Town Topics reviews NJSO’s Princeton season opener

The NJSO opened its 2016–17 Princeton series at the Richardson Auditorium last Friday, October 7. Gemma New conducted a program of nationalistic works by Lilburn, Grieg and Sibelius, featuring guest pianist Stewart Goodyear performing Grieg’s Piano Concerto.

Town Topics writes:

With the appointment of Xian Zhang as music director, the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra (NJSO) is entering a new era of musical accomplishment. Ms. Zhang will make her Princeton debut later this month, and this past Friday night, the NJSO invited an old friend back to the podium. Former Associate Conductor Gemma New led the orchestra in a concert paying tribute to her homeland and including an audience favorite from the piano concerto repertory ... the audience was taken on a journey through the rich Romantic musical tradition and the finest in solo piano performance.

Music history is replete with nationalistic works celebrating composers’ homelands, but one region not often heard from is New Zealand. Ms. New began the performance with a work of 20th-century composer Douglas Lilburn, considered the “father of New Zealand music.” His one-movement Aotearoa Overture (“Aotearoa” is the Maori word for New Zealand) musically brought to life the breathtaking New Zealand landscape, with the orchestra depicting waves crashing against a cragged seacoast.

As the piece opened with a pair of gentle flutes, Ms. New emphasized the flow of the music, allowing the work to unfold in an early 20th-century impressionistic style. She conducted with clear and unencumbered gestures, changing musical styles well and successfully bringing to life music which well deserved to be heard.

...

Piano soloist Stewart Goodyear has made a career of interpreting formidable 19th-century works, including recently playing all 32 Beethoven piano sonatas as a single concert experience. ... In the [Grieg Piano Concerto’s] second movement “Adagio,” Mr. Goodyear played the stately opening melody with an almost imperceptible left hand, as Ms. New’s conducting gestures matched the grandeur of the movement, accompanied by elegant instrumental solos from principal clarinetist Karl Herman and hornist Chris Komer. In the final movement, the piano seemed to tell a story, and Mr. Goodyear well emphasized the Norwegian halling folk dance which Grieg wove into the music. Mr. Goodyear found a wide range of dynamics in the solo passages, ending the concerto with the same conviction with which he began.

» Read the full review at www.towntopics.com.

 

More on the NJSO in Princeton

» Princeton Magazine cover story features Xian Zhang

» Times of Trenton features NJSO’s Princeton series.

» Explore the NJSO’s 2016–17 season in Princeton and at venues across the state.

 

More on Grieg’s Piano Concerto with Stewart Goodyear

» Press review Grieg’s Piano Concerto with Stewart Goodyear

» Gemma New shares NZ photos & Lilburn insights on Instagram

» Gemma New talks to Times of Trenton about NJSO program’s NZ ties

» Press preview Grieg’s Piano Concerto with Stewart Goodyear

» What Grieg’s Piano Concerto means to Stewart Goodyear

» What makes a concert special?