Wednesday, October 29, 2014

New Jersey Symphony – Jacques Lacombe, conductor; Gil Shaham, violin. October 25, 2014.

Count Basie Theatre, Red Bank, Orchestra (Seat M106, $44).

Program
William Tell Overture (1828-29) by Rossini (1792-1868).
Violin Concerto in E minor, Op. 64 (1844) by Mendelssohn (1809-1847).
Symphony in D Minor (1886-88) by Franck (1822-1890).

We got these tickets at Amazon Local.  Great seats for $44 each.  The program is a mix of a popular first half followed by a more serious second half.  I was looking towards it as Lacombe was the conductor; and he has always come through in the past.

While the title of William Tell is well-known, I actually don’t know the story, except Tell was forced to hit an apple sitting on top of his head with his bow and arrow.  I assume the good guys eventually prevailed.  Similarly, even though several of the tunes in the overture are quite well-known (especially the Lone Ranger theme,) I don’t even remember the last time I heard it live, or from a recording for that matter.

It was a delightful way to start the evening.  The overture was longer than I expected at over ten minutes, but it was an enjoyable ten minutes.  I am quite sure it is not a technically or musically very difficult piece, but there is nothing wrong with simply sitting back and enjoying the music.

I carry the same attitude with the Mendelssohn violin concerto.  A diligent musicologist or composer may be able to do a detailed analysis of its form, its significance, and how the work came into being.  But for me it is just a brilliantly written piece of music.  Difficult enough to show off a violinist’s skills, but not so difficult that it is beyond the reach of all but the most virtuoso players.

Given our proximity to the stage, everything sounded great.  Shaham’s violin produced a perfect sound.  He still moved about the stage quite a bit, infringing on the conductor’s and violinists’ space every now and then, but that was not distracting at all.  His technique was flawless, and he just had a great give and take with the orchestra.  He attacked the piece violently enough that I was wondering if the strings would hold up – they did.

Every now and then I got the feeling that this was just a day at the office for him, and there is nothing wrong with that.  He just had the piece down pat so the notes simply rolled from his fingers and the bowing simply came naturally.  These soloists do a few concertos a year, so I am sure this piece got its share of practice.

I know Franck mostly from his ensemble works.  Indeed he wrote only one symphony.  The Playbill notes is a bit unkind to this work, other than saying the second movement is the most successful, most of the commentary is devoted in how the symphony is structured.  The other oddity, so to speak, is that this is a three-movement work: Lento – Allegro non troppo; Allegretto; and Allegro non troppo.

Perhaps I was influenced by the Playbill’s writeup, I found it hard to follow where the music was going.  On top of that, this was an unexpectedly sloppy performance.  At 37 minutes it isn’t particularly long, and I had no problem sitting through it, but I had a lot of trouble following where the music is trying to go.  As I type this review a few days later, I don’t remember any of the themes used in the symphony.

Sometimes I don’t understand how people pick the music for a particular program. 

I was a bit worried that there would be many empty seats in the theater.  While there were some, the attendance was still respectable.  Sitting next to us was a father taking his son to his first concert.  They left after the intermission.


Today was a relatively busy Saturday.  Anne came down with some bug yesterday and wasn’t quite herself yet.  My day started with a drive to Hoboken where Ellie and Kuau ran in a 5K race, and I had to watch Reid for all of 40 or so minutes.  That turned out to be easier than expected as the kid was asleep the whole time.  I also had a church meeting to attend from 3 to 6 pm, after which I drove home and picked Anne up for the concert.

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