In Tuesday’s (9/4) Houston Chronicle, Everett Evans writes, “Goodbyes can be bittersweet. But maestro Hans Graf intends his farewell season with the Houston Symphony to be a celebration of the orchestra’s achievements during the 12 years of his leadership. Beginning with the gala season-opening concert Saturday at Jones Hall, Graf will conduct 12 of this season’s programs, including such eagerly anticipated events as the Best of Brahms festival and a concert staging of Alban Berg’s landmark 20th-century opera ‘Wozzeck.’ The esteemed Austrian conductor, who assumed the Houston post in September 2001, becomes the longest-serving music director in the Houston Symphony’s history as he leads the orchestra into the celebration of its centennial in 2013. ‘I’m very happy with what we have accomplished,’ Graf said. … [The orchestra] will continue Graf’s efforts to expand the concert repertoire to include operas, as when he led Bela Bartok’s ‘Bluebeard’s Castle’ here in 2005 and a bill of Giacomo Puccini’s ‘Suor Angelica’ and Paul Hindemith’s ‘Sancta Susanna’ in Berlin earlier this year. … After concluding his term as music director, he will continue as conductor laureate, returning for two weeks each year for two more seasons.”
Posted September 4, 2012
