Just as the lights were dimming in the Tucson Music Hall Thursday night, longtime Tucson Symphony Orchestra supporter George Steele turned to me.
"Am I going to enjoy this?" he asked.
It's a question he asks at almost every concert and I usually answer, "We'll see."
On Thursday, there was lots to love coming from the Music Hall stage as the orchestra kicked off its Russian Festival.
Modest Mussorgsky's "Night on Bald Mountain" — as arranged by fellow Russian composer Rimsky-Korsakov — served as an appetizer for a quietly emotional performance of Prokofiev's Violin Concerto No. 2 in G minor with guest soloist Ilya Gringolts and a breathtaking turn at Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 4 in F minor.
The Mussorgsky opens with unnerving tension borne of booming percussion and brass, then grows sober and elegant in a wave of melodic strings.
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But the sobering moments are short-lived; the piece's heart beats in its tension, which the orchestra performed with restraint and precision. Strings quiver in pizzicato, and a full complement of percussion — quaking drums and crashing cymbals — creates a shudder that's silenced by the soft tingle of a triangle. Ding. Ding. Ding.
The Russian violinist Gringolts proved conductor George Hanson's theory: There's no mistaking a Russian playing Russian music.
Gringolts hugged his violin beneath his chin as if it were his child, lovingly and with an unspoken devotion.
Mostly, Prokofiev's concerto is muted hues of blue; it's not a work that invites you to tap your toes or sway in your seat. It is moody, contemplative. Did we say moody?
There are moments of such dire desperation that Gringolts expressed beyond his proficient and inspired playing. Although his look of concentration never wavered, Gringolts' body language spoke volumes. When the music was at its most emotional, he bent at the knees, rocked on the balls of his feet and seemed to channel Prokofiev in a way that will be forever etched in the memories of the 1,300 people in the audience.
That memory will sit alongside another memorable moment Thursday night: when Hanson almost stumbled off the podium conducting those final thundering seconds of Tchaikovsky's Fourth.
Horns signal almost a courtly gesture in the beginning of the symphony, but beneath the surface is inescapable sadness that continues throughout the piece. There are flashes of brightness — strings sway at one point, then are quieted with pizzicato play in the background of delicate flute passages performed beautifully by Alexander "Sasha" Lipay. But this is music that asks you to look inside and find beauty in darkness.
Until the ending. That's when the percussion, strings, winds and brass unite in heart-pumping merriment to overshadow the sorrow.
It was in that exuberant finale that Hanson — fairly leaping in place, his arms jerking to and fro as he coaxed that energy from the players — tripped backward, teetered a bit and almost lost his balance.
The audience gave him a prolonged standing ovation, and Hanson returned to the stage four times to take a bow.
On that fourth bow, Steele tapped me on the shoulder.
"Did I enjoy that?" he asked.
Yes, George, you did.
Review
Tucson Symphony Orchestra in concert Thursday at Tucson Music Hall, 260 S. Church Ave., Downtown. The concert repeats at 2 p.m. Sunday. 882-8585.
