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Pacho Flores, Corno Music Director, José Luis Gomez Tucson Symphony Orchestra Friday night, 25 January 2019, Tucson Symphony Orchestra's 'Fresh Music, Copland and More' Classic concert: ONE: this is a brilliant program. Two brass concerti, featuring Venezuelan super-virtuoso Pacho Flores, and two popular Aaron Copeland works, were bookended by sublime overtures by Mozart and Bernstein. ONE-A: a surprising common musical thread weaves its way through Mozart's Overture to 'The Abduction from the Seraglio', the 'Concerto for Corno da Caccia', by J.B.G. Neruda (a contemporary of Bach and Mozart), and the first movement of the new Arturo Márquez 'Concerto for Trumpet' – a sustained, repeated melodic syncopation. The TSO Music Director, José Luis Gomez, is a sly one! TWO: this performance by Pacho Flores  was a soulful and energetic gift to this audience. His tone, articulations, and musicality are masterly, while his v...

Choir Masters Bruce Chamberlin and Julian Ackerley, Maestro José Luis Gomez, Concertmaster Lauren Roth, Soloist Kelly Nassief, and Narrator Jamie Bernstein This concert -- Beethoven's Fidelio Overture, the 'Adagio' from Mahler's 10th Symphony, and Bernstein's 'Kaddish', Symphony #3, on Friday, January 19th, 2018 -- was utterly fantastic; one for the books for the Tucson Symphony Orchestra. Regarding the Mahler... Not meaning to gush or ingratiate, here; Maestro José Luis Gomez gave an extremely thoughtful, penetrating, emotional, and fully engaged reading of the haunting, churning, surreal, 'Adagio' from Mahler's 10th Symphony. Mahler juxtaposes seemingly irreconcilable antinomies; lighthearted street dancing alternates with a Soul being torn asunder by implacable undertow. In this performance, it all made sense. The unaccompanied viola-section-only opening melody, and all of its otherworldly and inner-worldly manifestations, were gener...