New York Times, Star-Ledger, Examiner praise season finale

June 9, 2015

Press have praised the NJSO's 2014–15 season finale, performances of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony and Fifth Piano Concerto with Marc-André Hamelin.

The New York Times writes:

Mr. Lacombe and the New Jersey Symphony, who roam the state tirelessly, traveled to Englewood on Thursday evening to open the final subscription series of the orchestra’s season with a staid but meaty program of Beethoven: the “Coriolan” Overture, the Fifth Symphony and the “Emperor” Piano Concerto, with Marc-André Hamelin as soloist ... Mr. Lacombe, Mr. Hamelin and the orchestra gave gritty, attractive performances.

Mr. Hamelin continues his triumphant march through the standard repertory, after years spent exploring arcane material heavy on virtuosic display. The “Emperor” Concerto, for all its musical substance, offers ample scope for virtuosity, and Mr. Hamelin showed his usual easy command in a reading as notable for its exquisite pianissimos and beautifully shaped phrases as for its Beethovenian bluster.

Read the full review.

RELATED: New York Times anticipates ‘excellent’ NJSO’s season finale

 

The Star-Ledger writes:

For its final concert of the 2014-15 season, the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra relied on a tried-and-true program, but gave a deeply committed performance that defied the sense of routine that can sometimes dampen such familiar works ...

Lacombe led a rendition of the iconic work [Beethoven's FIfth Symphony] that brought out the contrasts in its progression from darkness to light, from seething fury to bright triumph.

He culled a taut and powerful timbre for the famous "door-knocker" opening, with its short motive leading into long-lined phrases with wringing pathos. Firm strings and insinuating winds stood out. The embracing calm of the Andante con moto, and the mystery of the scherzo came through with care and style ... the vigor and devotion to the work had a pulse-quickening appeal.

Read the full review and view an nj.com photo gallery.

 

Examiner.com writes:

After intermission, the instantly recognizable bracing four-note motif that detonates Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony swiftly bore its 58 repetitions, none of them sounding repetitious, and countless permutations of distorted yet still recognizable four-note motifs. Its return in the third movement (Scherzo: Allegro), as first blasted by the French horn section, is decidedly more chilling—an ominous, inexorable march toward … what? Isn’t this supposed to be a ‘playful, gladsome’ movement? And yet it always sounds anything but. The final movement is unmistakably “Allegro” in all its ebullient effervescence, even with the return yet again of that four-note motif.

Maestro Jacques Lacombe, in top form, easily coaxed the precise sonorous effects he sought from the laudable NJSO members, who played as one. They fully understand his elegant gestures and sweeping moves and instantly respond. Clearly a close, trusting collegiality has developed uniting concert stage and podium ...

At the crisp just-in-case-you-were-wondering-if-it-was-over-yet final chords of the Fifth Symphony, everyone in Prudential Hall again instantly stood in thunderous applause, punctuated by cheers and even whooping—now there’s a sound you don’t often hear in a concert hall. What may have seemed beforehand on paper to some jaded audience members as just another all-Beethoven program (ho-hum) clearly turned out to be a unanimous affirmation of just why his music is undying, triumphant, even inspiringly revelatory.

Read the full review.

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