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The former concertmaster made up for lost time on Wednesday when he and pianist Nathan Arch headlined the Friends summer concert series at Rincon Congregational United Church of Christ.

The pair鈥檚 one-hour concert was a masterclass in virtuosity from Beethoven鈥檚 delightful early Violin Sonata No. 2 in A major that opened the concert to Saint-Sa毛ns鈥� fantastically challenging Sonata No. 1 in D minor.

That work, Moeckel told the audience filling Rincon鈥檚 wooden pews, was easily one of the most virtuosic works ever composed for piano and violin.

He wasn鈥檛 wrong.

Moeckel鈥檚 fingers danced over the fret so fast they became a blur. His bowing was a numbingly frenetic mix of elegant strokes crisscrossing pizzicato and the occasional thump from tapping the strings. You held your breath just wondering how the heck he managed to keep pace with the French composer鈥檚 score while still summoning all of the music鈥檚 emotional depth and beauty.

Arch and Moeckel opened the recital with Beethoven鈥檚 early period Second Violin Sonata, which actually gave equal weight to both instruments. The piece plays like a dynamic conversation between the piano and violin, with the violin 鈥� through a simple pluck or a flurry of notes delivered with dynamic flourish 鈥� mostly finishing the piano鈥檚 sentences. A few times, Arch would muscle his way in with some mad fun keyboard skill to steal the last word in.

The true thrill ride of the recital came in the middle with Jennifer Higdon鈥檚 2006 suite 鈥淪tring Poetic,鈥� a technically fascinating five-movement work that showcases the extraordinary interplay between the piano and violin and some pretty terrific sound effects.

Moeckel took a few minutes beforehand to demonstrate those effects, which included both instruments playing pizzicato in the intriguing and super interesting 鈥淏lue Hills of Mist鈥� middle movement and Arch pounding out shuddering dissonant bass notes in the opening 鈥淛agged Climb鈥� that reminded us of that scene in a scary movie just before the monster/zombie attacks.

Those themes bookend the work, which Higdon composed for violinist Jennifer Koh, reappearing in the finale 鈥淐limb Jagged.鈥� But the work鈥檚 biggest appeal was its contrasting moods and tempos including the lush American sound inspired by Aaron Copland in the achingly beautiful 鈥淣octurn鈥� and the breathless and technically explosive romp of 鈥淢aze Mechanical.鈥�

Wednesday鈥檚 performance of 鈥淪tring Poetic鈥� was a first for Tucson.

Arizona Friends of Chamber Music will wrap up its summer concert series on Aug. 27 with TSO principal harp , who will perform a work composed for him by the innovative young composer . The TSO performed one of her compositions in early 2024.

Meanwhile, Moeckel, who was the TSO concertmaster from 2002-08, returns to the orchestra as its artist in residence next season. He will perform Mozart鈥檚 Violin Concerto No. 5 to open the Masterworks chamber series Oct. 11-12 and return the following weekend for an Up Close recital.

Moeckel divides his time between Phoenix, where he spent 13 seasons as Phoenix Symphony鈥檚 concertmaster, and Flagstaff, where he teaches violin at Northern Arizona University.