Piano man
San Juan Symphony kicks off series with Italian-American virtuoso Tocco

by Judith Reynolds

When was the last time you heard the original version of George Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue?” The solo piano version – no swooning strings, no jazzy saxophones, no urban sound effects from the percussion section. Just pure piano, the way the composer first envisioned the piece.

At 7:30 p.m. Friday night, Jan. 26, the Italian-American virtuoso James Tocco will conclude a big concert playing Gershwin’s original “Rhapsody” score. Performing in Smiley Auditorium, Tocco signals the return of the Adams Foundation Recital Series.

Last season, two pairs of concerts inaugurated the series. New York pianist Steven Mayer played Durango and Farmington in mid-January. The Contiguglia brothers performed in mid-March. By popular demand, Mayer recently returned and gave a cabaret concert at the Abbey Theatre on Dec. 29. Now it’s time to launch the 2007 series.

Tocco starts things off this week, and he may have a surprise in store. Lisa Campi, the piano professor at Fort Lewis College, studied with Tocco when she was a music student at Indiana University.

“He was a very inspirational teacher,” Campi said in a recent interview. “I remember him as an emotional and intelligent musician with an extremely powerful technique. He was constantly interested in his students producing beautiful sound, and he could sight read anything! I’m looking forward to hearing him again.”

Now 64, Tocco has banked a long and productive career as an educator, recitalist, orchestra soloist, chamber musician, recording artist, and little brother to a dozen siblings in a remarkable family saga.

“Yes, I really am the youngest of 13,” Tocco said in a long-distance interview earlier this week. His parents emigrated from Sicily to Michigan and brought a love of music with them. “Certainly my mother’s love of Italian opera played an important part in my musical formation.”

Yet none of Tocco’s siblings went on to careers in music, he said. “The general feeling in our family is that my musical talent came, more or less, out of the blue.”

James’ musical interest and ability surfaced early, and he began studying piano at age 6. Half a dozen years later he made his concert debut playing Beethoven’s Second Piano Concerto. Scholarships propelled him to European schools and teachers. First he studied at Salzburg’s Mozarteum. Then a French government grant ensured private study in Paris under Magda Tagliaferro. In the following decades, he studied, traveled and concertized in Europe and the United States, winning first prize in 1973 at an international competition in Munich. Along the way, he has performed with some of the world’s greatest symphonic organizations: Berlin, London, Hong Kong and dozens of American orchestras.

Tocco has developed a particular reputation for interpreting American masterworks. He’s recorded Leonard Bernstein’s “Age of Anxiety” with Leonard Slatkin and the BBC London Symphony. Most recently, he recorded John Corigliano’s Piano Concerto with the Louisville Symphony after having performed the piece with the Atlanta, San Diego, Kansas City and Phoenix orchestras.

At present, Tocco is based in Cincinnati where he is scholar/artist in residence at the University of Cincinnati’s Conservatory of Music. He is also professor of piano at Musikochschule in Lubeck, Germany. And like many prolific musicians, he has his own festival; Tocco is artistic director of the Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival in Michigan.

In addition to “Rhapsody in Blue,” Tocco will play works by Handel, Mozart, Beethoven and Ravel in his Durango recital.

“As always in programming,” he said, “I try for variety and unity. There should be a sense of flow and inevitability from one work to another.”

Tocco will begin with a Baroque keyboard piece: Handel’s Suite No. 2 in F Major, HWV 427. “Keyboard works of Bach are regularly performed by pianists in recital, but very rarely those of his immediate contemporary, Handel. Most people know Handel only from his great choral works and, increasingly, his operas. But he was also a master keyboardist.”

Tocco will follow with Mozart’s Fantasy in C minor, K396, then Beethoven’s Sonata in F minor, Op. 57, the “Appassionata,” a roiling tour de force that we sometimes hear when Norman Krieger comes to town. After intermission, Tocco will perform three pieces from Maurice Ravel’s “Miroirs.” And he will conclude with Gershwin’s masterwork.

“I like to give my audiences a feeling of discovery,” Tocco said. “The Gershwin Rhapsody immediately follows the Ravel group, because there is a certain stylistic affinity between the two composers, who knew and admired each other.”

Student tickets have been specially priced to be affordable at $9. Single adult tickets are $18, or $30 for the two-part series. The second ticket enables you to hear Jon Nakamatsu the weekend of March 2-3. Nakamatsu’s program includes works by Domenico Scarlatti, Rachmaninoff, Chopin, Liszt and contemporary composer Loris Tjeknavorian. If you love classical music, these recitals are not to be missed. •