At the conclusion of the concert.
Program
Prelude from Suite No. 2 in D Minor, BWV 1008 by J.S. Bach.
Valencia by Shaw.
God Docks at Death Harbor for Piano Quintet by Nagvi/arr. Corrigan.
Divertimento from The Fairy's Kiss (1949 version) by Stravinsky.
Suite from The Firebird (1919 revision) by Stravinsky
Artists
Bach Prelude - Jonathan Spitz.
Valencia Quartet - members from NJ Symphony
God Docks at Death Harbor Quintet - members from NJ Symphony, Pianist?
Nimbus Dance - Samuel Pott, artistic director and choreographer
The program for tonight's concert was quite unusual. For the first half there were three pieces that don't usually appear in an orchestral performance: a cello solo, a quartet, and a quintet. And dancers for the quintet.
As principal cello, Spitz is often called on to play solo passages, and I have always enjoyed them. He tackled the Bach Prelude well, producing a clean sound from the cello. The Program Notes describes the techniques Bach used in the composition of this piece, and points out chords for cellists are more difficult compared to the violinist. Of course neither instrument can produce more than two bowed note at the same time, so triple- and quadruple-stops are combinations of 1-2 or 2-2 notes played one after another. Certainly I didn't think these presented any difficulty for Spitz. However, getting the techniques right wasn't quite enough to make the performance exciting; I am probably biased as I watched a YouTube video with Yo-Yo Ma playing the piece earlier in the day.
Caroline Shaw wanted to use Valencia to describe the eponymous fruits (orange and grapefruit?). The techniques she used (per Program Notes again) were harmonics, glissandos, minimalism, and rhythmic games. One certainly can catch that (although I didn't hear a lot of glissandos). Indeed interesting sounds would come from the ensemble, but for much of that time it sounded like the instruments were being tuned, the double stops in the strings reinforcing the perception the strings were trying to get the fifths right. Minimalism evokes Glass (whom Shaw "channeled," whatever that means). Glass minimalism usually had a direction, but tonight I just thought the music was going around in circles. Despite what the Program Notes said, "relief" rather "witty" was the term that came to mind when the piece concluded. This was composed in 2012, before Shaw became well-known; and I must say her later music does try to go somewhere.
God Docks at Death Harbor was originally written in 2023 by the Pakistani-American composer Qasim Nagvi for an orchestra; it was arranged for a Piano Quintet by Ben Corrigan in 2025. Nagyi describes the piece as he "imagined an earth many years into the future where we (note: I assume he means humans) no longer exist ... the quiet and peacefulness of this planet without us, as it restores itself ... the piece is about our end, but not in an apocalyptic sense ... its tone is one of hope, for a planet that is getting a second chance in our absence." The music itself, per the Notes, "is a reverent, shimmering work, suffused with chimes, ... that grow more complex. A repeated bass line anchors the seamless flow of this atmospheric pieces." One can debate if what I transcribed makes any sense. For example, earth's beauty is defined by humans, so if humans don't exist, there is no subjective definition of what beauty should be. We don't use such adjectives, even for our neighbor Mars - it is what it is, no good, or bad, or lessons learned.
The music itself felt very much like Shaw's Valencia. Actually if the two had been played without a break I would have simply wondered why the piano was quiet for so long. Now the visuals were more interesting as dancers came on the stage as the music was played. To carry on the "humans disappear" theme, the first dance moves had a dancer walking out from a cloth screen with water images project on it; and it made me think of "Escape from the Planet of the Apes." The props were simple (this cloth screen and two wide ribbons), but the effects were mesmerizing. For the first couple of minutes, anyway. As the music droned on, the choreography droned on as well. What started as refreshing soon became repetitive. The Program Notes has the duration at 8 minutes; it felt much longer. (The photos I took were time-stamped at 8:39 pm, the previous piece's at 8:17 pm. And there was only a short break in between.)
The quartet performed Shaw's Valencia.
Nimbus Dance and the Piano Quintet. The gentleman in a suit is most likely Samuel Pott. Unfortunately the names of the instrumentalists are not listed. The person on the far right conducted the Naqvi piece - Gregory McDaniel?
The second half consisted of selections from two Stravinsky's ballets. A very familiar suite from The Firebird, and a selection from The Fairy's Kiss called a divertimento. As pointed out by the Program Annotator, Stravinsky is best known for his ballets, and his most popular ones (The Firebird, Petrushka, and The Rite of Spring) were written during the years 1910-1913, and Stravinsky lived for another 60 years.
The Fairy's Kiss is based on Andersen's Ice Maiden which many would call this a horror story. A Divertimento (usually associated with Mozart) is supposedly a light-hearted suite of movements composed to amuse. Why Stravinsky chose this description is beyond me. (In the Program Notes Stravinsky was quoted as providing a happy ending to the story.) The movements are: Sinfonia, Danses suisses, Scherze, and Pas de deux. Many of Tchaikovsky's lesser known melodies were referenced in the music; since I don't known Tchaikovsky's more obscure works, I didn't catch any of them, but could convince myself that it is so. Indeed the piece contains a lot more classical melodies than a typical Stravinsky composition.
After performing Stravinsky's The Fairy's Kiss.
As to The Firebird performance, my one-phrase summary would be "I enjoyed it." The dynamics of the piece concentrates the mind, and the nice melodies make it enjoyable. Yes, one can complain about the balance of the different sections, but they all played beautifully, even though at times I had to strain to hear them. The "1919" version consists of five movements, and lasts about 23 minutes. The movements are Introduction and Dance of the Firebird; Dance of the Princesses; Infernal Dance of King Kastchei; Berceuse; and Finale. The two performances at NJPAC were staged with Nimbus Dance, the asterisk on the Program tells the audience it won't appear in Red Bank. I am sure I didn't see this when I was looking at the website.
For the second half of the program, the "clean sound" comment again applied to today's performance. It is actually difficult to achieve with Stravinsky. Today's performance also had a sense of urgency and much musicality to it, which was lacking last week. Is it the music, or the conductor?
The principal bass was at her station today, and we ran into the organization's development VP during intermission.
Attendance, however, was not as good as last week's.
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