Friday marked 10 years nearly to the day that Tucson Symphony Orchestra Conductor George Hanson introduced us to the French-Canadian pianist Alain Lefévre..
It turned out to be a career-altering venture for both sides. In the orchestra and the Tucson community, Lefévre found willing and passionate partners to champion a little-known Canadian composer; in Lefévre, we found an artist of international stature eager to take the orchestra to a much larger audience with an internationally released, major label recording.
On Friday night in the first concert of Hanson’s last full season in Tucson, Lefévre returned to Tucson Music Hall to perform the same piece he played that night in 2004 — Gershwin’s jazzy, intricate and captivating Piano Concerto in F.
Frankly we were a little distracted the first time he played it so we can’t recall exactly what he did with it; we were more interested in the Mathieu concerto on the 2004 program, the piece that Lefévre recovered from oblivion with all the intrigue of a spy novel.
There was no such distraction Friday night as Lefévre turned in the finest performance of the Gershwin that Tucson audiences have seen from that stage. Lefévre was engaging, arresting and delightful to watch as his shock of gray hair flopped over his eyes when he pounded out the frenetic passages late in the first movement and again in the third. The energy he possessed was almost intuitive, a consuming passion for the music that comes from knowing it far beneath the surface of notes on a page. And when the tempo slowed to this swaying romantic riff, he teased the most gorgeous melodies to life. When the tempo resumed, he unleashed a torrent of mad playing that at times lifted him off the bench. It was evident the Gershwin is a piece near and dear to his heart.
Lefévre and Hanson made a good team, each reading the other with split-second precision and creating a well-paced performance that never felt stiff or contrived. The orchestra held on for the ride, playing with precision and passion and earning gushing kudos from Lefévre during a prolonged standing ovation.
“What a great orchestra, really,” he said, turning to the players and applauding them. “Really fantastic. I did this a couple weeks ago with a top orchestra in the world and I can tell you tonight, you did impress. Oh boy.”
Lefévre then played an encore in honor of Hanson, premiering a short piece he composed for the occasion called “Time Out,” a delightfully romantic work that followed the jazz theme of the concert’s first half.
Throughout Friday night, the orchestra and Hanson, who never consulted a score on stage, played with a professional kinship and enduring respect for one another’s craft. But more than anything, they played like they were having fun, bopping along to Bernstein’s “On the Town: Three Dance Episodes” that opened the concert and delighting in every thunderous, crashing, triumphant exclamation of the “Fanfare For the Common Man” in the fourth movement of Copland’s Symphony No. 3 that closed the evening. The concert repeats at 2 p.m. Sunday at Tucson Music Hall, 260 S. Church Ave.
