HEAR IT - Humanity's Expressive Artists Reveal & Illuminate Truth

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QUICK TAKE : MAHLER'S 2ND SYMPHONY, TUCSON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

José Luis Gomez, Music Director Tucson Symphony Orchestra Friday, 31 March 2023 RISE! YES, RISE AGAIN, TUCSON! This was a fine and joyous performance. The brass, percussion, and woodwind-swollen orchestra, alternately stretched out in long-spun soundscapes, attacking in thunderous outbursts, and finally layering into Mahler’s otherworldly culmination of musical forces, performed very well under Maestro José Luis Gomez’ steady, studied, expressive, can't miss direction. The multi-ensemble symphonic chorus produced Mahler’s delicate dissonances and ultra-powerful divine declarations in fine form. Vocal soloists Kelly Nassief and Emily Marvosh both achieved that seemingly impossible combination of powerful projection, tonal variation, and exaggerated annunciation that is required to deliver Mahler’s grand settings of the Urlicht (4th mvt.) and Auferstehen (Finale). Concertmaster Loren Roth ’s several solo contributions were deliciously outstanding and were heavily lauded during ova

13 LUCKY REASONS TO HEAR TUCSON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA'S MAHLER 2ND SYMPHONY

13) YOU LOVE LIFE and intend to keep living it to its (over)fullest! 12) This orchestra will be CRAZY BIG: 10 trumpets, 10 French horns, two bass drums, two harps, a double sized woodwind section, a giant chorus, and vocal soloists. WHERE WILL THEY FIND ALL OF THESE NEEDED EXTRA VIRTUOSI? 11) Where have I heard THAT before?! Mahler’s Second symphony contains and integrates--by far!--more hints, allusions, and wild transformations--this is NOT plagiarism!--of previously composed music, including his own, than any music previously composed (that is, of course, until completing his Third symphony...). 10) TSO Maestro José Luis Gomez ("The real deal!", spake Lenny's daughter, Jaime Bernstein) TRANSFORMS into a highly driven, yet relaxed, grunting and groaning MASTER DIRECTOR of gigantic musical forces. This may be his most daunting challenge yet! WILL HE RISE (Yes, rise again!) TO THE OCCASION? 9) Mahler’s COMPLETELY NOVEL, NON-METRIC VOCAL SETTINGS mirror w

WE ARE ALL BROTHERS AND SISTERS!

Tucson Symphony Orchestra BEETHOVEN'S NINTH José Luis Gomez, conductor Maria Brea, soprano Kelley O’Connor, mezzo-soprano* Richard Trey Smagur, tenor Kelly Markgraf, baritone Tucson Symphony Orchestra Chorus · Marcela Molina, interim director PROGRAM Richard Wagner: Prelude to The Mastersingers of Nuremberg Richard Wagner: Wesendonck Lieder* Ludwig van Beethoven: Symphony No. 9, “Choral” Friday, 20 January 2023 ________________________ Prologue - Regarding Beethoven After life's most difficult questions and challenges have been asked and directly confronted, we all come together in a blissful bond of global fellowship, the grace of our open embrace of the entire knowable universe, beyond which a loving father–Nature's Creator!–must lie. Rejoice!! The rapturous evocation and celebration of universal brotherhood, described by Friedrich Schiller and delivered by Beethoven, is an overpowering, cathartic answer and conclusion to the massive tumult which was the social, economi

Beethoven: Mastermind of the Soul - Tucson Symphony Orchestra

Tucson Symphony Orchestra BEETHOVEN'S NINTH José Luis Gomez, conductor Maria Brea, soprano Kelley O’Connor, mezzo-soprano* Richard Trey Smagur, tenor Kelly Markgraf, baritone Tucson Symphony Orchestra Chorus · Marcela Molina, Director PROGRAM Richard Wagner: Prelude to The Mastersingers of Nuremberg Richard Wagner: Wesendonck Lieder* Ludwig van Beethoven: Symphony No. 9, “Choral” Friday, 20 January 2023 Friedrich Schiller After life's most difficult questions and challenges have been asked and directly confronted, we all come together in a blissful bond of global fellowship , the grace of our open embrace of the entire knowable universe, beyond which a loving father–Nature's Creator!–must lie. Rejoice! By northern Sonora Desert standards, it is a cold Friday evening in mid-late January . And despite multiple highly transmissible viruses on the loose, close to 2000, mostly long-in-the-tooth, well-musically and culturally educated ladies and gentlemen are quickly filling the

Grand Artistic Gifts: Liszt-Adams, Wagner, Mozart

Tucson Symphony Orchestra Masterworks Series José Luis Gomez, conductor PROGRAM Franz Liszt: The Black Gondola (arr. John Adams) Richard Wagner: Siegfried Idyll Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Symphony No. 40 Nov. 6, 7:30 P.M., CFHS Auditorium REVIEW Credit where credit is due. The Tucson Symphony Orchestra , under José Luis Gomez’ direction, is in a real groove of great programming, and he and the players are performing their socks off. Everything has a purpose. We’re not “mixing old and new”, or playing “warhorses” because they’re popular, or playing contemporary music as a wink to post-modernity. Pinnacles of historical European symphonic repertoire have been singled out, like Mozart’s 40th Symphony this weekend, with renditions based on a very studied understanding of how they were performed when written. That means with Mozart, as with Beethoven, substantially faster tempos than most of us are used to. In the case of Mozart’s 40th, the swift tempos end up highlighting, in an unexpected

Mozart's 40th Symphony

Tucson Symphony Orchestra Masterworks Series José Luis Gomez, conductor PROGRAM Franz Liszt: The Black Gondola (arr. John Adams) Richard Wagner: Siegfried Idyll Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Symphony No. 40 Nov. 6, 7:30 P.M., Nov 7, 2:00 P.M., CFHS Auditorium ============== A Few Mozartian Forethoughts... MOZART: SUPERHERO! As a little kid growing up during the so-called "Age of Affluence and Assassinations", I had three heroes: a local basketball player, the world record holder in the mile run, and a Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Mozart composed the 'Rondo Alla Turca' -- the coolest music by far! -- and I was obsessed. I played the Rondo, very badly, and wanted to know everything about Mozart. In 4th grade I went to the big public library in my hometown and checked out three biographies of Mozart. Much was beyond my comprehension, mostly learning that his father, Leopold, was by far the greatest influence on Wolfgang’s life and music, and the fulcrum of all of his activities t