Star-Ledger praises NJSO concert with Anthony McGill

The Star-Ledger praises Metropolitan Opera Orchestra Principal Clarinet Anthony McGill’s performance of Richard Danielpour’s Clarinet Concerto with the NJSO:

Perhaps it shouldn’t have been surprising that the principal clarinetist of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra would excel when given a chance to take on a theatrical role like those who sing on the stage above him most nights.

After all, his position requires him to be at the height of his art, and he’s constantly steeped in the way music can create drama.

But the extent of Anthony McGill’s expressive and technical capacity — and his ability to command a stage and communicate a vast range of moods and emotions — still stunned audience members when he joined the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra on Thursday at the Bergen Performing Arts Center in Englewood as the soloist for Richard Danielpour’s Clarinet Concerto, "From the Mountaintop." ...

With care and precision, music director Jacques Lacombe led the New Jersey premiere of the work, a co-commission with Philadelphia’s Orchestra 2001 and the Kansas City Symphony Orchestra ...

The soloist seemed to galvanize the orchestra, who matched his energetic flair ...

Each composition on the program — which will be repeated at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark, tonight and tomorrow — was intended to comment in some way on the concept of freedom.

Read the full review at nj.com.

Previously, The Times of Trenton spoke with McGill about his NJSO solo appearances on a program The Star-Ledger names one of the “Top 5 NJ shows this week.”:

“[Danielpour and I] sat down together, and he talked to me about kind of what he learned from Andrew Young and his experiences with Dr. King,” McGill says. “His concept for the piece was that he wanted to have the clarinet representing a pastor and the orchestra kind of a choir or congregation, so there’s a little bit of call-and-response.

“It takes you on a journey,” he says. “It starts off, and you think it’s going to be this fast, kind of spirited, dance-like thing, and then he takes you through this improvisatory second movement, just the clarinet and the timpani, which kind of represents the storm coming. You know, there’s this famous speech that Dr. King gave shortly before he passed away, where you can hear thunder rumbling outside. He’s kind of foretelling this tragedy coming, this tragic ending. There’s a little bit of that in the piece.

“I think it’s really emotional. We don’t have very many pieces on the clarinet that are extremely kind of soulful and sad, with really soaring melodies, and this piece has them. As the piece progresses, it gets more beautiful and in a way transforming and just kind of sorrowful.”

Read the full Times of Trenton feature at nj.com.

RELATED: Patrons, soloist buzzing about NJ premiere of new concerto

The NJSO and McGill kicked off the weekend with a concert at bergenPAC in Englewood; patrons enjoyed the opportunity to chat with the solo clarinetist at intermission.

Patrons talk with @mcgillab after his tremendous performance of Danielpour's Clarinet Concerto at @BergenPAC. pic.twitter.com/Dq2oCgPQJG

— New Jersey Symphony (@NJSymphony) May 2, 2014