TSO artists perform at Desert Hills Lutheran

Tucson Symphony Orchestra concertmaster Steven Moeckel and principal keyboardist Paula Fan will present two rarely heard sonatas by two German masters, Beethoven and Schumann, in a Green Valley TSO Ensemble recital Sunday, March 4, 2 p.m. at Desert Hills Lutheran Church, 2150 S. Camino Del Sol.

Tickets to the Concertmaster recital are $20 each and available at the door as well as at the Tucson TSO box office, (520) 882-8585.

This special performance is sponsored by Friends and Admirers of the Tucson Symphony Orchestra, a local TSO support group dedicated to bringing fine symphony music to Green Valley and to taking its members to five dinner-symphony concert events-via bus-each season.

The Concertmaster Recital opens with the energetic, pungent “Rhapsody No. 1” for violin and piano by B/la Bart—k, followed by Ludwig van Beethoven's “Sonata No. 10 in G-Major Op. 96.” Rounding out the first half is Piotr Ilyich Tschaikovsky's “Scherzo -Valse Op. 34,” a ballet of showmanship for the violinist.

Concluding the program is Robert Schumann's “Sonata No. 2 in D-Minor Op. 121,” a monumental physical challenge for both players.

Both musicians are excited about performing for smaller, “more intimate” crowds, like those in Green Valley, they said.

“I like to not only feel the audience with me when I perform, but I like to see personally that they are enjoying every minute of it,” Moeckel says. “Green Valley audiences are so appreciative of the energy it takes to perform such works. I feel the interaction and communication as I play.”

Moeckel describes some of the selections for this particular concert as “quite intense.”

“I really am exhausted afterwards, but it’s a good exhaustion,” he adds. “It takes a lot of digging to get to some of these emotions in this music, but it’s worth every moment.”

Fan describes their musical union as “a rare musical partnership.”

“You may only find this musical relationship and understanding a few times in your entire career and I find it with Steven,” Fan explains. “The click we have musically is electrifying.”

Moeckel was born to a German father and an American mother-both professional string players. He began playing violin at the age of four under the tutelage of his mother. His violin studies continued at the Mozarteum in Salzburg where he was a student of Helmut Zehetmair. He graduated with honors at the age of 19 and immediately won his first professional orchestral position as co-concertmaster of the Ulm Philharmonic in Germany in 1997.

Moeckel performed for three years as co-concertmaster of the Ulm Philharmonic and in 2000 was granted a leave from that orchestra to study violin in America with Miriam Fried, Distinguished Professor of Violin at Indiana University. Moeckel began his American orchestral career in the spring of 2002 when he won the position of concertmaster with the Tucson Symphony Orchestra.

Forget the image of a concertmaster as a distinguished gray-haired figure in tails. During his TSO tenure, 29-year-old Moeckel has become an audience favorite for his sensitive and elegant playing, both as concertmaster and soloist.

Pianist Fan has appeared as soloist and chamber musician on five continents. She made her Carnegie Hall debut in 1977 and her London introduction a year later. She is currently University of Arizona (UA) Professor of Music and Chairman of the Piano Department, where she has also coordinated annual workshops on the new specialty of Music Medicine. In March 2005, Fan was nominated by former UA President Peter Likens to become Regents Professor, the highest designation for UA professors.

Moeckel and Fan have recently recorded a new CD, “Herein Lies the Soul.” It will be available for purchase at the concert.

For more information on FATSO, contact Membership Chairs Bill and Jane Bryant, 207-2277; or check out the group's Web site, www.azfatso.org.

Helen Symes is a freelance writer for the Green Valley News.

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