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 The Tucson Symphony Orchestra Says 'Vive La France.' By Dave Irwin MARINA PICCININI is a true multinational. The Canadian flutist and her Swiss husband make their home in New York City. From there, her concert schedule takes her to Europe, Japan and througy what I want to be doing," she says with the slightest wisp of a Continental accent. "It's a lifestyle and a wonderful, free existence that constantly redefines itself." Piccinini will be in the Old Pueblo this week to perform with the Tucson Symphony Orchestra in its Vive la France concerts for budding Francophiles. TSO Musical Director George Hanson will conduct three performances in the TCC Music Hall.
Piccinini, a recognized world-class virtuoso, literally plays a gold flute, a transverse professional model made by Brandon Brothers. She will be the featured soloist for two of the four works on the program. Although Piccinini has spent time in Sante Fe and Phoenix, this is her first visit to Tucson. She has worked with Hansen in previous posts with the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony in Ontario and with the Anchorage Symphony. "I love working with him. I'm very happy to follow him around," she says with a laugh. "I'm very much looking forward to coming to Tucson. I find it very exotic, just because it is something I know very little about. Hmmm, lots of cactus." The Concerto for Flute and Orchestra was written in 1934 by Jacques Ibert. This is the most modern piece on the program, and though short by concerto standards (under 20 minutes), it's a challenging, playful work. "It's a great piece," Piccinini says enthusiastically. "It's a real standard, although it is small. The first time George Hanson and I met and played together was in Canada and it was this repertoire. It's fitting that we come back together in Tucson with the Ibert again." The Carmen Fantasy for Flute by Georges Bizet takes advantage of the popularity of his opera, Carmen, to spin off an orchestral suite. The opera is so popular that Piccinini is currently working on her own concerto using the Carmen themes. The TSO slyly slips Mozart, an unabashed Austrian, into the French program on a technicality. Mozart wrote his Symphony No. 31 in D Major (K. 297), nicknamed his "Paris" symphony, on an ill-fated sojourn to France. Mozart, seeking fame and fortune, shrewdly employed the three-movement form and other effects popular there at the time to ingratiate himself to the French. It didn't work, forcing the 22-year-old composer back to his crummy job in Salzburg, but leaving behind a magnificent symphony. More than a hundred years later, César Franck again used the three movement form as a matter of national pride. Though Belgian by birth, Franck is considered the most Gallic of the French école. Rounding out the program, Franck's Symphony in D minor sprang from the nationalist movements in music of the late 19th century and epitomizes the French romantic style. Piccinini, like everyone in classical music, is aware that the genre is in a struggle today to find its audience. "It's a real crisis in a sense, especially in this country," she says. "The thing that is important is to keep a great, high quality. Some people complain that the concerts are stuffy, so then they try to make them very friendly, and that is also not the answer."
"Classical music is more difficult to listen to than popular
music," she notes. "Some study is required, some preparation.
You can go in and just enjoy a concert, but the more you know
about classical music, the more you enjoy it."
The Tucson Symphony Orchestra, with guest flutist Marina Piccinini, performs Vive la France at 8 p.m. Thursday and Friday, March 12 and 13, and at 2 p.m. Sunday, March 15, in the TCC Music Hall, 260 S. Church Ave. Tickets range from $6 to $18. For reservations and information, call 791-4266 or 882-8585. |
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Of course, except for spoiled wine, nothing riles the French
like abuse of their language, whether obvious or merely perceived.
In Montreal, there are language cops to enforce the rules of grammar
as law. In France itself, no such sheriffs are required, since
everyone is deputized at birth to safeguard la langue français.
The TSO ran afoul of the subtlety of the French language when
early materials for the concert used the incorrect masculine article
"le" instead of the proper feminine article "la."
Later materials corrected this faux pas.
