BEETHOVEN, AND BEYOND THE INFINITE

Anne Akiko Meyers

José Luis Gomez

Concert Preview:

OPENING NIGHT, 2018-19 Season, Tucson Symphony Orchestra, Friday and Sunday, September 21 and 23.

José Luis Gomez' second full season as Music Director of the Tucson Symphony Orchestra, commences this Friday night, as two symphonic heavyweights hit the stage: Beethoven's Violin Concerto, Opus 61, and Richard Strauss's epic Op. 30 tone poem, 'Also Sprach Zarathustra' -- a "Beethoven Odyssey".

Maestro Gomez describes Beethoven's Violin Concerto, which he has performed as soloist since the age of 16, as the consummate compositional integration of solo violin with orchestra, and a supreme challenge for the soloist. This, not by reason of pyrotechnical instrumental demands, but for the clear, nakedly exposed nature of the solo violin writing, requiring complete and masterful musicality from the very first note played. So important is the composition as a whole, as opposed to the solo part, that young Jose Luis's teacher made him learn the full orchestral score before attempting to read through the solo part on his violin! Excitement for the on-stage collaboration with celebrated American violinist Anne Akiko Meyers, also includes her cadenzas, which were composed for her by contemporary composer Mason Bates. This programming of Richard Strauss's 'Zarathustra' celebrates of the 50th Anniversary of Stanley Kubrick's controversial and groundbreaking cinematic masterpiece, '2001: A Space Odyssey'. Strauss's tone poem, composed and first performed in 1896, is based on German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche's seminal, aphoristic, four-volume story of Zarathustra, an hermitic spiritual revolutionary, references nine specific chapters from this most influential of Nietzsche's writings. Strauss's iconic 'Sunrise', from Zarathustra's Prologue, immediately distills Nietzsche's titanic dichotomies: good and evil, joy and sorrow, truth and lies, and God and man. Rendered in the most stark and intense terms possible -- with major, and then minor thirds, blasting over a powerful low-pitched "C", and the lowest elements of its natural harmonic overtone series -- Strauss reflects and affirms Nietzsche's positive, optimistic conclusions. as a gigantic 'tutti' on the C-major chord is hammered into the Heavens. Namely, that life exists 'Beyond Good and Evil', that joy is deeper than all sorrow, that truth is often disastrously obfuscated by lies, and that God -- man's greatest creation -- is now functionally obsolete, although, in Nietzsche's eyes, it should help drive our transition to a species beyond that of humankind. And, speaking of great violin playing, on this night, the ready talents of TSO Concertmaster, Loren Rustad Roth, will also be on full display. Solo violin is the shining centerpiece within the score of Strauss's 'Zarathustra'. Technically demanding, it is highly varied, richly drawn, and provides, along with the superb woodwind writing, an exquisite uplifting of the heart, as the mind and spirit come to terms with life's most profound musical/philosophical struggles. Roth relishes such moments as these, which here become extended paragraphs; an absolute highlight within this epic tale.

My favorite musical expressions unfold in the sections immediately following the great opening fanfare: 'Of the Forest Dwellers', 'Of the Great Yearning' and 'Of Joys and Passions'. The purity of the long, slow, surging, chamber-like strings, the crashing horns storm, finally halting in crestfallen angst, comprises as stridently passionate music as has ever been penned. And somehow, in the succeeding 'Of Science' section (based on the meshing of C-major and B-major chords and scale modes -- humankind versus God), Strauss executes a fugue, using all twelve chromatic tones -- a stunning and most compelling piece of counterpoint from a late Romantic composer.
Maestro Gomez, who digested Nietzsche's early magnus opus in his second language -- Italian -- clearly articulates Strauss's characterization of Nietzsche's philosophical questions as concluding that the final answers are given by humankind, rather than God. José Luis considers 'Zarathustra' to be, "Strauss's most well written and important tone poem; a pinnacle of masterful orchestration, and a complete and complex vision. "Against intuition, Strauss's 'Zarathustra' requires a 'semplice' approach to hold its complexity together. for the players to most effectively express its dizzying array of revelation, longing, and passion." In sum, this is where Ethos, Chaos, and Bathos square off with Logos, Eros, and Pathos. The weekend arrives quickly -- be ready!

~ Steven Gendel

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

GET TICKETS http://www.tucsonsymphony.org/event/beethoven-odyssey/2018-09-21/