Prudential Hall
at NJPAC. Orchestra (Grand Tier Seat E5,
$36.)
Program
Overture to The Creatures of Prometheus, Op. 43 (1800-01)
by Beethoven (1770-1827).
Concerto No. 5
in E-flat Major for Piano and Orchestra, Op. 73 (1809) by Beethoven.
Symphonie
fantastique, Op 14 (1830) by Berlioz (1803-1869).
This was an
unplanned concert. Anne had commitments
at church for the evening, so I found myself with some free time on my
hands. There were scattered seats
available when I bought the ticket at around 3 pm. Indeed today’s attendance was one of the best
I have seen for the NJSO – certainly a good start for the season.
Being the season
opener, there was a reception at the NJPAC lobby beforehand, so the concert
started a bit late. The 5-minute
overture allowed a further buffer in case people lingered a bit too long at the
reception.
The Creatures of
Prometheus was Beethoven’s only ballet composition. While popular during its early years, it is
now known mostly for its overture and finale.
Today was the first time I heard it.
It helped to settle the audience, and served as a good warm-up for the
orchestra. I am still bothered by the
reviewer’s comment that last year’s opener lacked imagination. In that regard it would have been better to
substitute a more contemporary piece. If
that had been done, tonight’s program would have been a grander open than that
of The Philadelphia Orchestra.
We saw Jeremy
Denk at the Mostly Mozart Festival a couple of years ago, playing a Mozart
concerto. He certainly has garnered
quite a few awards (including MacArthur and Avery Fisher), so I wonder why he
is not heard as often as some of the other pianists.
It was an
enjoyable performance. My seat, in the
last row of the orchestra section, had reasonable dynamics and a good view of
the soloist. The sound came over clearly,
and the concerto sounded majestic as it should.
Except for a couple of passages, the balance was great between the
soloist and the orchestra.
He played a simple encore. In the vein of not being able to tell good from bad, I thought I could do equally well.
Whenever I get
to listen to Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique, I express my appreciation of this
pre-concert talk I attended many years ago that explained to me how the “idee
fixe” and “dies irae” themes were used in the composition. With that as background I get even more from
each additional reasoning. Tonight was
no exception; it was enjoyable imagining the story told by each of the
movements. The last movement describes
Berlioz in a crazed state, with demons and witches gathering for the death
scene. I joked with my neighbor that
calling the performance grotesque was actually a compliment.
The orchestra had
many extras for this piece. There were
four timpanists (two sets of drums,) four bassoons, two tubas, and two harps. I also notice Stephen Fang, who used to be
associate principal cello, is no longer on the roster. He was on leave last season.
After performance of Berlioz.
While the
performance was generally good, there were some stretches where I wasn’t sure
where it was going. That is only so because
my expectations were extremely high.
To my surprise,
the orchestra started the whole evening with the National Anthem. I wonder if that is a new thing, or just
something that happens at the beginning of the season. We’ll find out next Saturday when I will
attend a concert in Red Bank.
I was glad to
have gone. I wore a polo shirt, jeans,
and sneakers. And I didn’t feel out of
place at all.
Being in the
last row also allowed me to get back to the parking lot very quickly, before a
line formed to exit the facility.
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