Richardson Auditorium, Princeton. Parterre Left (Seat O-7, $72).
Program
Eine kleine Nachtmusik, K.525, by Mozart.
Double Concerto for Two Violins, BWV 1043, by J. S. Bach.
Delights and Dances by Michael Abels.
Symphony No. 35, "Haffner," K.385, by Mozart.
Quartet after performance of Abels' Delights and Dances.
Artists
Bach - Eric Wyrick, Francine Storck, violins.
Abels - Members of NJ Symphony: David Southorn, Ming Yang?, Elzbieta Weyman, Nayoung Baek.
The tagline for this concert is "Xian conducts Mozart." There were two Mozart pieces on the program, but half of the program was of non-Mozart music, a Bach piece, and a piece by Abels (b. 1962).
Both Mozart pieces were nicely done. Eine kleine Nachtmusik was first written for a 5-member string ensemble, but has since adapted for many different combinations of instruments. I still remember our children learning a piano 4-hands version of it when they were young. Adaptation for a string orchestra should be quite straightforward. To make the bassists happy, they could always double up the cello part, which they did.
The Haffner probably won't belong in Mozart's "Top Five" most popular symphonies. (In my casual search it missed the mark by one: it was the sixth most popular one. So my guess was right, albeit barely.) Per the Program Notes, it was very popular when it was published: partly because the more popular ones would be written later. One could listen to Mozart with one's right brain and simply enjoy the rush of crisp and delightful sounds washing over you, or with the left brain and analyze the composition for form and harmony. For this symphony one can do both, sometimes simultaneously, sometimes by individual passage.
Abels is best-known as the co-writer of an opera, and composer of film music. This was my first encounter with both the name and the music. As far as today's music goes, it was quite interesting, and quite pleasing to listen to also.
Per the composer (as described in the Program Notes, and paraphrased by me), the music starts "blues-like" and ends up "blue grassish." Along the way he threw in other elements such as jazz and Latin. Let's say I could tell blues and blue grass apart.
One composition technique he used was to start a melody in one quartet instrument and then either pass along the tune to the next instrument, or more instruments were added as the music progresses. The tunes were modern enough that one would never associate them as a round. And the music looked to be quite difficult, which all the quartet players did impressively well. The string orchestra was used mostly as an accompanying ensemble, so Zhang just stood there most of the time letting the quartet go by themselves. Towards the end, I did feel Abels overused this "relay technique" a bit, although to be fair it was only a handful of times (three?).
The Bach piece was a disappointment. There were moments of clarity, but I generally had trouble picking out the different contrapuntal lines. Being familiar with the music helps, but I usually have more success with Bach pieces that I am not familiar with.
Wikipedia (a short 2-paragraph entry) calls this one of Bach's most successful works, and the Program Annotator mentions that Bach was trying to write an "Italian Style" concerto (modeled after Vivaldi).
Wyrick and Storck performed Bach's Double Concerto.
The program concluded with Mozart's Haffner Symphony.
(I had a lot more observations right after the concert. By the time I started this blog entry about a week a later much of what I wanted to say has been forgotten. And it looks like I will be posting this entry on 6/7, a full three weeks later.)
Overall, it was an enjoyable concert. Since this was near the end of the school year, the streets of Princeton were busier than usual. I could find parking only in the garage, and restaurants were very busy. We ended up grabbing something light to eat at Starbucks.
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