Even though the Saturday, January 28, 2017 concert tonight doesn’t begin until 8 pm, we arrive at 7 pm, and are surprised to see lots of other early birds making their way through to the lobby of the State Theatre in New Brunswick, NJ. Everyone looks to be in excited anticipation of tonight’s event featuring the world-famous conductor and violinist Pinchas Zukerman and the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra.
As we step inside, we stop at a table located in the theater’s vestibule manned by staffers of the NJSO. Here, we take a moment to chat with Cathy and Victoria — two friendly and knowledgable NSJO representatives who give us information about tonight’s concert. They also provide us with brochures featuring intriguing upcoming NJSO programs including screenings of the blockbuster film, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, with live orchestral accompaniment, in addition to a quartet of exciting performances starring conductor Xian Zhang leading Rachmaninoff’s Second Piano Concerto. We’re told that following one of the presentations of this program, music lovers of all ages will be invited to dust off their own personal instruments and perform them live in the lobby of NJPAC in Newark with members of the New Jersey Symphony!
Named “a vital, artistically significant musical organization” by The Wall Street Journal, the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra presents a series of acclaimed classical, pops, and family performances throughout New Jersey every year. The resident orchestra of NJPAC in Newark, the NJSO also regularly performs at such venues as The State Theatre in New Brunswick, the Count Basie Theatre in Red Bank, Richardson Auditorium in Princeton, the Mayo Performing Arts Center in Morristown, and the Bergen Performing Arts Center in Englewood.
Moreover, each year, the NJSO presents its annual Winter Festival, a mini-season of concerts designed to lift the spirits of concertgoers following the winter holidays. For its 2017 season, the group decided to feature violinist extraordinaire and conductor Pinchas Zukerman as artistic director for a series of three concert weekends at a variety of locations throughout the state.
Says Zukerman about his work with the group, “Throughout my association with the NJSO, I’ve always been impressed by the Orchestra’s mission and commitment to bringing music to its audiences wherever they reside. This is unique among symphony orchestras, which typically require audiences to come to them.”
Moreover, with regards to the Winter Festival concept adopted by the group, Zukerman says, “ I also applaud the festival concept that the NJSO creates each January. This concise three-week period provides an opportunity to feature the great works of the repertoire and allows the music that we have selected to serve as a conversation between me, the Orchestra, and our audiences.”
Regarding Zukerman’s artistry, The Herald (Glasgow) has written: “You could have blindfolded an experienced listener, put him in a different room where he could scarcely hear the sounds, and he’d still recognize that liquid, Zukerman tone. There is no other like it … His sound is utterly inimitable — as it has been for more than 30 years — from its intense sweetness on high to its throaty richness at the depths of the instrument … And the molten gold that streams from the instrument is completely breathtaking.”
Pinchas Zukerman was born in Tel Aviv in 1948 and came to New York City in 1962 to study at The Julliard School. Since then, he’s gone on to become one of the leading violinists of our time, as well as a world-renowned conductor and esteemed faculty member of the Manhattan School of Music. His extensive collection of recordings includes over 100 titles, earning him two Grammy awards and 21 Grammy nominations. He has also been awarded the National Medal of Arts, the highest award given to artists as presented by the President of the United States, in addition to the Isaac Stern Award for Artistic Excellence, a National Arts Award, presented by Americans for the Arts.
Tonight, Zukerman and the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra conclude their three-week-long Winter Festival series of concert performances with a program entitled Zukerman Performs Bach.
As we wait in the lobby for the theater doors to open, we meet Emily from Sparta, NJ and Avery from Jacksonville, FL — both of whom are music majors at Rutgers University in New Brunswick. Emily is a violinist who tells us, “I’m looking forward to hearing Mr. Zukerman” in order to witness his “technique, live” and to see “how,” as she explains, “his personality matches his skills.”
Avery is a former trumpet player who switched over to the euphonium (imagine a smaller, higher-sounding tuba). Avery tells us he took advantage of the NJSO’s “$10 Student Ticket program” in order to attend tonight’s performance. With this program, students with IDs come to the box office 90 minutes before any presentation and, if there are seats available, they can purchase them for only $10.
Emily, however, tells us that earlier in the season, she acquired her own Star Ledger/NJ.com “Class Pass” which gives students like herself an opportunity to see as many NJSO concerts as they would like in any given season for one amazingly low price of $25.
As we make our way into the auditorium to find our seats, we notice some friendly audience members waving “hi” to the musicians who are already warming up on the stage. We can’t help but smile when we see a young boy excitedly wave to a violinist on stage who, then, reciprocates with a wave of his own and poses for a photo as the boy’s beaming mother snaps a picture of the pair on her cellphone.
We also observe that — even though the concert hasn’t yet begun — the concentration on these musicians’ faces is quite apparent as they appear to tune out all of the extraneous stimuli around them and practice their parts. Warming up their instruments and fingers, we marvel at all the string players as they glide their bows over rosined strings with elegant precision.
As audience members continue to stream in, we see friends greeting one another as they take their seats. Patrons pore over their program notes, presented by the NJSO with the goal of helping concertgoers to better understand the time, history, and insight of the composers who wrote these renowned works that thrive generation after generation.
The lights dim and NJSO violinist Joanna Farrer takes the stage. Farrer tells a story about how, at the age of six, she had an opportunity to meet Pinchas Zukerman and, eventually, take lessons from him. She talks from the heart about the nervousness and excitement she felt when, at the age of 14, she was invited to play second violin at Carnegie Hall along with such world-famous musicians as Itzhak Perlman on first violin and, yes, Pinchas Zukerman on viola.
Emphasizing Zukerman’s lifelong commitment to education, Farrer tells about the New Jersey State Orchestra’s mission to cultivate the next generation of musicians via a wide range of music education activities, notably one in which graduate level music students are invited to audition and, upon being selected, have an opportunity to practice with the group, and, later, join them on the concert stage to perform. The audience is pleased to learn that four of these students have been invited to play in the second half of tonight’s musical presentation!
Soon, the concertmaster makes his way onto the stage and tunes the orchestra. Then, all members all rise as Maestro Pinchas Zukerman takes the stage.
Picking up his violin, Zukerman and the NJSO begin to play Johann Sebastian Bach’s “Violin Concerto №2 in E Major.” A companion piece to Bach’s well-known “A-minor Violin Concerto,” experts estimate the composition was created between 1717 and 1723, although some suggest it may have been later. Technical challenges in both concertos provide evidence of Bach’s own personal mastery of the violin.
In the first movement of this 19-minute piece, the “Allegro,” Zukerman’s nimble fingers dance across his violin’s fingerboard; simultaneously, with fluid bowing, his right arm seems to float as his bow caresses the strings. The sound he produces rises in glorious strains of melody supported by the precision accompaniment of the orchestra — violins, violas, cellos, basses, and harpsichord.
In the second movement, “Adagio,” Zukerman and the Orchestra create a mood of reverence, the Maestro’s violin singing sweetly and completely. In this movement, each moment is as important as the next in creating a magnificent dance of solo and orchestra, the sound of the violin swirling above, under, and around — at times, bounding off and taking off in a new direction, always floating ever so gently like an angel gracefully hovering in the air.
The third movement, “Allegro assai,” is bouncy and happy, the melody gaily winding up and down to create a joyous sound. Bracing for the most difficult of Bach’s virtuosic passages — featuring an amalgamation of rapid triplets and 32nd notes — the audience witnesses the determination and concentration on Mr. Zukerman’s face as he masters the piece much to their extreme delight.
After great applause, the harpsichord is removed from the stage and a podium added. Zukerman reenters the stage, this time as conductor of the the Orchestra’s next piece, the 1943 version of Arnold Schoenberg’s Verklarte Nacht (Transfigured Night). The work was inspired by a Richard Dehmel poem which describes a conversation between a man and a woman walking together in a moonlit forest. As they travel, the woman reveals to her lover that she is carrying another man’s child — one conceived not in love, but, rather, because she desperately wanted to experience motherhood. In the poem, her lover responds by assuring her that their true love will “transfigure” the child, making it a symbol of their union.
The introduction to the piece is slow and forboding, the mournful sound of violins and violas together creating the somber mood which surrounds the poem. As Zukerman conducts, the sound in the concert hall seems to grow as the music continuously crescendos and decrescendos. Ascending, the music reaches new heights as the strings appear to climb straight through to the rafters while the basses reach down deep into the earth.
With a wave of his hand, at times, the Maestro’s slightest movement seems to alter the sound distinctly. As the piece unfolds, the mood is ever changing — never stagnant — as the music sweeps and swells, rises and free-falls, flies and floats, before ultimately coming to its satisfying conclusion.
Beaming, Mr. Zukerman takes a bow, and then has each section of the group rise to bask in the warmth of the audience’s generous applause.
Following a short intermission where audience members are given an opportunity to make their way down to the front of the concert hall and ask questions of select members of the NJSO, Maestro Zukerman and the Orchestra return to the stage perform the Ludwig Van Beethoven jewel, “Symphony №3. Eroica.”
Originally dedicated to Napoleon — a man Beethoven considered a hero until he declared himself Emperor of France — Beethoven is said to have torn the title page of his symphony into pieces, later renaming it “Eroica,” which means “heroic.”
At 47 minutes in duraton, when it was completed in 1803, the piece was the longest symphony ever created.
Opening with two fortissimo chords played with a big, full, resonant sound, the NJSO performs this classic with acute attention to dynamics, rhythmic accuracy, and spirited interplay between the sections of the orchestra.
Thanks to the State Theatre’s excellent natural acoustics, the Orchestra’s rich sound is accurately carried throughout the auditorium, the music washing over audience members in waves of feeling. Some have their eyes glued to the stage as the orchestra plays. Others have their eyes closed as their heads nod to the music. One woman has even placed her head on her partner’s shoulder as she listens.
From the powerful “Allegro con brio” to the “Marcia funebre: Adagio assai” and on to the “Scherzo,” what one notices most about this performance is fluidity. Whether the violins are featured in a delicate section, the horns are excitedly buzzing, or if there is vigorous reciprocation between the strings and horns, there is a uniform sense of cohesion here as visualized and realized by Mr. Zukerman.
As the the piece advances, Zukerman leads the orchestra through twists and turns, anticipating what he knows the audience needs to hear, cueing the musicians with everything from a hand gesture to his entire body to evoke his interpretation of the composition. At times, as he conducts, his hands can be seen down as low as his knees! Other times, he rocks side to side to communicate his vision of this powerful work. In still other moments, Zukerman appears to be animatedly dueling using his baton!
By the piece’s “Finale,” Zukerman leads the musicians to a Beethoven-esque frenzy which results in an enthusiastic standing ovation for the Maestro, in addition to the talented members of the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra.
As the audience files out of the auditorium — filled with good vibrations as a result of experiencing this enriching evening of great music — we take a moment to chat with Tony and Phyllis, a couple from Princeton, NJ, to get their thoughts on tonight’s performance by Mr. Zukerman and the NJSO.
Phyllis calls Maestro Zukerman and the Orchestra’s rendition of the Beethoven piece “stunning.” Similarly, her husband, Tony, refers to it as a “classic performance, done beautifully.”
Phyllis continues to talk about the concert, calling it “brilliant” and one in which “the strings were so ‘tight’ together.” Likewise, Tony emphasizes how “solid” it was, going on to declare Zukerman’s interpretation of the Beethoven, “the way I like Beethoven… so that Beethoven comes through!”
Phyllis also addresses the wonderful way in which Zukerman creatively “brought the group up and down in terms of their dynamics,” and Tony concludes by acknowledging, “We’ve been supporting the NJSO for 40 years,” exclaiming, “It’s wonderful to see how they have grown into a top-class orchestra.”
We also have an opportunity to chat with Sarah Seibert, a cellist with the NJSO.
Sarah informs us how “exciting” it’s been for her and her colleagues to have been able to work with Maestro Zukerman for the past three weeks during the Orchestra’s 2017 Winter Festival series of concerts.
Seibert goes on to reveal about Zukerman that, during their rehearsals and concerts, “he makes us work so hard!,” adding, “I hope you can hear the results.” She also characterizes the last three weeks spent working with him both in practice sessions and on the stage, for her, as “the highlight of the season.”
And why shouldn’t it be?
It’s not every day one gets to work with a musician whom Sarah — and so many others — describe as “one of the greatest in the world!”
For information on upcoming performances by Pinchas Zukerman, go to kirshbaumassociates.com. To learn more about future performances by the NJSO — including classical programs like Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto №2 at various locations around NJ from February 22–26, and screenings of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone with live orchestral accompaniment at NJPAC in Newark on March 11— please click on njsymphony.org. Moreover, for future events at The State Theatre in New Brunswick — notably The Russian National Ballet Theatre’s presentation of Sleeping Beauty on March 4 — please visit statetheatrenj.org.
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