Tulsa Symphony Orchestra: Tchaikovsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, Daugherty
Tulsa Performing Arts Center
February 1, 2025
Last Saturday night, I had two dates to the TSO concert: my main squeeze, the sports-and-outdoors classical music noob I’ve dubbed Mr. Tulsa, and my son Caleb, who recently graduated from college in England, where he majored in music. Caleb, like me, has been pleasantly surprised at all Tulsa has to offer since we moved here. We spent the last few years in Europe, where we had all the art and music we could stand, plus sumptuous food and free healthcare. Still, we have both found our niche in Tulsa, with friends, leisure activities, work. We, like so many transplants in Tulsa, are thriving.
Caleb and I are self-admitted classical music snobs, and I wondered if his acceptance of Tulsa would extend to the orchestral world. I was sure that guest conductor JoAnn Falletta, an absolute legend and one of the most prominent women in a male-dominated field, would help TSO deliver. She’s a world-renowned conductor (the New York Times called her “one of the finest conductors of her generation”), a Grammy-winner, and a champion of American music.
Falletta is quite a get for TSO, and under her direction their performance of Tchaikovsky’s “Romeo and Juliet” Overture-Fantasy was smooth as silk. At its conclusion, Caleb launched into an enthusiastic whispered opinion while the musicians shuffled around. He loved the orchestra’s tone quality, the solid solos, and the buttery strings, even though he thought the sound got a little lost in that big Chapman Hall space by the time it reached us on the mezzanine. Mr. Tulsa agreed, saying he loved the familiar melodies but that the muted sound wasn’t as engaging as he would have liked. I felt a swell of pride, hearing that my tutelage of this classical newbie isn’t going to waste.
Michael Daugherty’s Raise the Roof, featuring the stellar Gerald Scholl on timpani, knocked my socks off. Scholl coaxed a plethora of sounds out of seven timpani at the front of the stage, with nuanced background rolls, melodies, a drum kit vibe, and a raucous Latin section. The piece takes the same melody through medieval plainchant, rock, and latin genres. Sometimes I felt like I was in a New York prohibition-era jazz club; sometimes I felt like I was in Notre Dame, gazing at stained glass windows under Gothic arches.
Enthralled, Caleb spent intermission going on about the variety of mallets Scholl used, the surprising use of piccolo, tuba player Jobey Wilson’s otherworldly solos, the use of modes, the cadenza. We agreed that the one drawback was the orchestra’s entrances: sometimes when one group of musicians came in, they weren’t quite together. We also agreed that’s really hard.
Before Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade, Falletta gave us a little background on the piece. “Each instrument is a character in the tale,” she explained. “But Rimsky-Korsakov didn’t specify which is which, so you’re free to interpret it as you wish.” Concertmaster Rossitza Goza, as usual, captivated me with her solos in this enchanting piece, as did John Rush on flute and Rebekah Lorenz on horn, a crowd favorite.
Afterward, Caleb rhapsodized about the orchestra’s quality and the creativity of the programming, which gave us one modern piece framed by two classics. Mr. Tulsa found different pleasures in the evening. “That timpani piece was a trip, but Scheherazade was better,” he said. “I felt like I was watching a movie in my head, it was so evocative. I also felt like it was okay if I dozed a little, because that’s what you do sometimes when you’re listening to a story.”
Whether listening with attention to specifics or taking it all in as a wave of sound, everyone in my little party found something to enjoy in this concert. TSO’s next offering looks equally accessible, though totally different in dimensions: a Valentine’s Day “unplugged” concert with snacks, drinks, and a string quartet playing “sounds of the cinema” at 101 Archer. We’ll be back for more.
