NJPAC, Newark, NJ. Orchestra (Seat B104, $73).
Joshua Bell acknowledging the audience's applause after a brilliant Mendelssohn Violin Concerto performance.
Program
Overture to A Midsummer Night's Dream, Op. 21 by Mendelssohn.
Violin Concerto in E Minor, Op. 64 by Mendelssohn.
(Original cadenza by Joshua Bell)
Symphony No. 4 in B-flat Major, Op. 60 by Beethoven.
It isn't an understatement to say "Joshua Bell leads the NJ Symphony," as claimed in the title of the program. For the three pieces in the program Bell was the conductor/concertmaster, he was the soloist(naturally)/conductor for the concerto, and he was the conductor for the symphony.
This is one of the best attendance I have seen at a NJ Symphony concert (except for Messiah which take place in much smaller halls), and I am sure the draw for most of the "non-regulars" was Bell, and the concerto he was to perform.
The program annotator (Laurie Shulman) has many words to describe the concerto: mature, virtuosic, pleasant, splendidly successful, and so on. All true. However, many commentators also consider this a "light-weight" intellectual piece that's not much more than a technical tour-de-force and a crowd pleaser. Whenever I listen to the concerto, however, I cast all that away and just sit there admiring the composer's genius, and the violinist ability to pull it off. Shulman's notes describes how Mendelssohn consulted Ferdinand David in writing the concerto.
Of the four classical war-horse violin concertos I can think of, Mendelssohn's probably is the easiest technically. (The others are Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, and Brahms; people may have different lists.) Nonetheless, Bell made the piece sound absolutely beautiful. The solo violin comes in after a couple of introductory measures, and the Stradivarius simply sounded smooth, clear and brilliant (not an easy combination). He was very much in his element. Perhaps just a day in the office for him, but what a day. The cadenza he composed had a degree of similarity with Mendelsohn's original and sounded it could have been composed by Mendelssohn himself.
During the breaks in the solo violin line, Bell would conduct by swinging his bow with considerable gusto, so much so that I was afraid the bow might hit a stand and break. He has a similar role with the Academy of St Martin in the Field, I wonder if a conducting career is in his future.
Mendelssohn's genius is often compared with that of Mozart's, both were prolific composers early in their sadly short lives. The overture (simply called a Concert Overture then) was composed in 1826 when he was 17, and was incorporated into the incidental music composed in 1842 for the actual play. For this Wyrick "yielded" his seat to Bell. (Wyrick did return for the rest of the concert.)
One usually expects a lot of "anger" (angst, as used by Shulman, probably is more appropriate) when Beethoven's work is played. The fourth symphony is different. My appreciation of the work was greatly enhanced by Shulman's notes. However, it was also limited by my not having studied the work in advance. Thus the overall effect was pleasant music punctuated by vignettes I can make out. I would argue a great performance would bring a narrative to the audience, and today's performance was not at that level.
Bell led the NJ Symphony as conductor and concertmaster for the Overture by Mendelssohn. He uses a piano bench.
Bell greeting Wyrick at the conclusion of the concert. Bell did only the conducting.
The NJPAC staff, while friendly, did not handle the large crowd well. Perhaps the issue was more with the administration. The auditorium's narrow aisles and few doors mean it take a long time to get a large crowd seated. As far as I could tell, the audience was let in about 15 minutes before the 1:30 pm start time. Bell came out a few minutes after 1:30, got the orchestra ready, made a few remarks (e.g., good to have so many people show up, which is true), and then decided to leave and come back out when the audience had settled down. The concert didn't start until 1:45 pm (or a couple of minutes later). That was completely avoidable, as I am sure NJPAC had seen full houses before, even for NJ Symphony concerts.
The program was relatively short, so the concert ended at around 3:30 pm.
No comments:
Post a Comment