FIRST HALF ONLY Concert Review:
Friday, 21 September 2018 in Tucson, was a night for the violinistas! Consummate concert violinist Anne Akiko Meyers gave a deeply musical, masterly Beethoven performance to kick off the Tucson Symphony Orchestra's 90th Season. Then, celebrating the semicentennial of Stanley Kubrick's '2001: A Space Odyssey', the TSO delivered an exciting, dramatic, and colorful performance of Richard Strauss's penetrating and profound tone poem 'Also Sprach Zarathustra', featuring talented Concertmaster Loren Roth and Associate Concertmaster Michelle Abraham. Finally, pressed hard by the audience for an encore, Maestro Jose Luis Gomez and orchestra waltzed us into a gloriously uplifting azure bliss to conclude this spellbinding odyssey.
Anne Akiko Meyers' stage presence is striking, spirited, sensuous, and engaging. On this night, it was as if a beautiful, over-sized, super-musically-talented red flower blossom just happened to sashay onto to the Music Hall stage, only to find former concert violinist, Maestro José, baton raised in anticipation, standing over his talented orchestra players, ready to lead and respond in both duel and duet, through this seminal highlight of the virtuoso repertoire and decades-long favorite of the Maestro. And the result was spectacular. Sparkling in full musical character through Beethoven's passionate 'Larghetto' second movement and popular dance-like Rondo finale, the true depth of Meyers' artistry was revealed in the heavyweight, 25-minute symphony-unto-itself first movement.
There is an inherent contradiction in our modern super-polished renditions of Beethoven's so-called masterworks. Because, though they are compositions of a true master, and have generally dominated classical concert programs for the last 200 years, Beethoven the man was a brash, cutting-edge, revolutionary musician, who no doubt would be extremely uncomfortable with our corporate, big money, super-star-worshipping global classical music concert circuit. And so, how does a soloist or ensemble bring a taste of Beethoven, that half-crazed, implacably creative man, into the concert hall? Meyers answer is, 1) lean into the darker aspects of the score; in this case the powerful counter theme containing a four-repeated-note motif, and 2) use your 21st Century virtuoso skills to execute modern-content candenzas crafted by a highly exploratory contemporary composer. Bingo! The candenzas, both the music and its execution, were superlative. Thus spoke Beethoven, as an important aspect of the brutish genius from 200 years ago, whose music we universally adore, was successfully channeled into the TCC Music Hall. Bravo to Anne Akiko Meyers and composer Mason Bates for this great gift!
The crowd broke into applauds when the first movement finished. Many may have believed the concerto had ended. The soloist Meyers responded, "Wait, there's more!" I enthusiastically participated in this ovation, and would have happily led it. Why? Why not? I see no good reason to not give voice to, and to communicate and release the waves of emotion that were surging through me at the time. Haha, that is why there are breaks in the music! The performers and the audience get to regroup for the next, highly contrasting portion of the music.
Author's commentary on the Late Romantic second half of this lovely program will have to wait for addendum.
~ Steven Gendel
HEAR IT - Humanity's Expressive Artists Reveal & illuminate Truth
Thanks for that insight into LvB, Steve. From the 1st published piano sonata (Op. 1, F minor), Beethoven's startling dissonances point the way forward. No wonder the Allgemeine Zeitung of the time considered him eccentric (but gifted).
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