It’s hard to believe that in the 20-plus years since he introduced himself to Tucson, violinist Steven Moeckel had never played a recital with Arizona Friends of Chamber Music.
The former Tucson Symphony Orchestra concertmaster made up for lost time on Wednesday when he and pianist Nathan Arch headlined the Friends summer concert series at Rincon Congregational United Church of Christ.
The pair’s one-hour concert was a masterclass in virtuosity from Beethoven’s delightful early Violin Sonata No. 2 in A major that opened the concert to Saint-Saëns’ fantastically challenging Sonata No. 1 in D minor.
That work, Moeckel told the audience filling Rincon’s wooden pews, was easily one of the most virtuosic works ever composed for piano and violin.
He wasn’t wrong.
Violinist Steven Moeckel made his Arizona Friends of Chamber Music debut on Wednesday with pianist Nathan Arch.
Moeckel’s fingers danced over the fret so fast they became a blur. His bowing was a numbingly frenetic mix of elegant strokes crisscrossing pizzicato and the occasional thump from tapping the strings. You held your breath just wondering how the heck he managed to keep pace with the French composer’s score while still summoning all of the music’s emotional depth and beauty.
Arch and Moeckel opened the recital with Beethoven’s early period Second Violin Sonata, which actually gave equal weight to both instruments. The piece plays like a dynamic conversation between the piano and violin, with the violin — through a simple pluck or a flurry of notes delivered with dynamic flourish — mostly finishing the piano’s sentences. A few times, Arch would muscle his way in with some mad fun keyboard skill to steal the last word in.
The true thrill ride of the recital came in the middle with Jennifer Higdon’s 2006 suite “String Poetic,” a technically fascinating five-movement work that showcases the extraordinary interplay between the piano and violin and some pretty terrific sound effects.
Moeckel took a few minutes beforehand to demonstrate those effects, which included both instruments playing pizzicato in the intriguing and super interesting “Blue Hills of Mist” middle movement and Arch pounding out shuddering dissonant bass notes in the opening “Jagged Climb” that reminded us of that scene in a scary movie just before the monster/zombie attacks.
Those themes bookend the work, which Higdon composed for violinist Jennifer Koh, reappearing in the finale “Climb Jagged.” But the work’s biggest appeal was its contrasting moods and tempos including the lush American sound inspired by Aaron Copland in the achingly beautiful “Nocturn” and the breathless and technically explosive romp of “Maze Mechanical.”
Wednesday’s performance of “String Poetic” was a first for Tucson.
Arizona Friends of Chamber Music will wrap up its summer concert series on Aug. 27 with TSO principal harp Ben Albertson, who will perform a work composed for him by the innovative young composer Chelsea Komschlies. The TSO performed one of her compositions in early 2024.
Meanwhile, Moeckel, who was the TSO concertmaster from 2002-08, returns to the orchestra as its artist in residence next season. He will perform Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 5 to open the Masterworks chamber series Oct. 11-12 and return the following weekend for an Up Close recital.
Moeckel divides his time between Phoenix, where he spent 13 seasons as Phoenix Symphony’s concertmaster, and Flagstaff, where he teaches violin at Northern Arizona University.
Steven Moeckel, left, made his Arizona Friends of Chamber Music debut with pianist Nathan Arch on Wednesday.
