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Opening Night Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto
UBS Verbier Festival Orchestra
Messiah
Steve Tyrell
PDQ Bach: The Vegas Years
The Beethoven Experience

Opening Night

Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto

Saturday, September 8, 2007, 7:30 pm
Hans Graf, conductor
Denis Matsuev, piano
Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto No. 1
Mussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition
Complete your evening by attending the Opening Night Gala. Tickets include priority seating for the Opening Night Concert. Please call (713) 344-5619 to make your reservations.

UBS

Verbier Festival Orchestra

Sunday, November 11, 2007, 8 pm
Argerich is “a pianist with no limits at all,none whatsoever.” –Mstislav Rostropovich
Charles Dutoit, conductor
Martha Argerich, piano

Berlioz: Overture to Le Corsaire
Prokofiev: Piano Concerto No. 3
Berlioz: Symphonie fantastique
The Houston Symphony does not appear on this program.

George Frideric Handel:

Messiah

December 21, 22, 23, 2007
Rejoice in the glory of the text and music.
Bernard Labadie, conductor
Houston Symphony Chorus
Handel: Messiah

Steve Tyrell

Friday, January 25, 2008, 8 pm
Houston’s own Steve Tyrell returns to Jones Hall to delight you with music from The Disney Songbook as well as standards like “Georgia On My Mind” and “I’ve Got A Crush On You.”

PDQ Bach: The Vegas Years

Thursday, February 7, 2008, 8 pm
A program featuring PDQ’s shameless oratorio,“Oedipus Tex,” and Peter Schickele’s infamous “Songs from Shakespeare,” in which some of the Bard’s best-knownspeeches are dropped into a seething vat of 1950’s pop music styles.

The Beethoven Experience

Spend a single day in Jones Hall— March 8, 2008—and you’ll get to know the breadth of Beethoven’s genius through his music. Music Director Hans Graf and the Houston Symphony guide you through the Fifth Symphony, string quartets, piano sonatas and the complete music to Egmont. Come in...step out...then return for the music you most want to hear. “Café Beethoven” will serve snacks and meals throughout the day. Understand Beethoven’s music more deeply through this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

The Beethoven Experience Pricing
Reserve a prime seat for every event of the Beethoven Experience with a Power Pass! Go here to purchase an individual or family Power Pass.

Beethoven PowerPass: $150 per person
Family Beethoven PowerPass: $300
(2 adults, 2 children)

Event Highlights

Beethoven’s
Missing Notes
For families with children ages 4-11
Poor Ludwig has lost notes for his very best piece. Help find them to put joy back in his heart! Hear parts of Für Elise and the 5th and 9th Symphonies. And get to meet Beethoven himself!

Beethoven’s Triumph
Over Deafness
Music Director Hans Graf and Dr. Richard Stasney, Otolaryngologist and Chairman of the Methodist Center for Performing Arts Medicine, discuss the causes and effects of Beethoven’s hearing loss, with live musical selections.

Inside the Fifth
Hans Graf, conductor
Symphony No. 5, first movement
Delve inside this greatest of symphonic opening movements through Hans Graf’s commentary, then enjoy its magnificence in performance.

The Heroism of
Beethoven’s Egmont
Hans Graf, conductor
Egmont, Complete Music
Choral Fantasy
Egmont will enthrall you in this semi-staged concert version with soprano and actor. Then the Choral Fantasy will delight you with pianist Orion Weiss and the Houston Symphony Chorus.

The Beethoven Experience

Event Timeline

10 am - Beethoven’s Missing Notes

11 am - Moonlight Sonata Piano Recital

1:15 pm - Beethoven’sTriumph Over Deafness

3 pm - Inside the Fifth (Discussion with Performance)

4 pm – Rasumovsky Quartet (String Quartet Recital)

5 pm - Hammerklavier Sonata (Piano Recital)

7:30 pm - The Heroism of Beethoven’s Egmont