New Jersey Symphony Orchestra – Xian Zhang, conductor; Eric Wyrick, violin; Jonathan Spitz, cello. May 2, 2015.

Prudential Hall at NJPAC, Newark.  Orchestra Tier G (Seat B106, $37.)

Program

Concerto in A Minor for Violin and Cello, Op. 102 (1887) by Brahms (1833-1897).

Serenade for Winds in E-flat Major, Op. 7 (1881) by R. Strauss (1864-1949).

Symphony No. 39 in E-flat Major, K. 543 (1788) by Mozart (1756-1791).

The one time we saw Zhang conduct was in November 2007, during her tenure as New York Philharmonic’s associate conductor.  She left New York Philharmonic around the time Alan Gilbert took over from Lorin Maazel (perhaps the two events are related,) and I have not kept up with her career since.  Per the Program Notes, she has been the music director of Orchestra Sinfonica di Milan Giuseppe Verdi since 2009.  She is billed as an NJSO “favorite” in the publicity literature of the organization.

In any case, I remember I liked that 2007 concert, so that must have been one of the reasons I bought tonight’s tickets.  That the tickets were offered at 50% discount also helped.  Indeed we got very good seats for the price we paid.

I have some, but not a lot of, familiarity with the Brahms double concerto.  Wyrick and Spitz are the concertmaster and principal cello of NJSO respectively, and it is good that they got a chance to be the headline soloists (co-soloists?).  The two gentlemen gave a competent performance.  Balance with each other and the orchestra was good; the sound was good; intonation was near perfect; the technically challenging passages were handled well; and the orchestra played with precision, coming into the foreground and receding into a support role deftly.  What the performance lacked was the level of excitement Brahms usually generates (I am thinking of his concertos, symphonies, and sonatas.)

The three movements are Allegro, Andante, and Vivace non troppo.  It is interesting to note that this was Brahms’ last orchestral work.

Perhaps some of the flatness can be blamed on the concert hall.  It is huge, and not with the greatest of acoustics.  A few years ago we visited Tonhalle in Zurich, which seats perhaps 1500 people (compared to 2800 here), and has excellent acoustics.  Why do I mention that again?  Brahms was the one who led the first concert in Tonhalle when it opened in 1895, so perhaps he wrote music that works best in a more intimate venue?  Of course his other works can sound great in these large modern concert halls also.  [How’s that for taking many sides of the same issue?]

After the break, Zhang took up the microphone to talk briefly about the Strauss piece.  He wrote that at age 17 (no typo).  Although Strauss was a violin player, his father Franz played the horn, and was very good at it.  That may explain why at that young age he knew enough about the different wind instruments to make the best use out of them.  Zhang mentioned that the middle section has four horns playing a chorale, accompanied by the bassoon, and asked the audience to envision the pride Franz must have felt when he either read or played the music.  It was a nice short piece (11 minutes) and could also serve to introduce the different wind instruments to someone new to classical music (echoes of Young Person’s Guide still in my head, evidently.)  I am still not sure if the French horn is woodwind or brass, or both.

The problem with raising expectations is it makes those expectations difficult to fulfill.  We were listening for this horn chorale intently, and cringed when we heard it as the instruments sounded unsteady.  Perhaps it is the difficult nature of the passage, perhaps the players were nervous, or perhaps we expected perfection; whatever the cause, it was a bit of a letdown.  To be fair, the passage actually sounded fine generally.

Mozart’s 39^th symphony is the first of his last trilogy of symphonies, autographed within a span of six weeks.  Even though the Program Notes calls this the “forgotten member” of the trilogy, it is familiar enough.  In this case Zhang led a joyful and brilliant rendition of a delightful composition, having a lot of fun herself in the process, no doubt.  The audience thoroughly enjoyed it, if the applause afterwards was any indication.  I certainly did.

The 25 minute symphony has four movements: Adagio-Allegro, Andante con moto; Menuetto: Allegretto, and Allegro.

I remember Zhang as very energetic in the 2007 performance, jumping all over the podium.  Tonight she was also quite energetic, but managed to stay on the podium most of the time.  While she is no doubt a competent conductor, I wonder if she will get an opportunity to have a breakthrough and get into the company of great masters.