Blending Two Schools of Thought
Traffic
Thursday,
May 19, 2005
By Paul M. Somers
New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, Neeme Järvi (conductor), Eroica Trio: Erika Nickrenz (piano), Adela Peña (violin), Sara Sant' Ambrogio (cello); Kaia Urb (soprano). Beethoven: Concerto for Violin, Cello, and Piano in C major, op. 56; Mahler: Symphony no. 4 in G major. Prudential Hall, Newark.
Again and
again we come back to 
dynamic
scope as the really big difference Neeme Järvi makes with the New
Jersey Symphony Orchestra. Their ensemble and rhythm have been in fine
shape for years, but after the piano-based esthetic of Hugh Wolff followed
by the forte-based explosiveness of Zdenek Macal it is Järvi who
has brought the two together in a civilized agreement that both are
needed.
Thus it was that Järvi's version of Mahler's Fourth was able to achieve its boldest strokes - most tellingly the high-point of the slow movement - while still giving the whole a feeling of soft tenderness. The conductor certainly uses the string *portamento more subtly than most do nowadays. We are so used to hearing outright *slides, but Järvi kept it sounding like a position shift which keeps the sound going more lightly.
The final child's vision of heaven was sung unaffectedly by Kaia Urb, a soprano who on this occasion did not use a full voice. Whether it's all she has or she withheld her mature power on purpose, the effect was one of a child narrating the whimsical events in a storybook heaven. This literalist rendering is safe and in times of war and violence perhaps an artistic shield against reminders that the only way a child could know this is by being dead. Yet the eerie *scordatura violin solos earlier in the work suggest a view rather more dire than that which we were given. My son Luke, a Mahler aficionado, was quite impressed, particularly by Ms. Urb's simple delivery. We did learn, however, that in some parts of the hall she was not heard as well as in our seats (second tier right boxes). In fact, it is becoming evident that the best seats are higher up in Prudential Hall.
That said, the NJSO played with Järvi's transparency, which is so welcome. Everything was heard and given its due. All the solos were handled with the assurance the players increasingly feel with his steadying presence on the podium. There was, however one misstep: during the first movement, the *rubato in the cellos was not followed by the horn and bassoons, making for a strange unintended *heterophony.
The concert began a bit late, and then an announcement was made that Mæstro Järvi was stuck in a traffic jam trying to get through the tunnel to New Jersey (he lives in Manhattan). Other than the obvious point that living in New Jersey would more likely be a lot easier to deal with than either of the tunnels, these things happen. That's why the NJSO has the estimable Donato Cabrera as a regular cover conductor. This intrepid soul stepped in on literally a few moments' notice and led the Eroica Trio and the Symphony in Beethoven's "Triple Concerto" while Järvi inched his way Newarkward.
So let's get one thing straight: he had not one second's rehearsal with the Trio, so anything that may have gone wrong could be laid to that simple fact. Though it was doubtless an adventure for all the performers, for the audience it was a complete success. In fact it looked and sounded so "easy" that some in the audience suggested during intermission that conductors are just interchangeable. Not so. While it was an engaging performance partly because the players had an extra edge, it was not an experience anyone on stage was hoping to repeat.
The Eroica Trio really has only one repertoire choice - the Beethoven "Triple" - when it comes to working with an orchestra. So they have fun with it. Their interplay is visual and draws the audience into the endeavor. Violinist Adela Peña and cellist Sara Sant' Ambrogio play from memory, most likely because their parts have difficulty and thus contain elements which are distinctive and memorable.
Since Beethoven wrote the piano part for his patron Archduke Rudolph, a person of limited technique, Erika Nickrenz discreetly places the music inside the piano so she can sort out which of the intermediate-level passages is next. She invests them with a great deal of musicality and fits her role so seamlessly into that of the other two players that she no doubt hides from most listeners that it is far from a challenging part. To be sure, it is Beethoven who worked out so cleverly how to make his patron look good in the context of far better players, but it takes a special kind of artist to pull off that role without getting lost in the welter of what would otherwise be classical period cliché after cliché.
(See review below of the Eroica Trio and Beethoven's: "Triple" at the Cape May Music Festival with the Bay-Atlantic Symphony led by Jed Gaylin.)