A distinguished looking gentleman in tux and tails bent over the grand piano at center stage and tuned it. Now this would not be as unusual a sight if he were tuning the instrument before Thursday’s Tucson Symphony Orchestra concert.
But he was tuning it during intermission, after Irish pianist Barry Douglas’s nearly hourlong performance of Brahms’ Piano Concerto No. 1 in D minor.
It probably needed a good tweaking after the workout Douglas put it through in a superb performance that earned him a prolonged standing ovation.
Douglas was the guest soloist as the TSO opened its 79th season, the 12th under Music Director George Hanson. “I think I say, as I always say on this date, that we have the best season that we’ve ever had coming up,” Hanson told the pre-concert audience of a couple hundred. “There are some great evenings you are going to have.” From the audience’s applause, he was not exaggerating, even given some apparent tensions between the TSO management and musicians who are locked in heated contract negotiations.
As patrons were streaming through the Music Hall Thursday, the musicians handed out fliers that briefly described their differences and white ribbons that they hoped the 1,200 patrons attending would wear to show support for the artists. The flier said the musicians were performing “under a Master Labor Agreement that was not ratified by the musicians” and made a case for their contributions to the orchestra and community.
“... We are here for you and are committed to the artistic integrity of the Tucson Symphony Orchestra,” the flier read.
The musicians should be applauded for not allowing their contract talks to interrupt their performance, which was a testament to their devotion to music making.
The standing applause Douglas received at the end of the Brahms was as much for him as the orchestra, which has as big a role in the concerto as the pianist. Brahms gave the piano soloist equal footing with the orchestra, while still making it clear that the piano was the center of attention. This was most evident in the extraordinary rondo, which Douglas played with just enough restraint and finesse to maintain the bombastic integrity that puts audiences at the edge of their seat.
Douglas did double duty in the concert. He returned in the second half, which featured a Hanson favorite, Bach’s Passacaglia in C, to perform the piano solo in Beethoven’s “Choral Fantasy.” That piece also featured the season debut of the TSO Chorus and six commendable vocal soloists.
The “Choral Fantasy” is a quirky piece that starts with a drawn-out, robust piano solo that is supposed to sound almost improvised. Douglas played it with a proper measure of robust intensity and subtle grace. His fingers glided with a keen intimacy, owing to his expertise on all things Beethoven. He and his European ensemble, Camerata Ireland, recently released the last installment of a complete cycle of the Beethoven Piano Concertos, and Douglas has said he feels connected to Beethoven on a level that goes beyond merely memorizing the score.
Watching him play Thursday night it was easy to sense that Beethoven has permeated far beneath Douglas’s surface to a place that is almost second nature.
