LONG DIVISION

posted by James Reel

    At this temporal distance from last week’s Tucson Symphony concerts, there’s no reason for me to finally get around to writing a full review. Not much to say, anyway. Guzheng soloist Li Ma was superb, although the concerto she played, Zhanhao He’s Regret of a Hero, was initially too widescreen and Technicolor for its own good. As for the rest of the program, George Hanson led the orchestra in performances of Strauss’ Don Juan and Dvorák’s “New World” Symphony that were very well prepared but interpretively anonymous. (The Strauss got off to a fabulous start, but soon settled into complacency.)
    I think this was Hanson’s third go at the “New World” with the TSO. I don’t remember the first try, which would have been about 10 years ago; the second was full of interesting detail, some of which wasn’t to my personal taste, but at least it kept me involved with the music all the way through. This time, though, it was just a solid, middle-of-the-road performance. If Hanson has run out of things to say about this symphony, it’s time for him to pack it away permanently and explore some different repertory that engages him more deeply. Writing anything further about this concert would be as pointless as the performance itself.
    One related subject is worth mentioning, though. Hanson is still dividing the first and second violins, stage right and stage left. I think this is a worthy experiment that should be pursued through the rest of the season, to find out how it works in a variety of music. So far, though, it isn’t working at all, at least not from my perspective in the lower balcony, which is one of the few places in the Tucson Convention Center Music Hall where the sonic blend is almost satisfactory. As I’ve mentioned before, the second violins’ sound just evaporates as it leaves the instruments. And with the violins spread clear across the stage, they couldn’t muster the lushness that Don Juan requires. Those second violinists are going to have to start playing their hearts out if this stage arrangement is going to work.