New Jersey Symphony. George Manahan, conductor; Awadagin Pratt, piano. November 20, 2022.

State Theatre New Jersey.  Balcony (Seat F101, $57).

Program

Symphony No. 38 in D Major, K. 504 "Prague" (1786) by Mozart (1756-1791).

Rounds for Piano and String Orchestra (2021-2022) by Montgomery (b. 1981).

Suite from Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme, Op. 60 by Strauss (1864-1949).

Program for the afternoon.  Lasted 1:45 hours, with intermission.

As part of its Centennial celebration, NJ Symphony has invited back its past conductors to lead several concerts.  I know Manahan from the days NYC Opera was still a functioning organization.  Turns out he was NJS's interim director for the years 1983-1985, before I began attending NJS concerts regularly.

The Prague symphony was written by Mozart when he was in Vienna.  The Prague audience at that time was a lot more receptive than Mozart's home town, so the Symphony was premiered there, and hence its name.  Symphonies No. 39-41 readily come to mind when one talks about Mozart, but the Prague can hold its own, with its many memorable melodies.  The Adagio opening of the first movement also stands out, with many comparing it to the dramatic opening of Don Giovanni.  If one searches the web for "Mozart's most popular symphonies," No. 38 is often in the top five or ten.  It's always a pleasure to listen to a familiar Mozart piece.

The symphony is also unusual in that it has only three movements: Adagio-Allegro, Andante, and Finale (Presto).

Mozart's Prague Symphony was the first on the program.

Jessie Montgomery must be one of the hottest composers nowadays.  Her work is programmed by many orchestras, national and regional.  A check of her website shows her work being performed by nine different organizations for November (admittedly one of the busier months).

Today's 14-minute work is quite accessible.  She asks the soloist and the orchestra to use some interesting techniques to produce different sounds.  A couple of interesting situations.  The pianist stands up and plugs the strings on the piano on one occasion.  On a couple of other occasions the violins play arpeggios as the background: think Mendelssohn violin concerto, but for the whole section.  The effect didn't quite work out in this instance.  There is a 4-minute cadenza that is partially improvised.

The Program Notes makes this a "brainy" piece.  It's based on T. S. Eliot's poem "Four Quarters," and is in Rondo form.  Today's soloist Pratt collaborated with Montgomery during the composition process.

This was my first encounter with Pratt, and he certainly got the job done.  A recipient of the prestigious Avery-Fisher grant, he has performed with many well-known ensembles.  This work was one of his seven commissions for either piano and string orchestra; or piano, string orchestra, and Roomful of Teeth (which also has as one of its members Caroline Shaw).

An enjoyable piece, but probably requires multiple listenings to appreciate many of the subleties, e.g., there is a rondo within a rondo!

Awadagin Pratt was masterful in the performance of Jessie Montgomery's work.

In the opera Ariadne auf Naxos is incorporated a play.  The original plan was a three-act play, which didn't work out.  A second attempt didn't work either.  Out of that music Strauss extracted nine movements and published them as a suite.  He also incorporated some work of the 17th century composer Jean-Baptiste Lully into the music.  That was 1920, and this suite supposedly became a 20th century classic.  This was my first encounter with it.

The titles of the movements are: Overture to Act I; Minuet; "The Fencing-Master;" "The Entrance and Dance of the Tailors;" "Lully's Minuet;" Courant; "Entrance of Cleonte, after Lully;" Prelude to Act II; and "The Dinner."

It was easy enough (most of the time) to trace the movements in the suite.  The Program Notes describes the piano part as being very difficult, which may well be true.  What the Notes doesn't say is that the Concertmaster also has quite a few difficult passages, bordering on virtuosic.  The suite is compared with the suite from Der Rosenkavalier, although there didn't seem to be as many melodies in the suite we heard today.  (Perhaps my unfamiliarity is a factor.)

Eric Wyrick had some difficult violin solos in Strauss's suite.  I was somewhat surprised at how small the ensemble was.  There were, for instance four violins.

I drove up to New Brunswick at about 1:45 pm, and got a 30% discount senior ticket.  The concert was poorly attended, which was unfortunate.

I am somewhat looking forward to the concerts conducted by former music directors.  The only two I know are Jacque Lacombe and Gemma New.  In the earlier communications Lacombe was scheduled to conduct Faure's Requiem, but he is no longer on the roster.  A report I saw said it is due to a schedule conflict, indeed he has a commitment in Greece.  But I do wonder if the story is a bit more complicated, as I understand these schedules are set years in advance.

New York Philharmonic. Hannu Lintu, conductor; Sergei Babayan & Daniil Trifonov, pianos. November 18, 2022.

David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center.  Orchestra (Seat BB105,  $49).

Program

Symphonies of Wind Instruments (1920; rev. 1945-47) by Stravinsky (1882-1971).

Concerto for Two Pianos, Percussion, and Orchestra, BB 121 (1937/40) by Bartok (1881-1945).

Ciel d'hiver (2013) by Kaija Saariaho (b. 1952).

Symphony No. 7 in C major, Op. 105 (1918-24) by Sibelius (1865-1957).

Percussionists: Christopher S. Lamb, Daniel Druckman, Markus Rhoten.

While I have heard of all the composers on today's program, all the pieces are new to me.  I looked for - not diligently - the New York Philharmonic Program Notes which are usually posted on line, but couldn't find them.  So I feverishly tried to read the Playbill that was handed out at the door.  They provided minimal help, as they talked mostly about the "context" of the pieces, rather than what the pieces were about.  There are a few exceptions, and I found those quite illuminating, but also felt like I was grasping at straws.  Perhaps the music is to be experienced, rather than described?  (Charitable statement to both myself and the commentators.)

Stravinsky wrote the first piece for wind players only.  The Program Notes describes Stravinsky as growing suspicious of how string instruments tend to get "expressive," and he wanted the piece to have an "uninflected sound."  He described the work as "tonal masses ... sculptured in marble ... to be regarded objectively by the ear."  The piece was dedicated to the memory of Debussy, the latter had dedicated a couple of his own compositions to Stravinsky.  Another interesting fact(oid) was that when Stravinsky created the version for today's performance, he had to use other people's "arrangements" of his original work; unusual, but how did it get that way?  I counted 22 musicians on stage for the piece.  New York Phil has always had a great brass and woodwind section.  I thought the NJ Symphony's brass section was comparably competent - Anne didn't think so.

22 players for the Stravinsky piece.

Perhaps it is not possible to talk about the Bartok piece without talking about his declining health at the time, and that he wanted to leave something for his surviving widow to earn money on.  There's always that tinge of sadness when Bartok's later works are discussed.  The piece didn't start that way, it was first written for two pianists and two percussionists, and enjoyed considerable success.  When Bartok was asked to revise the piece to its current form in 1940, he had already moved to the US, and was already suffering from leukemia.

With five soloists playing, and some of them playing multiple percussion instruments, the piece sounded quite complicated.  And the stage looked complicated, with two pianos, two pianists, two page turners, three percussionists and many percussion instruments (per Program Notes: timpani, xylophone, cymbals, suspended cymbal, snare drums played both with and without snares, tam-tam, triangle, and bass drum.)  For good measure a celesta was thrown in the mix.  I do suspect if the percussionists and their instruments were situated in their usual positions in the back, things would sound the same - and I say that with great admiration for the percussionists.

The stars are of course Trifonov and Babayan.  I know little about Babayan, other than he was Trifonov's teacher at some point, and that he is Armenian-American.  This was also the NY Phil debut for the Finnish conductor Hannu Lintu.  With van Zweden leaving in a couple of years, one wonders whether there is any audition elements whenever a new face appears.

The 25-minute piece was quite interesting. I couldn't see the pianists clearly, I could tell they were enjoying the give and take between themselves, with the percussion, and with the orchestra.  The three movements are (i) Assai lento - Allegro molto; (ii) Lento, ma non troppo; and (iii) Allegro non troppo.  Bartok was supposedly very analytical when he composed the music, with the work employing the strict mathematical ratios of the Golden Section and the related Fibonacci and Lucas sequences.  Not that I know what a Lucas sequence is, but I am sure there is no way I can tell.

The five soloists for Bartok: Rhoten, Lamb, Druckman, Trifonov and Babayan.  Notice how far back the concertmaster is.

This was my first in-person encounter with Saariaho.  I did watch (part of) her opera L'amour de lion on TV, performed by the Met, during the pandemic.  Today's Program Notes talks quite extensively about her musical style.  She had composed Orion in 2002, and today's piece (meaning Winter Sky) was arranged from that work's second movement, which has Orion the constellation stuck forever in the sky.  Orion is readily visible this time of the year, and I often look up the night sky to admire it.  I did that this evening, and yes, it is not good to be stuck in the sky for eternity (well, so far only a few billion years).  Betelgeuse, at about 550 light-years away is closest to earth, is a red giant that will "self-destruct" (that is, have a supernova explosion) in about 100,000 years.  So its eternity will eventually come to an end.

There is this E-flat - D - B theme that gets repeated in different ways.  Saariaho wrote different versions of it for different instruments after learning the different sounds from members of the Cleveland Orchestra. It is interesting to listen for that.  How that relates to Orion being frozen, however, is a mystery.

Compared to the three pieces that came before it, Sibelius's seventh symphony, his last, sounded downright simple.  At least the sounds are more traditional, dynamics go pretty much as expected.  The only novel element is that the 21-minute piece is one continuous movement with eleven different tempo markings.  Some analysts try to map them into traditional movements, and I am doing this for efficiency: (I) Adagio - (II) Vivacissimo - Adagio - (III) Allegro molto moderato - Allegro moderato - (IV) Vivace - Presto - Adagio - Largamente molto - ... with a coda consisting of Affettuoso - Tempo I.  In 1918 Sibelius did describe this work as "Joy of life and vitalite with appassionata passages in three movements - the last a 'Hellenic Rondo.'"  Although he allowed that things could change.  While I enjoyed the piece, I also spent considerable energy in trying to relate what I hear to what section I should be hearing, with little success.

The concert ended at 12:45 pm (time stamp for this photo).  This is the full orchestra, with perhaps 16 first violins, and it looks less crowded compared to the old hall - so perhaps there were some significant modifications made.  The music pieces total about 66 minutes, 10 minutes longer than the NJ Symphony Centennial celebration, yet today's concert felt a lot more substantial.

What's the characteristic of this blog entry?  It is quite long, and I might say quite informative as a lot is plagiarized from the Program Notes, yet it doesn't say much about the music itself, or how I experienced it.  Just what I said at the beginning.  This is somewhat like many of my visits to modern art exhibits.  I may have read up on the artists, maybe even a discussion of their work, but then I just walk through the exhibit hall without stopping to examine the displays.  I come out not knowing much more than when I got in, without an experiential appreciation (if there is such a thing) of the objects on display.

Just before the concert began the lights hanging over the stage were raised, reminiscent of what is done at the Met Opera.  Then the lights did a small dance number, which sent a chuckle through the audience.  This is my second visit to the renovated hall, and it felt more like someone just threw on a new coat of paint, with little change to the "bones" of the place.  The sound was okay, but then I didn't have too much trouble with the old hall either (other than complaining that there was no perfect seat in the auditorium).

Sometime in October NY Phil was advertising a 30% discount for subscriptions of three or more concerts, we took advantage of that offer.  We bought only three because of all the uncertainties around our schedule and travel to New York.  The price at the beginning of this blog entry?  Not a typo, and it includes a service charge of $6.  I am typing this paragraph on Saturday morning, and there are still scattered seats available for tonight's concert.  An orchestra seat in the last row (HH) costs $140+$21.50.  Again not a typo.  I just went back to review my credit card charge, it was $322 for six tickets.

We took the train in for this 11 am-start concert, and the trip was quite uneventful.

New Jersey Symphony and New Jersey Ballet. Xian Zhang, conductor; Yo-Yo Ma, cello. November 12, 2022.

NJPAC, Newark, NJ.  Grand Tier (Seat D104, $144).

Program

Herald, Holler and Hallelujah by Wynton Marsalis (b. 1961).

Cello Concerto in B Minor, Op. 104 by Dvorak.

Selections from Four Dances from Estancia by Alberto Ginastera.

100 years ago, 19 musicians started an ensemble in Montclair, which eventually evolved to the current orchestra.  While the 2022/2023 season started a few weeks ago, tonight's concert is the Centennial Gala of such an event.

The Program Notes states that the durations of the three pieces are 6, 40 and 11 minutes, totaling to less than one hour.  While the program didn't start at 7:30 pm, it didn't end until around 9 pm.  Several people spoke congratulatory messages, including Governor Phil Murphy.  I guess that's to be expected.  Not that people would remember much what was said, except perhaps Murphy and Ma knew each other from their college days.  (They both attended Harvard at about the same time, and Murphy evidently was an aspiring musician then.)

The Marsalis piece was co-commissioned by NJ Symphony and was first performed at NJPAC in January.  The Program Notes describes it as "exuberant and celebratory," and that it "floats in and out of marching band, big band, and jazz."  The ensemble consists (coincidentally?) of 19 brass and percussion players.

All good.  While I didn't get the range the Program Notes talks about, I certainly hear Gershwin, Copland, and lots of jazz in the piece.

There are several YouTube videos with Yo-Yo Ma playing the Dvorak concerto.  I saw (parts of) two of them, and they are both great.  My expectations were thus high.  And looking back, one of my previous encounters (two entries in the blog) was a great experience.  Alas, expectations were not met.  A major contribution to the disappointment has to be the acoustics at our seats.  The cello sounded distant, and therefore weak.  The other reason - perhaps - was Ma made this look easy, so there was less appreciation of the degree of difficulty involved.  I had written previously about the background, and the loss expressed in the last movement.  That came through in the recordings I viewed, but not tonight.

For those who think this writer is being too critical, let me say perhaps Ma doesn't have any bad days, but the listener may have a bad day every now and then.  Also, at Gilbert's farewell concert in June, 2017, with NY Phil, Ma joined the cello section after performing as a soloist, I didn't notice him in the orchestra today.

I don't understand how the third piece fits in with the program, especially since I have not noticed much cooperation between NJ Ballet and NJ Symphony in the past.  One could also ask why the Montclair choral ensemble wasn't included in today's celebration, as they have been cooperating with the Symphony for quite a while.

The Brass Section was in First Tier for the Marsalis piece.  The percussionists and the conductor were on the regular stage.

Before the performance of the Dvorak cello concerto.  When I checked earlier in the day, only a few tickets were left.  A typical NJ Symphony concert would have 40% or so empty seats in my experience.

Ma didn't bring out his cello after the performance, meaning there would be no encores.  He did try to whip up the audience to applaud the orchestra.

Ma made it a point to go to the cello section and shake hands with the players.

After the performance of Ginaster's dances.  Time stamp was 8:59 pm.

The other source of puzzlement is why only three of the four dances were included in the last piece.  Be that as it may, the music was accompanied by pairs of ballet dances who were either delivering a story, or simply dancing for dancing's sake.  The lady sitting a few seats away from us kept complaining (too loudly, at times) they should shine more light on the stage.  I agree with that sentiment.

Perhaps I am looking at it all wrong.  As a musical event this wasn't the best of my experiences with NJ Symphony.  One could argue for a celebration this fit the bill.  And the Symphony raised a lot of money from the event ($1M?). My counterargument then is if it's not about musical excellence, then what is it about?  One could go back and forth, but it was what it was.

We left right after the program ended, even though there were rumors of an encore.  Somehow I got the impression Parking Lot C (our usual place) was closed (turns out it wasn't), so we parked in this huge underground Military Park lot, and we didn't want to be stuck in traffic when we leave.  People were handing out these "commemorative" books, and I grabbed one.  It contains some interesting tidbits, including that once Ma, Ax, and Dudley Moore (!) performed with the Symphony.

100-year birthdays, no matter whose, don't come around that often.  I was glad to be at this one.