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  hen Christoph Eschenbach announced he was resigning as music director of the Houston Symphony, he sent shock waves through the city’s arts community. In his 11 years leading the Symphony, Eschenbach had helped shape it into one of the nation’s premier musical ensembles, and the audiences of Houston were loathe to see him go.
Still, if Eschenbach had decided that it was time to move on to new challenges, at least he could be sent off in style. In that spirit, a series of valedictory performances were scheduled, one of which was captured by HoustonPBS in The Houston Symphony: A Maestro’s Farewell. Though bidding good-bye to a conductor of Eschenbach’s stature carries with it a tincture of sadness, A Maestro’s Farewell is a rousing experience, a memorable coda to a remarkable musical collaboration between a conductor, a symphony, and the city that had the good fortune to enjoy them both.
 While the Houston Symphony has a storied past, counting among its previous music directors such legends as Leopold Stokowski and Andre Previn, there is little doubt that the Eschenbach era took the orchestra to a new level of excellence. A Maestro’s Farewell, says director and executive producer, Phillip Byrd, “is something of a landmark. It’s a document of where the Houston Symphony stands at the end of the Eschenbach era.” Taped at Jones Hall in downtown Houston, A Maestro’s Farewell shows both the affection the Symphony retains for Eschenbach, and the talent he has cultivated among its musicians. As Charles Ward, music critic for the Houston Chronicle, notes in a pre-performance interview, many orchestras would be happy to see their music directors leave. But Eschenbach’s departure sent members of the Houston Symphony into a period of grieving. As Ward points out, it was this deep connection with his performers that gave Eschenbach the ability to inspire them to play to the peak of their ability, and sometimes beyond.
When Christoph Eschenbach became the Symphony’s music director in 1988, he brought with him a distinguished reputation as both a concert pianist and a conductor. Born in Breslau, Silesia, Eschenbach began studying piano under the tutelage of his mother. In 1951, at age 11, he won the Steinway Young Pianist Competition, setting the stage for a career as a performer that continued even after he began conducting in the early 1970s. Though he has never completely given up the piano, it is as a conductor that Eschenbach has received the most acclaim during the last few decades. Besides building a loyal audience in Houston, Eschenbach has led the Symphony on tours around the country and the world, garnering praise from Europe to Japan.
 Capturing the impact of that history in a single concert is all but impossible. Still, the performance of Bartok’s Concerto for Orchestra featured in A Maestro’s Farewell showcases much of what has made Eschenbach so admired. The concerto, an engagingly difficult composition, turns the spotlight onto the world-class musicians Eschenbach nurtured. It exhibits to those who haven’t heard the Houston Symphony before just what heights it reached under his direction. And it is a reminder of what Eschenbach himself made clear during his years of creating music in Houston — that art can never stand still. It requires the ability to change, and the willingness to look to the future. It requires, in essence, the ability to recognize that a farewell is not just an ending, it’s a beginning as well.
The Houston Symphony: A Maestro’s Farewell is produced by John Meek; executive producers are Phillip Byrd of Brandenburg Productions and Jeff Clarke. The executive-in-charge of production is John Hesse. A Maestro’s Farewell is a production of HoustonPBS and is presented by Lark International.
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