NJPAC, Newark, NJ. Orchestra (Seat E114, $68).
Jacobsen, Buchanan, Smith and Townsend at the conclusion of Faure's Requiem.
Program
Ravel (1875-1937) Le Tombeau de Couperin (1914-17, 1919)
George Walker (1922-2018) Lilacs for Voice and Orchestra (1995-1996)
Faure (1845-1924) Requiem in D Minor, Op. 48 (1887, rev. 1893 & 1900)
Artists
Tiffany Townsend, soprano; Reginald Smith Jr, baritone
Montclair State University Chorale, Heather J. Buchanan, director
I got tickets for this concert as Jacques Lacombe, NJ Symphony's music director before Zhang, was going to be conducting. After I got the tickets, I notice the conductor was changed to Lionel Bringuier (if memory serves). A web search said Lacombe would be conducting in Greece during this time. And when the concert date drew near Eric Jacobsen's became the conductor. While disappointed that I won't get to see Lacombe, I was okay.
And I enjoyed the program, even though all three pieces were on the dark and melancholic end of the emotion spectrum. Le Tombeau de Couperin was written with Ravel's friends who died in World War I in mind. Walker wrote Lilacs as an elegy to Abraham Lincoln after Lincoln's assassination. Despite taking out the Dies irae movement, a requiem is still about death.
Ravel's piece consists of four movements: Prelude, Forlane, Menuet, and Rigaudon. The last time I heard this was in 2019, also performed by the NJ Symphony. My reaction to the piece then was lukewarm, and I am glad to report that I enjoyed today's performance.
George Walker graduated high school at 14, and studied piano, strings, and composition at several well-known music schools. He was the first Black graduate of Curtis. He was commissioned by Boston Symphony Orchestra in 1995 to compose a work to honor Roland Hayes (1887-1977), a Black American who attained international fame. Walker was the first Black composer to win a Pulitzer Prize.
The lyrics are taken from four stanzas from Walt Whitman's "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Blooom'd." They start from a place of sorrow to a place of hope. Before each stanza was sung, it was read aloud on stage. That sensible act helped greatly with the atmosphere. The orchestra's sound was traditional enough, but the vocal lines were extremely atonal. I do wonder if the soloist Tiffany Townsend had to shout on top of her considerable lungs all the time. It helped that her voice remained pleasant even at volume.
Townsend and Jacobsen after Walker's Lilacs.
Donors get a number of tickets to attend the Intermission reception. I didn't bring ours with me, but they still let me in. Here is the free glass of sparkling water.
Faure's Requiem is different from the other well-known ones in that it is the most "gentle" of the lot. The hellish "dies irae" is omitted altogether, and most of the passages are on the "peaceful" end of the spectrum. I was first exposed to it while in college, and have appreciated it since. It is not as frequently performed as the other requiems.
Today's performance was good. Townsend's singing was more in line with the tone of the piece, and Smith also did well. The piece lasted about 30 minutes, so the soloists didn't have extended passages.
Montclair State Chorale generally does well, and today was no exception. I was somewhat surprised by the noticeable sloppiness at some points. Whenever a Montclair State ensemble performs I wonder why Heather Buchanan doesn't conduct some of the concerts. Today was no exception.
One could say today's pieces were all on the "sad" side. I walked away calm, not depressed, and was glad to have this as an antidote to what I heard the day before.
