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Tag: NJSO

Zdeněk Mácal NJSO Conductor Dies at 87

Zdeněk Mácal, former music director of the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, has died. Macal led the orchestra from 1993 to 2002. Together, they made some distinguished recordings, including a Grammy Award winning album of Dvořák’s Requiem and Symphony No. 9 “From the New World.”

Mácal fled communist Czechoslovakia for West Germany with his family after the Soviet Union and Warsaw Pact members crushed the liberal Prague Spring movement in 1968.

He found work at the WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne and NDR Orchestra of Hanover. He also conducted in the U.K., Australia, and the U.S., making his American debut with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in 1972.

Following an advisory position in San Antonio and a principal conductorship with Chicago’s Grant Park Music Festival, he became music director of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra in 1986. From Milwaukee, he came New Jersey to take over the NJSO.

He returned to his homeland only after the communist regime was toppled in 1989. From 2003 to 2007, he served as chief conductor of the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra.

Mácal died in Prague late yesterday. He was 87 years-old.

From Dvořák’s Requiem, with Princeton’s Westminster Symphonic Choir the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra

An interview with Bruce Duffie

https://www.bruceduffie.com/macal.html

October 26, 2023
NJSO Violinist Demos Theremin Freely

New Jersey Symphony Orchestra violinist Darryl Kubian demonstrates the theremin. At the very opening, you’ll hear a quotation from Miklós Rózsa’s score for Alfred Hitchcock’s “Spellbound.” Kubian plays a more extended selection as he talks about the role of the theremin in movie music, beginning just before the 12-minute mark.

I wrote about Kubian twice, as thereminist and composer, during my days at the Trenton Times.

https://www.nj.com/times-entertainment/2013/04/theremin_adds_otherworldly_tou.html

https://www.nj.com/times-entertainment/2015/03/classical_music_shakespeare_in.html

April 16, 2020
Xian Zhang Tchaikovsky NJSO Debut

When certain composers or pieces have become ensconced in the repertoire, it’s very easy to take them for granted. But, as the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra’s new music director, Xian Zhang, reveals, it’s often hard work to make the familiar sound effortless.

“People know Tchaikovsky, in a way – you know, the most popular works – but if you look deeper, it’s not that easy to make it sound good,” she says. “The Fifth is one of the most popular symphonies. We have to actually work very hard to make it sound as good as people expect.”

It’s certainly worth noting, as the orchestra prepares three favorites by one of classical music’s most beloved composers. Simon Trpčeski will be the soloist in Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1. In addition, Zhang will conduct the Polonaise from his opera “Eugene Onegin” and the Symphony No. 5.

The program will mark Zhang’s debut as the orchestra’s music director, with appearances at four different venues across the state. Remaining performances will take place at Richardson Auditorium in Princeton (tonight at 8), the State Theatre New Jersey in New Brunswick (tomorrow night at 8), and the Mayo Performing Arts Center – MPAC in Morristown (Sunday at 3).

Find out more in my article in today’s Trenton Times:

http://www.nj.com/times-entertainment/index.ssf/2016/10/classical_music_njso_performin_2.html

October 28, 2016
NJSO Institute: Launching New Composers

“There are three facets to the mentoring – artistic, practical, and career development,” says composer Steven Mackey, director of the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra Edward T. Cone Composition Institute. “If you’re writing for your friends, it’s one thing. When you’re dealing with an orchestra, it really becomes a big business. Orchestral rehearsal time costs so much. Gaining the trust of an orchestra to get your music played is already a huge endeavor. It requires a lot of people to put their faith in you.”

For four composers at the beginning of their careers, the institute is an invaluable experience – six days of intensive evaluations and consultations, culminating in a live performance of their music by a major symphony orchestra under a world-class conductor. The program, now in its third year, brings together the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra and the Princeton University Department of Music to promote new music and emerging composers.

This year’s participants include James Anderson, Matthew Browne, William Stackpole and Jung Yoon Wie. An NJSO concert made up of each composer’s music will take place on Saturday at 8 p.m. at Princeton University’s Richardson Auditorium.

The orchestra will be under the baton of David Robertson, who in the fall will begin his 12th season as music director of the St. Louis Symphony. Robertson is also chief conductor and artistic director of Australia’s Sydney Symphony Orchestra.

Mackey’s “Turn the Key,” written in 2006 for the New World Symphony on the occasion of the opening of the Miami Performing Arts Center, will conclude the Saturday concert.

Also on the program will be Anderson’s “Places with Pillars,” a metaphorical reflection on the search for meaning in our lives; Browne’s “Farthest South,” a tone poem inspired by the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration; Stackpole’s “… Ask Questions Later,” a meditation on gun violence and the permanence of consequences; and Wie’s “Water Prism,” inspired by the phenomenon of light passing through a prism to create a rainbow.

You can read more about the institute – and tomorrow night’s concert – in my article in today’s Trenton Times.

http://www.nj.com/times-entertainment/index.ssf/2016/07/classical_music_njso_performin.html

Participants in this year’s NJSO Edward T. Cone Composition Institute: Jung Yoon Wie (top); left to right, James Anderson, William Stackpole and Matthew Browne

July 15, 2016
NJSO Shakespeare Festival Lacombe’s Finale

Now is the winter of our discontent made glorious summer, not by the son of York, but by the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra and its enterprising music director, Jacques Lacombe. For the second year in a row, Lacombe and the NJSO will present “Sounds of Shakespeare,” the sixth of the organization’s Winter Festivals to take place under his supervision.

Next weekend will bring a Berlioz double-bill, with the “Symphonie fantastique,” followed by its seldom-heard sequel, “Lélio.”

The program is “sort of ‘sideways inspired by Shakespeare,’” Lacombe says. “When Berlioz wrote ‘Symphonie fantastique,’ he was fascinated by a Shakespearean actress. At the end of the symphony, it’s sort of like his life is a total mess. The subtitle of ‘Lelio’ is ‘The Return to Life.’ The artist finds redemption in the creation of a fantasy on ‘The Tempest.’’”

The weekend after that, the NJSO will join with the Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey to present “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” with Mendelssohn’s complete incidental music.

The performances will mark the final area appearances (in Princeton and New Brunswick) to feature Lacombe as NJSO music director. The orchestra will return under an assortment of guest conductors throughout the spring, but the remainder of Lacombe’s concerts this season will take place in the northern part of the state. He will be succeeded in the fall by Xian Zhang as the organization’s 14th music director.

Find out more, including much on Berlioz’s over-the-top romantic escapades, in my article in today’s Trenton Times.

http://www.nj.com/times-entertainment/index.ssf/2016/01/classical_music_njso_announces.html

January 15, 2016

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