Press praise performances of Mahler and Bernstein works
The Star-Ledger writes:
From his first impeccable chords, [pianist Kirill] Gerstein gave a performance that echoed the dynamic, communicative qualities of his most recent local performance.
His playing was dignified yet full of life, with a sound that started out as present and full, yet still possessing an inward quality before torrents of descending tones and penetrating brass combined to searing effect.
...
Lacombe maintained drive and balance, with Gerstein at times embedded in the fabric of the orchestra, as one player among many, as the piece commands. Crisp trumpets and clarity in vigorous string passages were especially satisfying.
Gerstein, Lacombe and the orchestra brought out the anguish as well as the lighter daydream interlude in the "Dirge." In the "Masque," the double bass soloist appeared center stage and percussion featured prominently as the work called to mind a lively jazz trio - with colorful orchestral additions. The performance was rhythmically driven, almost to the point of madness.
[In the finale of Mahler's First Symphony, t]rumpets were again striking in their many rapid fanfares. By the end, the orchestra seemed to pull the music from great depths to a forceful conclusion that brought the audience to its feet.
ConcertoNet.com writes:
The New Jersey Symphony Orchestra pairing of Leonard Bernstein’s Age of Anxiety with Gustav Mahler’s First Symphony [was] inspired for the contrast of its two composers.
Here they were, two Jewish composers, both of them influenced by words, ideas and philosophy. Both of them dynamic conductors. Both Mahler and Bernstein creatures of the world’s most sophisticated metropolises in Europe and America. And both of them using their Jewish backgrounds with varying results.
Jacques Labombe gave more than creditable shows for both composers in a single program last week ...
[Bernstein’s concerto was especially] singular because the Russian-born pianist [Kirill Gerstein], a prodigy of prodigious talents, came to America at age 14 to study jazz. The fact that his classical technique and temperament put him in the class with Oscar Peterson made the jazz section here, “The Masque” to have an improvisatory sound that no other pianist (perhaps excepting Keith Jarrett) could achieve.
...
[In Mahler’s First Symphony, Music Director Jacques Lacombe's] percussion, his brass (which stood up for the last bars) and his whole ensemble brought that last movement to a stunning and Mahler-memorable ending.
Prior to the concert, The Star-Ledger named the concerts among the week’s top five things to do in New Jersey.