summer chamber music festival puts together concerts with musicians drawn from major orchestras. But these ad hoc assemblages often sound as if they've been playing together for years. Sleek, probing accounts of string quartets by Sibelius (Voces Intimae) and Shostakovich (No. 7) were highlights this year.
Year in Review 2008: Classical music
By SCOTT CANTRELL / The Dallas Morning News
scantrell@dallasnews.com
This was a year of major job-shifting on the classical music scene.
Dutch conductor Jaap van Zweden took over as music director of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, and overnight he had the orchestra sounding more powerful, pliant and disciplined.
Less happily, the conducting roster lost a couple of inspirational figures. Claus Peter Flor wasn't renewed as principal guest conductor, and assistant conductor Danail Rachev left for the same job with the Philadelphia Orchestra.
After five years as DSO president and CEO, Fred Bronstein left for the St. Louis Symphony. His successor is Doug Adams, formerly of the Colorado Symphony and before that general manager of the DSO.
The Dallas Opera surprised everyone by going outside the opera world for its new general director: George Steel, who came from Columbia University's Miller Theater.
Christopher Taylor, piano (Sept. 24): An hour-and-a-half program of piano pieces by Olivier Messiaen might seem a daunting prospect. But Mr. Taylor's account of the French composer's 20 Gazes on the Child Jesus had people in tears, when they weren't wide-eyed at the virtuosity and eloquence.
Dallas Symphony Orchestra, Jaap van Zweden (Sept. 10): The DSO's new music director set both orchestra and audiences on fire in season-opening performances of the Mahler Fifth Symphony. Other outstanding DSO concerts were led by Mr. Rachev, Arild Remmereit, Pinchas Steinberg and Günther Herbig.
The Dallas Opera: The Marriage of Figaro (Nov. 14): A young and good-looking cast that could really sing, plus John Copley's deft staging and Graeme Jenkins' alert, stylish conducting made Mozart's classic irresistibly fresh. Next, Die Fledermaus brought a dazzling main-role debut for soprano Ava Pine.
Meadows Symphony Orchestra, Nicolás Pasquet (Oct. 17): Music director Paul Phillips keeps coaxing compelling performances from Southern Methodist University's outstanding student orchestra. But the year's surprise was a program elegantly led by guest conductor Nicolás Pasquet.
Alessio Bax, piano (March 2): In the past, the Italian-born, SMU-trained pianist has tended to sound like the typical competition winner, more well-bred than distinctive. But in an amazing Caruth Auditorium recital he played to all the music's extremes; in the best sense, the music sounded made up on the spot.
Fort Worth Opera: Turandot (May 24). In its second year as a spring-into-summer festival, the Fort Worth company made a quantum leap in quality. Chinese acrobats were unwelcome distractions, but Carter Scott's ice princess and Dongwon Shin's ardent Calaf supplied chills-down-the-back vocalism. The festival's Lucia di Lammermoor had a dream couple in Elizabeth Futral and Stephen Costello.
St. Lawrence String Quartet (April 14): Presented by Dallas Chamber Music, this foursome brought finely focused brilliance to quartets by Haydn, Beethoven and the Canadian R. Murray Schafer.
Orpheus Chamber Singers (April 13): You might quibble with some of director Donald Krehbiel's tempos, but you'll not hear choral singing more fastidiously formed, balanced and buffed than what reverberated through the Cathedral Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe.
Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, Miguel Harth-Bedoya (Aug. 23): Within three days, the Fort Worth orchestra performed Mahler's Sixth, Seventh and Second symphonies, and on major-orchestra levels. Mr. Harth-Bedoya still displays more skill than depth, but once past a sluggish first movement his Mahler Seventh was tautly structured and finely finished.
Mimir Chamber Music Festival (July 5): Texas Christian University's summer chamber music festival puts together concerts with musicians drawn from major orchestras. But these ad hoc assemblages often sound as if they've been playing together for years. Sleek, probing accounts of string quartets by Sibelius (Voces Intimae) and Shostakovich (No. 7) were highlights this year.
