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NJSO Fire Finale is HOT
by Sherri Rase     |      Bookmark and Share
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photo by Fred Stucker
cellist Anssi Karttunen with Maestro Jacques Lacombe
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The New Jersey Symphony Orchestra’s (NJSO) Winter Festival, celebrating “Fire,” came to a magnificent finale on January 22 in the third of three performances of the orchestra’s “Fire: Light and Legend” program. I attended the concert at the well-appointed State Theater in New Brunswick, whose intimate stage was reconfigured three different ways during the course of the afternoon and culminated with a multi-artist finale that could have been a program unto itself.
Haydn’s Symphony Number 59 in A Major, “Fire,” was the first selection du jour. Considering that the weekend had cast a damp, gray mantle over the entire area, it was delightful to warm ourselves to an energetic rendition of this four-movement masterpiece. Widely considered the “father of the symphony,” as we know the form today, Haydn wrote his “Fire” during his ‘sturm und drang’ period, reflective of a contemporary literary movement of the same name. The stirring symphony was not given its sobriquet by Haydn, but was likely called thus due to its energy and placement of a Presto movement at the beginning of the piece, while, at the time, that was typically used toward the end. The two central movements have a different kind of energy, but this was a very fitting start to assure everyone’s attention was riveted forward.
Next on the first portion of the program was Kaija Saariaho’s “Notes on Light,” played here by Anssi Karttunen, for whom this piece was written, making his solo cello debut with the NJSO. Finnish composer Saariaho is the Composer in Residence for Carnegie Hall, and she has created a monumental work that had an audience reaction similar, I’m certain, to her modern music forbears. The Sunday afternoon audience, ranging in age from late 20s to early 90s, was settled and quiet during the Haydn. Karttunen was attired in brilliant scarlet, Asian-style, a color that signifies “fire” in China, and he played his first notes of brilliant dis-chord that follows its own rules. There rippled through the audience a wave of consternation, angst, and confusion–what is this sound? Saariaho is a composer who eschews electronic instruments and, via Karttunen and the other instruments in the orchestra, she elicits blocks of sound that are sometimes solid and tangible and at other times evocative of diaphanous opalescent mist consisting of sliding control and Doppler-esque decay of the sound wave itself. I heard various images, such as a ray of light escaping through clouds to illuminate a monarch butterfly, surrounded by a filthy industrial background, to something hearkening to the sound of Creation. Not everyone around me shared my desire to unravel this work. I found that experiencing this work in a visual setting was vital to my enjoyment. Watching Karttunen’s performance, watching the other members of the orchestra and Maestro Lacombe, as they rendered Saariaho’s vision from mere black notes on a white background, the sense of the power of creation was shared.
There was almost a collective sigh released from the audience as the pregnant silence at the end of “Notes on Light” came to an end. I felt it was an end and a beginning, though, and I wondered whether all those around me would return for the remainder of the program. For the record, they did.
The final act of the concert consisted of selections from Beethoven’s ballet, “The Creatures of Prometheus,” Opus 43. Augmenting this monumental music were Andre De Shields as Zeus and Claybourne Elder as Prometheus, Francesca Harper’s choreography and the dancers of the Francesca Harper Project, and librettist Murray Horowitz all making their NJSO debuts. This tour de force combined beautiful orotund actors’ voices, limning monumental concepts, all regarding the rights of human beings, with dancers telling the story we hear in Beethoven’s music, which is no longer historically performed as ballet. While it was made abundantly clear that humans are not perfect, through the dancers’ moves we are able to see the brilliance of what is beneath the often gruff human exterior. The battle between Zeus, son of Titans Cronus and Rhea, and Prometheus, son of Titans Iapetus and Thetis, was ongoing. Prometheus tricked Zeus with an unpalatable sacrifice and Zeus stole fire from humans as punishment. Prometheus returned fire to mortals, and had to suffer for giving them light, heat, creativity and more. This is played through alternation of majestic words, lithe and brilliant dance and the equal majesty of Beethoven’s towering selections.
Gifted with music, we went off into the gray afternoon warmed through. The gift of gradually lengthening days and the sense of creation imparted will remain for some time to come. Gifts of music come in all forms, and there is still a lot of season remaining for NJSO. Join the orchestra on January 29 for a concert at the New Jersey Performing Arts Centre (NJPAC), in Newark, with renowned soprano Renée Fleming. A short trip from Manhattan or New Jersey environs via train or car, and I’ll see you there!
Make sure you don’t miss a concert! For tickets, subscriptions or more information on NJSO programs, call 1-800/ALLEGRO (255-3476) or visit www.njsymphony.org.





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