Star-Ledger, Examiner praise NJSO classical finale

The Star-Ledger and Examiner.com praise the NJSO’s classical season finale featuring Beethoven’s Violin Concerto and Strauss’ Ein Heldenleben:

The Star-Ledger writes:

The idea of a heroic sound in music — a particular kind of strength often mustered rousingly out of calm reveries or despair — formed the backbone of the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra’s final subscription program of the 2013-14 season on Friday.

Under music director Jacques Lacombe at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark, a program of two repertoire standards proved a fitting way to cap what has been, overall, a fine year.

James Ehnes proved a technical marvel as the soloist for Beethoven’s Violin Concerto, a much-loved work that carries Mozartian grace but also an intrepid quality.

...

Fully professional, quality orchestral music has become relatively scarce in the state in recent years. But at the NJSO, it is thriving.

Read the full review.

Examiner.com writes:

The first episode [of Strauss’ “Ein Heldenleben”], “The Hero,” came off rumbustiously, full of energy. The third, “The Hero’s Companion,” pitted an at-first chatty and querulous violin played by Concertmaster Eric Wyrick against the orchestra, the eponymous Hero. Numerous times the Hero tried to speak, only to be bettered by the garrulous solo violin of the Companion. Her reappearance in an extensive duet between French horn and violin in the final episode, “The Hero’s Retirement from this World and Consummation,” was touching, as if welcoming her Hero, praising his accomplishments and—ever the soprano—ending on an ethereal high note.

Jacques Lacombe was in peak form, leading both monumental works masterfully. Beethoven flows through his veins, but he and NJSO virtually have Strauss in their genetic makeup.

Read the full review.