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| Barry Douglas, Piano |
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| TSO Music Director, José Luis Gomez |
15 February 2019 -- Tucson, Arizona. Tucson Community Center Music Hall,
Douglas, steady as a rock in both stage presence and musicality, pressed out the giant musical statements with power and grace. Then immediately, his genius of judgement was on display. The tempo and tone adjustments required to highlight and communicate the precious, less strident solos and lightly accompanied passages, were breathtaking. His manner of "turning the tables" -- the quick switches back to fast rhythms and passage work -- were timed to perfection, These little surprises, built into the music, were executed crisply and in character; a character which changes and shifts on a dime. Douglas expression of the unusual "voice" of this music, was carved out with seasoned artistry, supreme professionalism, and was simply a joy to experience live. Douglas mastery and relative ease with the power demands and slippery pyrotechnics, of which his articulation sparked, absolutely dazzled the audience. It was exciting and fun. I found myself in awe of the architecture that Douglas used to frame his interpretation and the odd formal shapes Tchaikovsky ingeniously composed. Douglas seems to live to sculpt the longing sighs of the romantic composers, revealed in the passionate, sonorous breaths between the fireworks and thunder. And it is that architecture -- setting the high and low boundaries -- that allow him to express the innermost feelings of the composer, which exist in the music's the tender underbelly. It rises from Douglas' Mussorgsky's 'Pictures', and was heard by everyone last night. A magnificent gift.
The second half of this program, Bruckner's massive symphonic cathedral, which is his 7th Symphony, brought a riveting glow to this evening in the Northern Sonora Desert. A supreme challenge for any orchestra, your local virtuosi were poised, ready, gave everything, and the result was over the top. And your hot-blooded, latin Music Director? I am going to say that staging Bruckner's 7th as successfully as took place last night, is his single greatest achievement to date, Beethoven's Ninth, Adams' 'Transmigration of Souls', Bernstein's, 'Kaddish', and Strauss' 'Zarathustra' notwithstanding. Bruckner's 7th is not just gigantic. It is alternately subtle and thunderous, richly and gorgeously orchestrated, and architecturally striking and unique. Every step of the way, brings surprising, then reaffirming expressions from the composer. The work demands subtle shaping, graded shading, control of individual tone colors, and balance of extremely complex and unusual composite orchestral sonorities. This is pure -- very pure -- music. And José, a relative madman with a baton in his hand, crafted this music superbly. The musical expression from the orchestra -- and this was a supreme endurance test, especially for the expanded brass section -- reflected the passion and bubbling joy of full engagement by the Director. Maybe I'm a master composer's pushover, living in a dream world, but the scope of Bruckner's vision was spectacularly communicated by the Tucson Symphony Orchestra last night.
The opening movement immediately displays Bruckner's knack for thematic originality, melodic flair, noble character, ennobled emotions, and seemingly discontinuous trains of musical thought. It ends, as do three of the four movements, with strident, yet almost inconclusive statements. The emotions do run very high, and yet the music simply ends without exclamation, including the finale. The build up of layered sounds, with various surging rhythms and motion underneath, which finishes the first movement, projecting like a full chord lift-off from a giant, ancient pipe organ somewhere in Northern Europe, was maybe the most glorious sonority I have ever heard ring through the rather sonically crippled cavern which is the TCC Music Hall -- worth the price of admission right there. I was ready for a standing ovation at that point, but might have a felt a bit embarrassed by the other, more well-behaved, couple of thousand fellow concertgoers. Or maybe not. The second movement is long, yet full of beautiful jewels all the way. The iconic Scherzo shown in full glory -- easily the momentous climax to the whole evening. The powerfully enhanced brass section, including 4 "Wagner tubas" -- which looked to have been constructed while Wagner was still alive -- and the giant contrabass tuba, was engaged to its maximum limit, and faltered not one bit. The effect was devastating. The finale, save for the last few bars, may seem like a slight anti-climax after the Scherzo, but if you keep your ears alive, Bruckner slips in some delicious, ingenious, harmonies and thematic passages from the very opening of the symphony, which brings the whole behemoth celebration to stupendous completion.
The crowd applauded what was left of their hearts out. I assume that Maestro Gomez heard them. He smiled. He acknowledged the accomplishment of his players. He beamed with restraint. Inside, I can only imagine that this man was overjoyed to tears. I certainly was. Thank you, José, and the Tucson Symphony Orchestra, for bringing Anton Bruckner, and your deepest joy, to us last night. It will not soon be forgotten.
~ Steven Gendel
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