Houston Symphony’s 2024-25 season brings mini festivals and much more
Setting aside decades of bitter interurban rivalry, in January the Dallas Morning News declared “the Houston Symphony may be in for a new golden age” under the leadership of Juraj Valcuha, now in his second season as music director. The orchestra’s freshly revealed 2024-25 season has plenty more where that came from, promises executive director and CEO John Mangum.
“I’m excited, because I think the Houston Symphony is playing better than ever,” says Mangum, who also holds the Margaret Alkek Williams chair. “The musicians go from strength to strength, and the level of artistry and the kind of projects and the guests that we’re bringing in are so exciting.”
Valcuha will command the Jones Hall podium for 11 total appearances next season, including concert series based around Italian opera and Bartòk’s “Duke Bluebeard’s Castle”; the Houston return of Yo-Yo Ma in Dvoràk’s Cello Concerto; and Gustav Mahler’s season-closing, nature-besotted Symphony No. 3. Most of the conductor’s appearances, however, are for thematically linked back-to-back weekend series that function as mini festivals.
Wasting no time, October’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” mini festival devotes the season’s opening two weekends to the music of Slovakian native Valcuha’s Central European homeland. Leading with Dvoràk’s Symphony No. 9 (“From the New World”) and the same composer’s Violin Concerto, starring soloist James Ehnes, the extended program will also introduce Houston audiences to more obscure corners of the Bohemian repertoire such as Bohuslav Martinu’s Czech Rhapsody, sinfoniettas by Leos Janácek and early 20th-century female composer Víteslava Kaprálová, and American composer Bryce Dessner’s Dvoràk and Mahler-influenced “Mari.”
On that note, the latter will surely mark the orchestra’s debut performance of a work by a member of indie-rock veterans The National — and, lest we forget, one of Taylor Swift’s “Evermore” and “Folklore” collaborators.
“That’s what those festivals do — they give us a chance to really explore,” says Mangum.
The same holds for the “Vienna Calling” festival, set for Thanksgiving weekend and Dec. 7-8. Primed by years of conductor Carlos Kleiber’s televised New Year’s Day appearances with the Vienna Philharmonic, audiences may think they know the Strauss family, argues Mangum, but “even though it’s incredibly famous music, it’s very seldom done with the proper rehearsal and preparation by a major orchestra.”
Similarly, the “Fairytales” festival in March 2025 will feature, among other works, Prokofiev’s “Cinderella” suite; the world premiere of Rice University professor Karim al-Zand’s “Al-Jazari’s Ingenious Clocks”; and Alexander Zemlinsky’s 1905 symphonic poem “The Mermaid,” a pivotal piece in Valcuha’s path to Houston.
While Valcuha is away, leading the orchestra will be a succession of first-time guest conductors, including Sir Donald Runnicles, Tabita Berglund, Domingo Hindoyan and Dalia Stasevska; as well as return engagements by worldrenowned soloists Daniil Trifonov, Yefim Bronfman, Kirill Gerstein and Leila Josefowicz, among others.
Also returning, to a hero’s welcome, are beloved music director emeritus Andrés Orozco-Estrada, leading Richard Strauss’ “Also sprach Zarathustra” in March 2025 alongside soloist Hilary Hahn in Brahms’ Violin Concerto; and Christoph Eschenbach, who will conduct Anton Bruckner’s Symphony No. 4 in January as part of an intercontinental 85th birthday celebration.
And on Nov. 14, Michael Tilson Thomas, another distinguished maestro with substantial ties to the orchestra, will conduct a one-off performance of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony as part of his 80thbirthday festivities.
All that, and we still haven’t gotten to the Pops portion yet. The season’s other notable milestone is longtime local favorite Pink Martini’s January return as part of the adventurous Oregon lounge-pop ensemble’s 30th-anniversary season. Another highlight is an encore visit by musically minded circus troupe Cirque de la Symphonie, this time in a rock-themed production based on the music of Styx, Heart, the Eagles, and more.
Elsewhere, look for tributes to the music of the Cotton Club era (Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, Cab Calloway, etc.), the Bee Gees, Motown, Selena, James Bond films and iconic Broadway women; as well as principal Pops conductor Steven Reineke returning to conduct the Very Merry Pops holiday show. Perhaps the hottest ticket of all in recent seasons, the orchestra’s live film-score series will continue with “The Nightmare Before Christmas” for a second straight year, plus “The Empire Strikes Back,” “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban” and, says Mangum, perhaps more on the way.
Speaking of films, the season doesn’t so much end as transition to the orchestra’s to-be-determined summer 2025 programming, but not before Reineke’s Pops finale explores the rich artistic relationship between John Williams and Steven Spielberg.