SOMETHING a Little DIFFERENT: for BEETHOVEN and for TUCSON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

José Luis Gomez, conductor
Homero Cerón, marimba
Chris Herman, marimba
Fred Morgan, marimba
Matthew Timman, marimba

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Séjourné: Concerto for Four Marimbas and Strings, “Gotan”

Beethoven: Symphony No. 4 in B♭ Major

REVIEW: Tucson Symphony Orchestra Masterworks 
Saturday, 5 October 2019

'War and Peace', Leo Tolstoy's mammoth, multi-faceted representation, reflection and philosophical analysis of Russian society in the face of the slogging Napoleonic Wars, was once aptly described as a "loose, baggy, monster". Celebrating the ideals of the French Revolution, and originally dedicated to Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte, Beethoven's 3rd Symphony is a similarly sprawling affair, written by an artist soon disgusted with Napoleon's warring ways. Beethoven's Third is his 'War and Peace'...

And of course, penned only a few years later, Beethoven's Fifth Symphony is a singular all-time pinnacle of symphonic / thematic and dramatic genius. By contrast, the crisp, contained, concentrated energy of Beethoven's 4th Symphony is both a desperately needed relief for the composer from the heaviness of 'die Welt' in his 3rd Symphony, and a deep, clarifying breath and gathering of energy setting up the self-recursive, creative conflagration comprising the fabric of Beethoven's 5th Symphony.

Saturday night, at the Catalina Foothills High School auditorium, the Tucson Symphony Orchestra gave a terse, uncompromising rendition of this compact, thirty-plus-minute jewel. Following the first movement's slow introduction, a lithe electrical current runs throughout this work. Dizzying in the outer movements, even the 'Adagio' second movement cannot escape the frenetic flow. Director Gomez' consciously pushes Beethoven's tempi to a point where the textural contrasts spring powerfully from the orchestra, thereby concentrating the emotional drama. This Beethoven's-time-sized ensemble very well delivered all the punch Maestro Gomez directed from Beethoven's fast fists! Particular pearls for me were the power-packed drama of the opening 'Adagio -- Allegro Vivace', the deft handling of the thematic sequences FLYING through the finale, and the continuous splendor of TSO woodwinds and horns throughout. At Gomez' preferred tempi, the strings are certainly under the gun, and here they strode into the challenge very well indeed. I would love to hear the second run this afternoon!

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The first half of this concert consisted of Séjourné's 'Concerto for Four Marimbas and Strings', at 3-movement tribute to contrasting percussion traditions: the tango, movie music, and world music. The four percussion virtuosi, led by TSO's Homero Cerón and Fred Morgan, imbued full color into the refined textural and sonority explorations carved and sculpted by the the composer. Some of the best moments consisted of the four percussionists working unaccompanied; less a multi-marimba cadenza than a marimba quartet -- lovely!

The general sound setting and compositional content were straightforward and not overly complex. If early 20th Century symphonic representations of native and folk rhythms and traditions were highly stylized and virtuosic, this work aimed to subtly emulate those traditional elements, without exaggeration, letting the soloists tell most of the story. An unexpected method, yet most satisfying!

 ~ Steven Gendel


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