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 manner, the insane level of mastery by this super genius. The highly linear nature of the writing, which often quickly pulls six, seven, or eight separate lines together as part of one statement, while fully orchestrated through multiple instrument groupings, is simply astounding. The complexity of the music at such tempos is inscrutable. Inasmuch as this is accurate, which I believe it very much is, gives a much clearer window into Mozart's intent.
Two hundred plus years later, have we learned to take joy luxuriating in the harmonies and textures yielded by the moderating of tempos? Yes we have. Is the music amenable to such treatment, or to the large orchestras with which Karl Böhm warmly caressed the Mozart symphonies in the 1950s? Yes it is. Yet this has little to do with Mozart’s vision of his own work. Fast and furious through previously unimaginably complex music, yet of truly sublime integrity is what Mozart brought to the courtly concert hall. Likely a terror for court musicians of the day, Maestro Gomez and the TSO are giving us a taste of the, “Take that!”, attitude emanating from Mozart’s supreme masterworks, an aspect most of us have likely missed through our habit of wanting to bask in the glory of the creation; glorious as it certainly is.
Mozart, a living, fully engaged fountain of creative output, is said to have not suffered fools well. Judging by the intellectual / spiritual angle at which he apparently assembled and presented the 40th Symphony, we are ALL fools. If only it were less difficult to argue against that! Knowing Maestro José's devotion to allowing the composer to speak his own musical language, extending some of the methods perfected by his esteemed Estonian mentor, Paavo Järvi, I expected the quick tempos. Still, they delivered a jolting slug to my finely honed conceptions and understanding of the music, and what I had learned to hope for from a performance. Yet as it progressed, and upon reflection, I feel highly gifted by this "outrageous" peek into the nature of the beast that is the mind, spirit, and soul of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Sorry to have missed the Sunday 'rejoner'! Bravi, tutti!
Both compositions in the first half of this Masterworks concert were much more specifically designed for the kind of “bathing in beautiful sounds” that we, of habit, falsely try to apply to Mozart and Beethoven. Franz Liszt’s ‘The Black Gondola’ is a tribute / reflection on Liszt’s journey to Wagner’s funeral. It is one of his rarely performed, harmonically exploratory, and less technically demanding late piano works which truly honors the harmonic and tonal revolution ignited by his good friend Richard. The programming of this rich John Adams arrangement was a perfect set-up for where this orchestra is at. Bringing tone color and instrumental sustains not possible on piano, turns this little meditation into a rather painterly tone poem. Individual instruments receive generous, languid lines to shape and sculpt. Adam's deft crafting of orchestral sonorities using Liszt's late Romantic harmonic meanderings, yield an atmospheric space where longing, despair, reminiscence, and also hope can just live and be, rather than touched in passing and dismissed, as is all-too-often the case in our daily lives. Maestro Gomez loves to give his players opportunities to do their thing as they see fit, while he sculpts the architecture. They love him for this, and answered extremely well in this reading of this unusual score. The Friday night audience seemed stunned by the performance, and for good reason.
Wagner’s “Siegfried Idyll”, a Romantic’s romantic musical gift to his far younger wife, contains most every Wagnerian signature; "endless" connected surging melodies, precisely constructed dissonances which then melt into tonal splendor, and a riveting gradual pacing that precludes any misinterpretation of the emotional content or intent. Again, Director Gomez let his players play, and they returned his trust in them with a truly beautiful performance. Neither of these first half pieces are jump out of your seat encore type numbers. And yet again, this audience knew they had been given an aural / spiritual treat to remember.
~ Steven Gendel
HEAR IT - Humanity's Expressive Artists Reveal & Illuminate Truth
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