Review: 'NJSO sparkles with Chopin'

The NJSO “sparkles with Chopin, beguiles with Brahms,” Examiner.com writes in its review of the Orchestra’s Thanksgiving-weekend program:

Parents, what are your adolescent sons up to? Specifically any 19-year-olds. By age 19 (in 1830), Frédéric-François Chopin had already composed two concertos for piano and orchestra. The second of the two was published as “Piano Concerto No. 1 in E Minor,” Op. 11. With that gorgeous work, New Jersey Symphony Orchestra opened its concert Saturday, Nov. 29, with pianist Inon Barnatan at the keyboard and German conductor Stefan Sanderling on the podium. The program concluded with the dramatic “Symphony No. 4 in E Minor,” Op. 98, by Johannes Brahms (1885).

In an interview last week with Examiner.com, soloist Inon Barnatan spoke of the difficulties many orchestras encounter when assaying Chopin’s orchestral works. Under maestro Stefan Sanderling’s skillful direction, the orchestra members gave no inkling of any problems. To the contrary, they dispatched the Chopin concerto as if it were second nature, pianist and players totally united and performing as if just one person.

While the orchestra ruled the stage for the first four minutes of the “Allegro maestoso risoluto” (majestic, resolute gladness) martial opening movement, the soloist moved his head very much in sync with the rhythm and basked in the orchestra’s sound enveloping him. He tackled the imperious entry and its abundant stately chords, cascading scales and glissando. Inon Barnatan negotiated the passages of delicate ornamentation and ravishing finger work, never more breathtaking than when he made the grand piano “whisper.” He even unbelievably threw in embellishments here and there. The orchestra partnered him in coherent interplay.

Inon Barnatan, in last week’s interview, described the piece’s second movement as “the most gorgeous song in the tradition of the best operas of the bel canto style.” Marked “Romanze: Larghetto” (romance: a bit broadly), it was easy to imagine a beautiful, quiet voice following the piano’s seductively sinuous line. Laurie Shulman’s “Program Notes” intriguingly mention the composer’s intentions to set to music a moonlight scene between him and his beloved. The pianist deftly brought out such encoded feelings of personal yearning over the orchestra’s hushed patina. You could hear a pin drop in the auditorium.

The rousing “Rondo: Vivace” (a lively recurring theme) brought this elegant work to a stirring conclusion. The speed and Polish rhythm that propel the movement gave the pianist the opportunity to shine with intricate, dizzying passage work. Inon Barnatan fired off the notes and the numerous scales going both ways on the keyboard, only to top their technical difficulty with one two-handed trill after another. You would never suspect a teenager had fashioned such a striking work.

The audience erupted in spontaneous cheers, rewarding the pianist for a spectacular debut ...

Read the full review.

RELATED: Inon Barnatan chats about this week's Chopin concerts