LOWERING THE COMMON DENOMINATOR

posted by James Reel

    When the Tucson Symphony announced its 2007-08 season a couple of weeks ago, I was appalled. Now that I’ve looked at the schedule a few more times and given it further thought, it doesn’t seem to pander to the lowest-common denominator audience as much as I initially thought, but the goosebumps of excitement have yet to rise. OK, I like Rossini’s William Tell Overture, Falla’s Three-Cornered Hat suites and Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony. But why do they occupy an entire program together, aside from the fact that they exist and they’re popular?
    The really bad news is that the core classical series has given up on contemporary music, aside from one item by local boy Dan Coleman (I don’t know the piece, but since it’s sharing a program with Rachmaninov’s big Symphony No. 2 and excepts from Tchaikovsky’s Sleeping Beauty, I can’t imagine that it’s very long), and a very short item by the UA’s Dan Asia. (Why is Asia’s Why (?) Jacob on a program called “Musique de la France”? There’s absolutely no French connection, not even a stylistic one. What a dopey programming decision.) Now, I have complained many times that starting every concert with a five-minute new piece hardly shows much commitment to contemporary music, but even that was better than nothing, which is pretty much what we’re getting next season.
    People might sneer at the November concert with its movie tie-ins—classical pieces used in films, with only one example of original film music—but that’s actually something I wish the TSO and other orchestras would do more of … and I especially wish this would become the pattern again for pops concerts, an evening of well-prepared light classics instead of half an hour of under-rehearsed potboilers followed by an appearance by some has-been pop singer or nostalgia act.
    And in the context of TSO programming history, several of the promised items have hardly worn out their welcome, particularly Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy, Saint-Saens’ Second Piano Concerto and Fauré’s Pelléas et Mélisande Suite. (French music has been rather neglected during George Hanson’s tenure.)
    One—count ’em, one—of the programs is very well thought-out: “Old Vienna,” which includes Schubert’s “Unfinished” Symphony, the Brahms Liebeslieder Waltzes, Strauss’ Der Rosenkavalier Suite and Berg’s Violin Concerto, which the TSO hasn’t done since John Ferrell was concertmaster (he was the soloist last time) and, I think, George Trautwein was the music director, which was more than 20 years ago.
    Still, I’m not looking forward to another shlocky Mathieu piano concerto, and what, exactly, is Ravel’s “Suite from Mother Goose Suite”? Does that mean they’re playing only two or three of the pieces from the standard five-movement suite excerpted from Ravel’s full score?
    So, there are some lapses, but some interesting material does lurk among all the other things I can stay home and listen to in fabulous CD performances without having to submit to the poor acoustics of the TCC Music Hall. But is it worth the rising price of season tickets? The financially troubled orchestra is starting to look a little desperate, moving toward less sophisticated programming and higher ticket prices when other orchestras are actually playing more daring pieces and lowering their prices to attract younger or more casual audiences. I haven’t gotten out my credit card just yet.