With a classic concerto, a little bit of hip-hop and a lesser-known work by one of the luminaries of American music, the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra offered something for just about everyone at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center on Thursday.
Not each of the offerings, however, had the same impact. And, as absolutely vital as it is to incorporate new and unusual works into the orchestral repertoire, this time, it was the warhorse on the program that was most successful.
Under music director Jacques Lacombe, the Symphony No. 1 written by a young Samuel Barber was well balanced and shaped by the NJSO, its bursts of cinematic intrigue pulled together with crackling energy.
For more contemporary fare, Daniel Bernard Roumain (a.k.a. DBR) was on hand for the New Jersey premiere of "Dancers, Dreamers and Presidents." Drawing on hip-hop, as many his works do, "Dreamers" was inspired by watching Barack Obama dance with Ellen DeGeneres as a guest on her TV show.
A piece that included drumkit and synthesizer, the music grooved, and the euphoria of the moment that touched DBR and of what the acceptance and celebration of diversity meant to the composer came through affectingly.
Still, while rhythmically charged, motives built on single repeated pitches grew tiresome. Even as layers of different small musical figures piled on top of one another and shifted throughout the orchestra, the effect was often static. Its third movement carried the most effective material, with more expansive minor key tunes adding a melodic element that the other two movements had in less generous supply.
Ultimately, it was a redblooded, heartfelt rendition of Tchaikovsky?s Violin Concerto with Vadim Gluzman as the soloist that felt freshest and most exciting. Playing on the Stradivarius for which the composer wrote, Gluzman?s affinity for the concerto was infectious.
Many performances veer too far to the extreme of virtuosic bravado or sentimentality.
Rather than iron these qualities out, Gluzman celebrated both, alternately singing with sumptuous tone and taking jawdropping tempi in the work?s pyrotechnic outbursts.
Lacombe established a strong rapport and maintained it well through Gluzman?s risks. The refined, deeply expressive performance of the NJSO greatly enhanced the overall effect, especially in prominent wind passages. Perhaps inevitably, there were a few rough edges at demanding points, but the force of the interpretation made it hard to care much.
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