We’ve said it before. We’ll say it again. Now that we’ve gotten more control over COVID-19, the Houston performing arts groups are exploding back onto the scene with the introduction of the 2022-23 season. The latest to open their offerings is DACAMERA, which will bookend this weekend with a performance by Gil Shaham and Akira Eguchi on Friday followed by a piano masterwork performance by Jeremy Denk on Monday. The performances will be, to summarize, dynamite.
First up is the Gil Shaham performance. Internationally renowned Shaham and his pianist accompanist Eguchi embody the pinnacle of artistic expression in the musical realm. The musicians will serve a sumptuous buffet of works by Robert Schumann, Johaness Brahms and Antonin Dvorak, who all serve as music history’s version of a family tree.
“Schumann is the eldest of them and from the first generation of Romantics, and his music was tremendously inspiring to the young Brahms. They met for the first time when Brahms was only 20 years old. Schumann wrote an article about this composer (Brahms) who he thought was absolutely brilliant. And then Brahms developed into this great composer of his generation, and early in his career, he met this great Czech composer Dvorak. As dramatic music dominated the scene, Brahms encouraged Dvorak to use folk music from his own tradition, and Brahms helped Dvorak find a new publisher,” said Sarah Rothenberg, DACAMERA’s artistic director.
The language of music is truly universal, and the Shaham-Eguchi duo are demonstrable examples of how it translates across nationalities and ages. Gil Shaham is a violinist who was trained primarily in the United States after he came to the Juilliard School in New York. Akira is from Japan and studied primarily in Tokyo.
“It’s an interesting thing. People respond to the music they love. Painters respond to painters that they love by painting things that are inspired by [their mentors], and then, through that experience, they discover their own style. [Similarly,] that’s what’s really going on with these three composers,” said Rothenberg.
The night will serve as a signal for they types of works that DACAMERA plans to bring for the upcoming season.
“We thought this would be a nice way to open the season not only because the music is so absolutely beautiful but also because there’s a contrast from one composer to the next. It’s also because mutual friendship is something that we associate with DACAMERA. We’ve developed so many friendships with composers, with performers and many of our supporters,” Rothenberg said. “Music is a way of building relationships. It’s a form of communication, just the way Gil Shaham and Akira Eguchi are performing. It’s a communicative friendship that comes across to audiences as these two wonderful musicians play together and really breathe together.”
The two certainly do work magic when on stage together. Just see below for the virtuosity the pair can perform. Those fingers! That dexterity! That musicality! (And that goes for both the pianist and the violinist.)
Following the performance, and at a slightly elevated price for those who chose to stick around afterward, there will be a gala featuring dinner on the Wortham Theater stage provided by one of Houston’s premier Italian restaurants, Tony’s, and an intimate gathering with the artists. For those interested, the show beforehand will satiate a musical appetite, and the dinner afterward on stage will satisfy a philanthropic and physical appetite.
DACAMERA emphasizes that guests are welcome to both events during the evening, yet tickets are available solely for the performance portion of the evening or for both the concert and the dinner. Houstonians are more than welcome to purchase a table seat to attend the gala afterward if they so choose.
And if that weren’t enough, DACAMERA is bringing back even more musical excitement. After a whirlwind Friday, Monday promises to deliver more va-va-voom with the works of Jeremy Denk.
Denk will present Bach’s “The Well-Tempered Clavier,” a revered collection of 24 preludes and fugues which traverse all the major and minor keys. The piece was entitled “The Well-Tempered Clavier” in celebration of the modern western tuning system, which divides the octave into equal intervals, called “tempered” pitch.
The piece was more than just a sound for the ears. It also had practical use.
“It’s historical. They developed a tuning system so that in the in the pre-Bach days, some keys didn’t sound very well. They developed a system where you could play in every key….there’s something in this piece in every key. Bach loved this kind of encyclopedia. He was a completist, and so this project really appealed to him of writing a prelude and fugue in every key,” Denk said. “I think he poured a lot of his most wonderful and inspired music from the first 10 or 20 years of his compositional life into this. It’s kind of a journal of his best stocks from from those years.”
There is a part of this concert that Denk believes will harken back to a bygone era of the many iterations of the instrument.
“Bach has been such a long and important part of my life, and it’s a little bit like visiting with an old friend at this point. Of course there’s a long historical arc of the development of keyboards and each of those instruments [like the harpsichord, organ and piano] has specific qualities, specific strengths and weaknesses,” Denk said.
“Essentially, through the through the 1800s, the piano got bigger and louder and more powerful, but if you’ve ever heard a harpsichord or a clavichord, there’s an incredible intimacy to those instruments. There’s a real joy in trying to recreate those possibilities on the modern piano and to use the piano to unfold certain things in the music that harpsichord cannot do,” he added.
Despite the fact that Denk’s finger’s will be moving across the keys at rapid fire pace, he says he’s not the focal point. It really is about the music.
“The music is the star. I don’t really think about myself as a star or not a star. There’s a big task in front of me, which is to make the music come alive. And that’s that’s my focus,” he said.
Focus, we will, and the music will follow. Especially when it comes to some of the brightest minds and most talented musician making their way to the Bayou City.
DACAMERA presents Opening Night: Gil Shaham, violin and Akira Eguchi, piano for Musical Friendships at 7 p.m. Friday at Wortham Theater Center, 501 Texas. Tickets to the Musical Friendships performance are $42.50 – $72.50. Tickets to the performance are independent of the dinner afterward. The gala’s dinner will run $350 – $1,000. Jeremy Denk’s The Well-Tempered Clavier will run at 7:30 p.m. October 17 and 18 at The Menil Collection, 1533 Sul Ross. $60. For tickets or information, call 713-524-5050 or visit dacamera.com
This article appears in Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2022.
