Critic’s Choice
Mezzo-soprano Susan Graham may have grown up in Midland, Texas, but her stylish performances of French music have helped build her international reputation. She returns to that fertile repertoire this weekend to sing Hector Berlioz’s Les nuits d’été with the Houston Symphony.
Berlioz’s pensive songs will be the centerpiece of a French program led by a conductor for whom this is familiar territory. Lyon native Ludovic Morlot, the Seattle Symphony’s music director, will open the program with Berlioz’s Overture to Béatrice et Bénédict. Following the Berlioz songs are a suite from Albert Roussel’s The Spider’s Feast and Claude Debussy’s tone-painting masterpiece La Mer. As a post-concert lagniappe, members of the orchestra will return to the stage to play Henri Dutilleux’s Les Citations and Maurice Ravel’s Introduction and Allegro.
Performances are at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 2:30 p.m. Sunday in Jones Hall. houstonsymphony.org; 713-224-7575.