NJPAC, Newark, NJ. Grand Tier (Seat C101, $58).
At the conclusion of the concert.
Program
Arvo Part (b. 1935) Cantus in Memoriam of Benjamin Britten (1977)
William Grant Still (1895-1978) Symphony No. 1, "Afro-American Symphony" (1930/revised 1969)
Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 4 in F Minor, Op. 36
This was again a concert led by a former NJ Symphony music director. Jarvi led the orchestra during the years 2005-2009. His tenure was somewhat linked to the "Golden Age" string collection gifted by Herbert Axelrod; one can readily find details about this controversial chapter in NJ Symphony's history, so I won't go into details here.
Arvo Part is of Estonian descent, so is Jarvi. Indeed the only other concert led by Jarvi that I have seen (Mostly Mozart, August 2016) also had a piece by Part in the program. Today's piece was written in memory of Benjamin Britten, whom Part admires but had never met.
The online Program Notes contains the following description: A single chime opens Cantus, providing subtle color and a spiritual element. Pärt explores the sonorous beauty of the strings in different patterns of descending minor scales. The entrances grow progressively slower in their downward trajectory, creating layers of sound that coalesce on a low A-minor chord. Pärt’s thought-provoking music leaves us with a sense of bereavement that is also curiously peaceful. The "single chime" would evoke Britten's "Four Sea Interludes," especially the "Sunday morning" bells. There was that. And indeed the piece ended on this low A-minor chord, in the way described in the Notes. My reaction was, unfortunately, "why did it take so long?" And the piece lasted only six minutes.
My only prior exposure to William Grant Still was an online concert hosted by 92Y during the COVID pandemic. The annotator considers him an indispenssble figure in American classical music. The Afro-American Symphony is the composer's best known work, and is an excellent example of how Still incorporated jazz into musical forms associated with the European tradition. So says Laurie Shulman. That may be so, but I just couldn't shake that it sounded like jazz first and foremost. And there is nothing wrong with that, and do we need to really analyze how "European" the composition is?
The four movements were supposed to be performed without pause, but there were clearly pauses between movements, even if it was just to turn the page. (And it didn't matter.) Still offered the following titles to the movements: I. Longing: Moderato assai; II. Sorrow: Adagio; III. Humor: Animato; IV. Aspiration: Lento, con risoluzione. Jarvi performed the third movement as an encore.
The Arvo Part piece calls for a string orchestra and bells.
After the performance of Still's "Afro-American Symphony." In the Instrumentation there should be a banjo, we didn't see/hear it. We heard the harp clearly, though.
The concert is titled "Neeme Jarvi Conducts Tchaikovsky." There are quite a few entries in this blog about Tchaikovsky's Fourth Symphony, with the famous "fate" theme, and they are mostly positive. That would include a 2016 performance by NJSO (as it was called then) led by the then-new music director Zhang. Per that blog entry, I thought the piece was competently performed, but NJSO still had a way to go in that "there is this missing element of what the music was trying to say." This is about seven years later, and to my dismay the same comment still applies The orchestra was competent, the individual lines were clean and even enjoyable, but again there was no "storyline" to the performance.
I have heard this piece many times before, including from the Hong Kong Philharmonic and the Moscow State Symphony, and my remarks were generally more positive than this. If I were to find an excuse, I would blame that on my jet-lagged state. I do think, however, the NJS still needs that extra "something" to become a great orchestra.
This was an evening concert, with the typical (low) attendance for a regular NJS concert. A sports event also finished when we were done, so we had to drive through new parts of town to get home.
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