Steven Moeckel

Violinist Steven Moeckel played the Elgar Violin Concerto this week. It is a concerto he was born to play, and, as the sports announcers like to say, he left it all out on the field.

Elgar Violin Concerto

Reviewed Friday, Nov. 25, at Symphony Hall, Phoenix.

It was clear that this wasn't merely a case of a soloist signed to play with an orchestra, learning a concerto and performing it; this was an artist who has longed to play the vast, 50-minute work since he was a young man, and he now gets a chance not merely to play it, but to descend into it, live it, and turn it inside out, searching every corner for meaning and -- dare we say it? -- beauty. Sheer physical beauty.

To extend the sports metaphor, when Moeckel came back onstage during intermission for the usual soloist's chat with conductor Michael Christie, he looked as if he'd gone 10 rounds with Sonny Liston. All that was missing was a towel draped around his neck.

Classical-music lovers live for such performances: lashed-to-the-mast, winner-take-all playing of music that has something important to say to us. Anyone taking the full ride with Elgar and with Moeckel was likely to be worn out, too. A good worn out, like the feeling you get from an honest day's work.

The concerto itself has a huge first movement, full of vigor but also full of lyricism. It set up an Andante second movement that floated gently toward heaven, bursting with ripeness like a fallen persimmon; it was the high-water mark of beauty -- the kind of Edwardian turn-of-the-century beauty that foresees its own demise in the coming century.

It is followed by an immense Allegro molto that for two-thirds of its length is a virtuoso workout, but culminates in the emotional high-point of the work, a 10-minute cadenza, accompanied lightly by the orchestra, in which the soloist, having brazenly shown off his extroverted self, turns inward and private, in some of the most confidential passages in music.

Moeckel understood every cranny of the music and played with perfect confidence and all the flexibility that Elgar's shifting score requires. Christie and the orchestra followed perfectly, allowing breathing where necessary and moving forward emphatically when called for.

It was a powerful experience, and made some wish every concert could feature only music its players felt compelled to play.

The difference between a good concert and a great concert is having both music and musicians with something to say, and a sense of urgency in bringing us the message. Elgar and Moeckel make a perfect team.

Moeckel, who has a day job as concertmaster of the Phoenix Symphony, also used the event to release his latest CD, a performance of the Elgar and Richard Strauss violin sonatas with his musical partner, pianist Paula Fan.

The passion and commitment shown in the live concerto shows up in both recorded sonatas as well, in an excellent recording of rarely played late-Romantic violin sonatas.