Ukrainian pianist Vadym Kholodenkoโs hands crissed and crossed as he brought out the gentle opening chords of Rachmaninoffโs Rhapsody On a Theme of Paganini on Friday night at the Tucson Music Hall.
He crossed his left hand over his right, playing a series of notes that went from high to midrange. If you looked really closely, you could see that at times Kholodenkoโs eyes were closed. But throughout the 25-minute piece, he was so intensely focused that you couldnโt stop watching.
Fridayโs concert before an audience of 1,525 was Kholodenkoโs debut with the Tucson Symphony Orchestra, but he and TSO conductor Josรฉ Luis Gomez performed with the precise timing of musicians with months, perhaps years, together, not merely days. They seemed to follow each otherโs lead almost intuitively, as if they were finishing each otherโs musical thoughts.
During his extended solo in the sixth โ or maybe it was the seventh or even eighth theme โ Kholodenko seemed to bounce ever so slightly on the bench as the melodies became more urgent and frenetic and the music he made was alive and fresh.
The Rhapsody closed the first half of the program, which opened with the premiere of TSO Young Composers Project alum Anthony Constantinoโs โLuminosityโs Witness,โ a piece he composed on commission for the TSO.
โLuminosityโ had a little bit of everything when it comes to contemporary music: Some distant dissonance from the keyboard, clanking and banging in the percussion and a low rumble that sounded like thunder in the desert that broke through the workโs rare quiet.
โLuminosityโ is Constantinoโs journey from sunrise to sunset in his native Tucson. It opens with a soft, gentle passage that felt like the sun peeking over the Santa Catalina Mountains, only to be tortured by a blistering desert sun realized in a spasm of crushing timpani. Layered beneath the chaos was a distinctive clop, clop, clop from the xylophone โ think horses trotting. Strings played a minor role, relegated to this really intriguing opening where the violins were played in an altered state of pizzicato; instead of plucking the strings, the players tapped on them, creating a hollow effect, almost like kicking a rock in a long tunnel.
The piece ended abruptly: At the final note, maestro Gomez and the orchestra froze in place. They didnโt blink and eye or twitch an inch for several moments.
Another highlight was watching Gomez literally rock out to Alberto Ginasteraโs Four Dances from โEstancia,โ a rollicking work from the Argentine composer that is simply impossible to sit still through. The work, after all, is about dancing, so it would have been surprising if Gomez hadnโt moved his hips, tapped his toes and rocked out from the podium.
The orchestra performed the concert again on Sunday, Feb. 18, before an audience of 1,859.
