|
Please note: Throughout Classical New Jersey Society reviews some words are found preceded by an asterisk (*). This indicates that the word is defined or discussed in the IOW (In Other Words) section of our website. If you are looking for a special definition or discussion, click on the alpha-clickbar below or the actual word, if it is hyperlinked. A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H-I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P-Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X-Y-Z |
This
is an online only review - no other format is available.
Permission
is granted to print and distribute this review in any format.
Sarah big and bold
Järvi with a wink and smile
Saturday, October 28, 2006
By Paul Mack Somers
New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, Neeme Järvi (conductor), Sarah Chang (violin). Weber: Overture to Oberon; Brahms: Violin Concerto in D major, op. 77; Haydn: Symphony no. 93 in D major; Brahms: Hungarian Dances, no. 1 in G minor, no. 3 in F major, and no. 10 in F major. Count Basie Theatre, Red Bank,
Sarah Chang was intense. Her sound was big and bold, her phrases well shaped and taut. It was Brahms without the layer of autumnal gauze often rightly laid on his scores. Chang was determined to make Sarasate eat his words when he declared he would not play it because he had to stand there mute while the oboe played the only great tune in the whole piece. Chang made sure that every note she played counted, that all the busy sections for her were as important as the big tune, and that her meetings with that tune revealed the developments which the composer had wrought upon it.
New Jerseyan Chang is no longer the “young lady violinist” she was only a few years ago. Now she is a mature force with athletic power. When she dashed off a phrase with energy left to spend, she whipped her bow down just missing the floor as if decapitating snakes. Thought te gesture is no doubt uncalculated, it did become a mannerism after awhile. Yet any effect of this visual dissonance was offset by Chang’s sense of line and large but focused sound.
At the conclusion Neeme Järvi himself led the audience in rhythmic applause to draw her out from the wings for yet one more bow.
The NJSO was led by Järvi in his usual understated manner. He clearly believes in getting out of the way of his musicians, not micromanaging their musicality. The advantages of this approach to his orchestra and his audience are many. First, when he does produce an expressive move there is no missing it since it is not buried in a welter of other activity, so he gets what he wants when he asks for it. Second, he shows the orchestra that he trusts them as individuals and as a whole. Third, he can leave some of the details to the players while he manages the long line, the large picture. The sweeping motive force of his performances derives from not having to think of it as so many small chunks of music since his players will handle the small stuff themselves.
He simply nodded to the horn to begin the magic of Weber’s Overture to Oberon rather than give some larger hand gesture. He used simple motions to keep everyone softer than clarinetist Karl Herman rather than urge the soloist on with “expressive” stick moves that would probably be extraneous anyway. With Chang Järvi was always supportive, and there were no places where either she or he seemed to be engaging in an artistic battle of wills.
Haydn is a particular favorite of Järvi. Under his leadership the orchestra’s precision in Haydn’s symphonies has become exemplary. But it has also been infused with that extra understanding of the composer’s own technical mastery and his often bumptious humor. Both aspects were on display as material Beethoven later incorporated into his Symphony no. 6 was taken through a much different Enlightenment manipulation. Then at the noisy “honk” from the bassoon — Haydn at his fun-loving best — Järvi half-turned to the audience with a wink and a smile.
More Brahms concluded the prgram with Hungarian Dances 1, 3, and 10 with big tempo changes and bold expressivity.
The evening in the full Count Basie Theatre was hosted by first violinist (and recording engineer and composer) Daryl Kubian, who was introduced by principal bassoonist Robert Wagner, last year’s constant host. But it was Wagner who pointed out that the orchestra members were wearing pink ribbons for cancer awareness. It was particularly important, he pointed out, because of the cancer death that week of Gretchen Gonzales, one of the orchestra’s younger cellists.