State Theatre New Jersey, New Brunswick. Balcony (Seat A102, $49).
Program
Prelude to Act 1 of Lohengrin (1846-47) by Wagner (1813-1881).
Piano Concerto No. 2 in A Major (1839; final revision 1861) by Liszt (1811-1886).
The Ring Without Words (Ring Cycle composed 1848-74) by Wagner (arr. Maazel 1987).
As with the New York Philharmonic concert the day before, I was also looking forward to this concert. I heard the Ring without Words performed by the Hong Kong Philharmonic many years ago, conducted by Maazel when he visited the city, and I enjoyed it very much. I know one of Liszt’s piano concertos very well (turns out it was No. 1) and expected a lot of fireworks from Trpceski’s performance. Overall the concert was okay, and I especially enjoyed the Liszt concerto. Both Wagner pieces, however, wasn’t as thrilling as I expected. Not all of that could be attributed to the musicians; I wasn’t as prepared as I could be.
I didn’t remember the Lohengrin prelude very well, but I did recall it had a rather mystic aura to it. By that measure the orchestra didn’t come through.
It turns out I wasn’t familiar with Liszt’s second piano concerto. However, it’s structure is quite similar to the first in that it was played without pause, and several themes were used to tie the piece together. And it looked awfully difficult. I mentioned in the prior blog entry that Tiempo had to reach to get to the ends of the keyboard; Trpceski is tall, and he was able to get there without having to reach, and there were many occasions where he had to do so. It was an exhilarating ride, and thoroughly enjoyable. The markings of the movements are (I) Adagio sostenuto assai – Allegro agitato assai – Allegro moderato – Allegro decision; (II) Sempre allegro – Marziale, un poco meno allegro – Allegro animato; and (III) Stretto (motto accelerando).
Zhang looking on from the podium as Trcpceski acknowledged the audience’s applause.
He performed a simple Chopin Waltz as an encore, as a tribute to Zhang (its her birthday) and to the Orchestra. This is the second concert I heard him perform with the NJSO, I hope he comes back.
I had fond memories of the Ring Without Words performance I heard in Hong Kong, so was looking forward to it.
Zhang talked to the audience before the start of this piece, first thanking them for coming out in the snow (about 1” had fallen, although the roads were a bit messy), then talking about how Maazel was her mentor at the New York Philharmonic and when she learned this piece. Words well said.
The performance, however, left something to be desired. A large orchestra is needed (and they managed to find four Wagner Horn players), but precision suffered as a result. Some of the playing was simply sloppy.
I counted about 90 musicians for the Wagner Ring without Words performance. They managed to find four Wagner Tuba players.
I can probably provide a reasonably coherent synopsis of the four ring operas, yet I had trouble following the story along. Part of that was due to the Program Notes – for the Hong Kong performance, I mentioned how useful the notes then were – which seemed to skip over quite a few passages. Another possibility was perhaps some passages were edited out for tonight’s performance. It was 60 minutes long, I recorded the Hong Kong one as being close to 80 minutes, and a YouTube video (with Maazel conducting) clocks in at 75 minutes. I think it is important for one’s appreciation of the “drama” that one can follow the story, in that regard I think many missed out. An opportunity lost.
The New York Times review on the performance by Maazel and New York Philharmonic (about 10 years ago) says the applause lasted 10 minutes. While tonight’s wasn’t nearly as long, it was nonetheless longer than usual.
Tonight’s attendance was very low, which while disappointing wasn’t unexpected. Traffic was light on the roadway, and I found off-street parking a couple of blocks away.
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