ÃÛÌÒÓ°ÏñAV

How apropos that Moeckel ends his six-year run with the TSO as he began it — performing Beethoven's Violin Concerto. He was a year into his tenure as concertmaster when he played the Beethoven in an intimate MasterWorks concert.

Moeckel resigned this summer to become concertmaster with the Phoenix Symphony.

Thursday's performance could have been a sappy affair. Moeckel could have milked it for all its sentiment with flashy gestures and grandiose showmanship that would place him as far superior to the music he was playing.

But that isn't Steven Moeckel. We have learned over the years that he is a musician, first and foremost; the music is the reason he stands center stage — or sits among his peers in the strings section. He is merely the conduit.

On Thursday before 1,300 people, Moeckel played Beethoven with the respectful devotion we have come to admire.

Beethoven wrote his Violin Concerto in 1806 for his colleague Franz Clement, a leading violinist of the day. The concerto is fashioned in the first movement as an orchestral piece; the violinist doesn't come in until midway into the movement. The second movement is written more for solo violin, restoring the instrument to its concerto role.

It is in that role that Moeckel excelled. He produced burnished tones in the slower passages and pristine phrasing in the larghetto, which requires the soloist to craft a delicate sound in the upper register. In the middle of the rondo, Moeckel was so submerged in the music he squeezed his eyes closed and bent into his instrument as if its weight was pulling him down. He seemed lost in the power of Beethoven's score.

The final notes were still hanging in the air when the audience bolted to its feet for a prolonged ovation that continued after Moeckel had taken a third bow and the house lights came up for intermission.

The concert's second half was just as thrilling as its first — Shostakovich's Symphony No. 10 in E minor. In a brief introduction to the piece, TSO conductor George Hanson laid out the Russian composer's intentions — to lament three decades of suppression under Joseph Stalin and rejoice in the dictator's passing and the hope for creative freedom.

Shostakovich wrote the four-movement symphony months after Stalin died in 1953. Its mood goes from resentful, brought out through the slow-paced rumbling brass intro and aching string passages, to boiling anger realized in syncopated rhythms and endless spasms of furious semiquaver passages.

Shostakovich reserves much of his anger for the second movement, a short and violent scherzo that's meant as a musical portrait of Stalin.

Hanson channeled Shostakovich's pent-up rage with unrestrained, energetic abandon. The performance was taut, with passages clearly conveying every injustice Shostakovich suffered under Stalin. But Hanson gave the piece just enough wiggle room to seem all but on the edge of falling apart; that's where we felt the brunt of the composer's emotional baggage.

The orchestra followed Hanson's lead to the last breathless note. There were numerous standout performances, including from principal clarinetist Jeremy Reynolds, principal oboist Lindabeth Binkley, principal flutist Alexander Lipay and the percussion section, led by nearly-30-year TSO veteran Homero Ceron and principal timpanist Kimberly Toscano.

The Shostakovich earned the orchestra a second standing ovation and earned the audience a pleasant encore to wash away the Symphony No. 10's harsh bitterness — a dose of fellow Russian Mikhail Glinka's giddy Overture to "Ruslan and Lyudmila."

Thursday's performance also introduced associate concertmaster Carla Ecker in the role of interim concertmaster. From the powerful performance of her section throughout the evening, Ecker seems up to the task of temporarily filling Moeckel's very large shoes.

Review

• Tucson Symphony Orchestra in concert Thursday at Tucson Music Hall, featuring violinist Steven Moeckel.

•Et cetera: The musicians continue to play under a mutually negotiated interim labor agreement. Negotiations for a multiyear contract are ongoing.