REVIEW: TUCSON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA/CAITLIN TULLY, VIOLIN

posted by James Reel

    It seems counterintuitive that a slower-than-usual performance of anything could be refreshing, but that was exactly the case when teen prodigy Caitlin Tully, a freshman at Princeton, soloed with George Hanson and the Tucson Symphony in Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto in E minor Thursday night. The Mendelssohn is usually the first concerto a young professional packs into the touring bag, and older violinists have played it so much that they feel obliged to do something spectacular with it. For both reasons, the concerto too often comes off as a mere display vehicle.
    Not in Tully's hands. As violinist Vincent Skowronski insisted when I interviewed him for a magazine article about the concerto, specifically its cadenza, “It has been butchered and malplayed by so many people, it’s time somebody pleaded the composer’s case. This is not a soccer match or a hockey game. It’s a very nice piece of music to play.” Skowronski pointed out how the first movement must be unified by certain tempo relationships, and if you start the work too fast, you end up playing the end of the cadenza laughably fast. Yet nobody laughs--that's how it's been done by many, many leading violinists from Heifetz and Milstein to the present.
    Tully, in contrast, played as if she'd taken Skowronski's direct advice. She actually studies privately with Itzhak Perlman, whose influence could be heard in Tully's generous use of old-fashioned slides in the first movement; yet she hasn't quite assimilated what all that portamento should mean, because otherwise she took an oddly non-legato approach to the main themes. That issue aside, Tully started out at a measured pace and managed to make the whole thing hang together beautifully, preferring warmth to brilliance. It wasn't quite a perfect performance; early in the third movement, for example, Hanson's woodwinds pulled her along a little faster than she initially seemed inclined to go. But overall, on its own terms, the reading was highly expressive and a welcome change of pace ... especially if you've ever wondered what the Mendelssohn concerto would sound like as makeout music.
    It was a fine concert all around. Well, Hanson's way with Mendelssohn's Midsummer Night's Dream overture (a little masterpiece) and scherzo was just a bit faceless, but very well played. The scherzo, in particular, boasted fine flute work, and the orchestra was unusually sonorous; the low strings had unaccustomed resonance, without making the music seem heavy. (Where was the famous "Wedding March"? Hanson saved it for the encore.)
    Hanson was fully in his element in Schumann's Symphony No. 4. Perhaps it's no coincidence that Hanson's best work can be heard in the composers for whom his idol, Leonard Bernstein, had a special affinity: Mahler and Schumann. Hanson's way with the symphony was dynamic from beginning to end--the scherzo was especially vigorous--and all the tricky transitions were beautifully managed (notably the buildup between the third and fourth movements). The weight and speed of the first-movement introduction were perfectly judged, and the only jarring element was the lack of a first-movement repeat.
    The concert began with the premiere of Sudden Light by Arizona State University professor Rodney Rogers. Rogers cites Stravinsky and Bartók as major influences, but Sudden Light sounds like something else entirely: early David Diamond, full of plush harmonies and lyrical gestures, with a bit of mid-period John Adams slipping into the background ostinati. It's a very attractive work, but a bit of a stretch on a concert called "Dawn of Romance"; better to have saved Rogers for another concert, and opened with something that truly did help launch the Romantic era, as did Mendelssohn and Schumann. A Weber overture would have fit perfectly. Still, Hanson should be congratulated for avoiding the predictable--and so should Caitlin Tully.