Star-Ledger reviews Rite of Spring, NJSO season

The Star-Ledger’s Ronni Reich writes:

As the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra’s 2012-13 season came to a close over the weekend, there were many reasons to look back with admiration.

Principal players such as cellist Jonathan Spitz and trumpeter Garth Greenup gave exciting performances as soloists. Bold programming, particularly in the Winter Festival, continued to push boundaries. Outreach experiments, such as the orchestra’s first College Night, brought in new audiences. The relationship between the players and music director Jacques Lacombe seemed to deepen.

Beginning with a strong, jazz-tinged gala in September, the orchestra displayed a firm sense of unity and vibrant tone in pieces ranging from standard fare such as Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 5 to new works including Steven Mackey’s “Stumble to Grace.”

Friday’s concluding program at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark, led by Lacombe, highlighted the orchestra’s wonderful capacity for refined interpretations but also showed room for growth.

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Each piece [on the season-finale program] came from a work originally written for dramatic productions: in the case of the first two, a full opera production, and the third, a ballet. In the first half, Lacombe and the NJSO showed how such works can come alive even without the visual or dramatic components. Lacombe displayed the kind of detailed, sculpted phrasing and powerful buildups of emotion that have been hallmarks of the season’s strongest performances. The orchestra played with characteristic energy and unified intention.

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The NJSO will continue to perform this summer at venues throughout the state, including free concerts June 20-30 in Hoboken, Hawthorne, Newark and West Windsor. The 2013-14 season begins in September with a concert titled “Promise of the New World,” featuring jazz pianist and composer Geri Allen, whose work will be played, the vocal ensemble Afro Blue and additional music by Duke Ellington and Antonín Dvorák. For information, call (800) ALLEGRO or visit njsymphony.org.