New Jersey Symphony. Xian Zhang – conductor; George Li – piano. December 7, 2019.

State Theatre, New Brunswick, NJ.  Rear Orchestra (Seat T107, $25).

Program

Within Her Arms for String Ensemble (2008-09) by Clyne (b. 1980).

Piano Concerto No. 3 in D Minor, Op. 30 (1909) by Rachmaninoff (1873-1943).

Symphony No. 8 in G Major, Op. 88 (1889) by Dvorak (1841-1904).

Just as the New York Philharmonic program a few days ago, tonight’s program consists of two concert war horses, and the audience also gets to listen to a piece by a young composer.  On paper there is a lot going for it.  Again, the bottom line: it was an enjoyable concert, but George Li is no Daniil Trifonov, and the NJSO is not the NY Phil.  I am sure NY Phil and NJ Symphony do not coordinate their programs, but we also got to contrast Scriabin with Rachmaninoff, and Dvorak with Tchaikovsky.

First the piece by Anne Clyne, a London-born composer who now lives in New York City. One of her teachers is Julia Wolfe, whose “Fire in my mouth” we heard at the beginning of the year (guess what, performed by the NY Phil).  Per the Program, Clyne’s piece is “a reverie for strings delivering a posthumous love letter to her mother.” Three players were used in each of the instruments, for a total of 15.  Many sections got divided up, resulting in a lot more parts.  I was struggling with words and phrases to describe tonight’s piece – minimalist, surreal, monotonous were words that came to mind – and then I read my blog entry for Wolfe’s piece, and realized to my amusement it would fit Clyne.  Either I am very simple-minded, or Clyne follows the Wolfe tradition.  One thing I didn’t hear was sadness, perhaps intentional as the last line of the poem quoted in the Program is “The message of love and understanding has indeed come.”

 A small string orchestra was used in Anna Clyne's Within Her Arms.

I would take any of Rachmaninoff’s piano concertos (and the Variation) over Scriabin any day, so I was happy to see the piece on tonight’s program.  Both Anne and I were sure we had heard Li play before, but tonight was our first time.  Regardless, if prizes and honors are any indication, he sure is an up and coming young (age 24) pianist.

The 39-minute piece consists of three movements: Allegro ma non tanto, Intermezzo, and Finale. 

The New York Herald (way back in 1910) said the following about the concerto: its great length and extreme difficulties bar it from performance by any but pianists of exceptional powers.  Li certainly qualified on the “powers” dimension.  A large orchestra (for this organization anyway) was used, and the piano was up to the task.  Our seat in the rear was close enough to see how fast his fingers had to move, and how hard he had to hit the keyboard.  To Li’s credit, I didn’t worry about him keeping up, a remark I made about Trifonov when I first heard him perform.  However, I felt exhausted at the end of the performance, which isn’t necessarily a complimentary remark.  One would rather have a “wow, what a performance” rather than a “whew, I am relieved its over” reaction.  The concerto may be called “The Mount Everest of Piano Concertos,” but it isn’t actually that mountain.  (Enough clichés.)

George Li and Xian Zhang acknowledging the audience.  Li played a short encore.

Li was mobbed by a crowd at half-time, so I caught only glimpses of him which indicated a small-statured young man.  Didn’t get to see if he had exceptionally large hands tough.

Dvorak’s Eighth either comes across as great or dull in most of my prior encounters.  Tonight it didn’t rise up to the “great” level, but definitely not “dull.”  The performance was coherent enough that it wasn’t just melodies strung together.

After Dvorak's Eighth Symphony.

One other comparison that can be made is Zhang and van Zweden.  Both are of the exaggerated movements category, although van Zweden crouches and twists a bit more.  It is probably fairer to compare HK Phil (rather than NY Phil) under van Zweden with NJ Symphony under Zhang.  In that case I feels the two organizations are about equal in competence.  As to how the Dec 3 concert compares with this one, the NY Phil one wins by a nose, at least for someone only looking for easy-listening.

We had to leave a church fellowship early to make this concert and thus missed out on Don’s talk.  I am happy to report that tonight’s attendance was quite good, probably because many tickets were deeply discounted.