New Jersey Symphony Orchestra – Xian Zhang, conductor; Lukas Vondracek, piano; Garth Greenup, trumpet. March 25, 2017.

Prudential Hall at NJPAC.  Orchestra (Seat S104, $40).

Program

Symphony No. 1 in D Major (1916-17), “Classical,” Op. 25 by Prokofiev (1891-1953).

Piano Concerto No. 1 in C Minor, Op. 35 (1933) by Shostakovich (1906-1975).

Symphony No. 7 in A Major, Op. 92 (1811-12) by Beethoven (1770-1827).

The concert was billed as “Zhang Conducts Beethoven 7,” which does not do the program justice.  However, it was the reason that I bought tickets to this event – more on that later.

The good news is today’s concert was quite well attended.  And the program is repeated four times (this is the third performance.)  The better news is the musicians performed superbly, and for that they got well-deserved applause from the audience.

The Prokofiev symphony is on one of the few CDs we have in our Subaru, so we have listened to it multiple times, especially on stretches of highway with no reliable radio reception.  It was called “Classical” as the composer’s intention was to write a symphony “such as Haydn might have composed had he lived in the 20^th century.”  I am not sure the statement stands any deep scrutiny, or Prokofiev was a deconstructionist way before his time.  In Haydn’s days, music can be analyzed as melody, rhythm, harmony, tempo, dynamics, and other attributes.  I wonder if Prokofiev did compose this based on variations of Haydn’s style, if there is such a thing.  The short symphony is shorter than 15 minutes, and consists of Allegro con brio, Larghetto, Gavotte: Non troppo allegro, and Finale: Molto vivace.  It was a delightful start for the evening.

Shostakovich’s first piano concerto started life as a trumpet concerto, and is also unusual in that the orchestra is all-string.  While billed as a piano concerto, the trumpet sits up front and carries on a dialog with and commentary on the piano.  Trying to catch how the two solo instruments interact was a fun part of the experience.  It is also relatively short at 22 minutes, with four movements: Allegro moderato; Lento; Moderato and Allegro con brio.  The last three movements seemed to have been played without pause, with the third movement best considered as a transitory passage between the second and fourth movements.  Indeed, looking at the NYP archives, “attacca” is at the end of both the second and fourth movements.  The complete third movement is three pages long.

The Czech pianist Vondracek put in a delightful performance; this was the first time we heard him. I thought the trumpet could sound louder, sometimes you just heard this weak echo in the background.  It should have been more of a conversation.  For whatever reason, two trumpets were used.  (Different ranges and different sounds, most likely.)

Greenup and Vondracek at curtain call.

We bought the tickets to this concert after we heard the performance by New York Philharmonic about a month ago.  I was interested in how NJSO and NYP would compare.  Also one was conducted by Blomstedt (very energetic for an 89-year old), and this by Zhang (very energetic for any age.)  I came away giving an edge to NJSO, to my surprise.  A big factor is how the slow movement was played.  I really like the mix of somberness and sadness reflected in tonight’s place.  Anne thought it was slower than she wanted, yet she also gave the nod to NJSO.  A serious music critic may look at other factors; we only care how the performance appealed to us.

Even in my jetlagged state, I had little problem with staying away during the concert.  Perhaps that is an even better indication of my experience.