Tucson conductor says silence speaks volumes in Beethoven's Fifth

That four-note opening motif — da-da-da-duuum — of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony gets your heart pumping.

But Tucson Symphony Orchestra Conductor José Luis Gomez said the real excitement goes beyond fate knocking on that door.

It’s in the silence, says the longtime TSO music director, who will conduct his fifth Fifth this weekend — his second with the TSO — at Linda Ronstadt Music Hall, 260 S. Church Ave. Performances are at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Nov. 15, and 2 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 17.

It’s that quiet suspense that tells the story, “the breathing within the phrases,” Gomez said.

“I look forward to that,” he said. “That is what makes the symphony so great. You have drive and energy at the beginning, but you have lyricism and dance and heroic themes in the last movement.”

Gomez said Gustav Mahler’s famous quote that a symphony “must be like the world” and “embrace everything” beautifully sums up the experience of Beethoven’s Fifth.

“It’s a landmark of the repertoire,” he said. “As many times as you perform it, it surprises you. It’s the musical speech that happens from the beginning to the end. It is a rhythm, but it’s also a melody and it’s a character. It’s many things within its simplicity.”

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Gomez and the TSO last performed the Fifth in December 2019, pairing it then with works by Venezuelan composer Antonio José Estévez and French composer Camille Saint-Saëns.

This go-around, it’s bookended with Beethoven’s “Leonore” Overture and Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra, which was among the casualties of the orchestra’s pandemic-postponed 2020-21 season.

“What I like about this program is you have two powerful Bs of the 20th century,” he said of performing Beethoven and Bartók, who “wrote this incredible virtuoso piece of music” to showcase the orchestra.

“I thought this is the perfect program to put the orchestra in the spotlight,” he said. “This is the Tucson Symphony shining by itself.”

The orchestra will feature more than 70 musicians for the Bartók while the “Leonore” Overture “has this exciting off-stage trumpet that is going to surprise everybody,” he added.

The concert will run two hours with one intermission. Tickets are $14-$95 through tucsonsymphony.org.

Friday’s performance is part of the orchestra’s Classics With A Twist format, featuring on-stage introductions to the music and a post-concert Q&A.