New Jersey Symphony. Xian Zhang – conductor; Ning Feng – violin. November 7, 2019.

Prudential Hall at NJPAC, Newark, NJ.  Orchestra (Seat J107, $25).

Program

Capriccio espangnol, Op. 34 (1887) by Rimsky-Korsakov (1844-1908).

La joie de la souffrance (The Joy of Suffering) for Violin and Orchestra (2016-17) by Chen (b. 1951).

Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso in A Minor, Op. 28 (1863) by Saint-Saens (1835-1921).

Suite No. 2 from El Sombrero de tres picos (The Three-Cornered Hat) (1916-19) by de Falla (1876-1946).

NJSO was offering deeply discounted tickets for this (and the next) concert, so I got tickets for both.  Anne couldn’t make this one, we plan on attending together the one in early December.

The title of the concert is “Spanish- and French-Inspired Showpieces.”  The connection may not be completely obvious for all the pieces on the program.  I will get to those connections in due course.  There probably is no need to further understand the program – it is one of crowd-pleasers, by-and-large.

Rimsky-Korsakov visited Spain only once, but all things Spanish were in vogue at the time he put this to music, which was around the time that he was doing the orchestration for Borodin’s Prince Igor.  Originally Rimsky-Korsakov set out to write a violin fantasy, but settled on this form instead.  That would explain why the concertmaster had to do so many solo passages, some rather challenging technically.  Wyrick managed that without any problems, but could sound quite a bit louder. The piece consists of five movements played without pause: Alborada (Morning Song); Variazioni (Variations); Alborada; Scena e canto Gitano (Scene and Gypsy Song); and Fandango asturiano (Asturian Fandango).  It was a lively performance, and enjoyable, even with the occasional imperfection.

As for the piece by Chen Qigang, the title certainly is French.  A victim of the Cultural Revolution, he didn’t get to start his music education until 1977, and in 1984 went to Paris to become a student of Messiaen (the last one, it turns out).  So it won’t be an exaggeration to say there is much French influence in his music.  There is also a heavy dosage of Chinese in this work.  The Program Notes talks about the use of the old Chinese melody “Yangguan Sandie,” although one could make the case the composition makes use of several other Chinese tunes (perhaps some were invented by Chen).

I jotted down these phrases during the performance: started Chinese enough; moved away after about five minutes; back to a Chinese tune again, this time with flourish; cadenza full of double-stops; slow section with violin and clarinet; at about 17 minutes melody shifts to orchestra; violin has a lot of flourishes; ends calm and quiet.  One thing about Feng’s playing: his intonation was great.

Ning Feng after performing Chen Qigang's Joy of Suffering.

Notice there was no reference about hearing any suffering in my notes, which is interesting as the power of suggestion usually works very effectively on me.  Compared to the Salonen piece Gemini I heard just the day before, Joy of Suffering was much easier to get.  (I realize this is comparing a violin concerto with work for a large orchestra, and Salonen also writes compelling concertos.)

After the intermission, Feng played Saint-Saens Introduction and Rondo.  He had this habit of stressing individual notes that detracted a bit from the otherwise crowd favorite.

Manuel de Falla was one of the composers that lifted the level of Spanish music; his own stated goal was to achieve a comparable legacy to what Grieg did for Norwegian music.  Tonight’s Suite consists of three different dances: The Neighbor’s Dance (Seguidillas); The Miller’s Dance (Farruca), and Final Dance (Jota).  They together constitute the major numbers in the ballet “Three-Cornered Hat.”  Here the power of suggestion was in force: one could definitely feel a strong Spanish component to the tunes.

Zhang and the Orchestra at the end of the concert.  They have a new Principal Bass by the name of Ha Young Jung.  The former principal passed away at the beginning of last season.

This was also a short concert, with the four pieces adding up to about 61 minutes of performance time.

I actually thought to myself this afternoon’s concert (it started at 1:30 pm) was as enjoyable as the one by NY Phil last night.  Perhaps it was not as intellectually stimulating, but sometimes that is a good thing.  Today's audience seemed very enthusiastic, and attendance was okay (still quite a few empty seats).

I took the train to Newark Penn station and NJPAC was about a 10-minute walk from the train station.  The walk to Newark Broad Street Station took me past some abandoned area – I was glad it was early afternoon, in full daylight – there I caught a train to Hoboken to meet up with Anne to go to a Met opera that evening.  That will be the subject of the next blog entry.