It’s autumn, the market is full of apples, and once again the music is bounteous in the Trenton-Princeton area, as I was privileged to enjoy a fruitful weekend of concerts, performed by the Capital Philharmonic of New Jersey, on Saturday night, and the Princeton Symphony Orchestra, on Sunday afternoon.
The Capital Phil program, which was presented at the Trenton War Memorial under the title “American Stories,” was, for me, just too interesting to pass up. As you know, I’m a sucker for unusual and neglected repertoire, and the first half of Saturday’s concert was like Classic Ross Amico catnip. Guest conductor Ruth Ochs selected works by two American women whose reputations surpass the comparative infrequency of live performances of their music. Ochs, conductor of the Princeton University Sinfonia, took the podium for Joan Tower’s “Made in America” and Florence Price’s “Ethiopia’s Shadow in America.”
Tower, now 86, lived with her family in Bolivia from ages nine to 18. (Her father was a mining engineer who oversaw the daily operations of the country’s tin mines.) When she came to compose “Made in America” in 2005, nearly half a century after her return to the United States, from a country blighted by poverty and, for much of its history, political instability, she recollected her early comprehension of our many blessings, including freedom of choice, potential for upward mobility, and basic luxuries we, as American citizens, too often take for granted. The patriotic song “America the Beautiful” is woven throughout the fabric of the piece, not in a jingoist fashion, but often wistfully or even challenged, suggesting perhaps the American promise is too often not only underappreciated, but also unfulfilled. The dream is nevertheless a resilient one. Personally, I nominate this work as the composer’s most attractive since “Petroushskates,” which playfully combines her admiration for Stravinsky with her love of figure skating. And the orchestra played it very well.
Following an ovation, Ochs returned to the stage to introduce Price’s “Ethiopia’s Shadow in America,” which she’s conducted before in Princeton and says is very close to her heart. Her brief comment echoed her program note, in which she shared her perception of an open-ended quality to the work, that perhaps Price was suggesting that there was still much to be achieved in this country, as far as social justice is concerned. Hey, Price couldn’t have been more dignified, for the period in which she worked and lived. “Ethiopia’s Shadow” was composed sometime before 1933 and was among the many unpublished manuscripts recovered from her dilapidated Illinois home in 2009. (Price died in 1953.) It was given what is believed to be its first performance only in 2015. The challenging thread of the work follows “The Arrival of the Negro in America when first brought here as a slave,” “His Resignation and Faith,” and “His Adaptation – A fusion of his native and acquired impulses.” The lingering spirit of its conclusion leaves a similar sensation to that of the Joan Tower piece, actually. This really was a thoughtfully-constructed program!
The second half of the concert, a more extroverted affair, was devoted to highlights from George Gershwin’s “Porgy and Bess,” an American classic, which nevertheless has had a mixed reception in the Black community. For sure, the work has its stereotypes, and I can only imagine how awkward it must be to be subjected to supposed Black dialect rendered by White librettists from 1934 (note, roughly the same period as when Price was at work on “Ethiopia’s Shadow”). But really, Gershwin was flirting with verismo, an Italian operatic genre that strove for a new realism, in setting its dramatic scenarios among everyday people, especially the poor. Gershwin’s inspired music is full of humanity and, I hope, transcends any whiff of minstrelsy, not least in “Bess, You Is My Woman Now,” which musically and in performance, may have served as the highlight of the concert’s second half.
Heather Hill had a pleasing soprano voice, but it was hard to properly assess baritone Keith Spencer, as it was difficult at times to make out words or even voices from my seat in the balcony. I understand that opera singers are supposed to be able to project, but Robert Russell Bennett’s brash orchestrations did the soloists no favors, especially when played by musicians out of the opera pit and sharing the actual stage. I’m not generally one in favor of miking voices in opera, but this is one case where it might have been effective, excusable, and even appreciated. Spencer was faced with a further challenge in having to sing arias by characters in different vocal ranges, as Porgy was conceived for bass-baritone and Sportin’ Life for tenor. (You can’t have a “Porgy and Bess” sampler without “It Ain’t Necessarily So.”) At least the characters of Clara, who opens the opera with the indelible “Summertime,” and Bess are both sopranos. Nevertheless, there were moments of real electricity generated by the performance.
Westminster Choir College’s Vinroy D. Brown oversaw the orchestra and amalgamation of four choruses with which he has a history: Westminster Symphonic Choir, Westminster Jubilee Singers, Capital Singers of Trenton, and Elmwood Concert Singers. Several of the singers stepped out (figuratively speaking) to provide brief solos.
This was the first Capital Phil concert since Daniel Spalding stepped down at the end of last season, after ten years as the organization’s (founding) music director. I have to say, over all, the orchestra acquitted itself quite well. For the complete Capital Phil 2024-25 schedule, visit http://www.capitalphilharmonic.org.
I am also happy to report that Spalding remains active, and he will be bringing his Philadelphia Virtuosi Chamber Orchestra to the Trenton State Museum for another hard-to-pass-up program, which will include a suite from Bohuslav Martinu’s witty ballet, “La revue de cuisine,” which examines romantic entanglements among the kitchen utensils, and Lee Hoiby’s one-act opera “Bon Appétit!,” with Christine Meadows as Julia Child, on the evening of November 23. To learn more, check out http://www.pvco.org/event-list.
The Capital Philharmonic concert turned out to be a bit of a radio host reunion, as I ran into not only Marjorie and Buzz Herman, near my roost in the balcony, but also, downstairs, Andrew Rudin.
Then it was off to Princeton University’s Richardson Auditorium on Sunday afternoon for the second performance of the Princeton Symphony Orchestra’s season-opener, featuring Michael Abel’s “More Seasons,” Sergei Prokofiev’s “Classical Symphony,” and Ludwig van Beethoven’s “Triple Concerto.”
I’ll begin with the second half. It’s rare to encounter the “Triple Concerto” in concert. For one thing, it requires cutting checks for three soloists, as opposed to one, so if it’s done at all, it’s common for orchestras to bypass big names in favor of its principal musicians, who I assume are less likely to break the bank. This does not necessarily connote any loss in quality. This is not a star soloist vehicle, but rather a concerto for piano trio, an ensemble of well-balanced chamber musicians. The Princeton performances featured PSO concertmaster Basia Danilow (violin) and principal cellist Alistair MacRae, alongside visiting pianist Steven Beck. Danilow played with an attractive tone, and Beck rendered his part with aristocratic poise.
Beethoven was already experiencing difficulties with hearing loss at the time of the work’s composition (in 1804-08), and I’m wondering if this explains in part the questionable balance between the featured cellist and orchestra. Unless one is a career soloist with a big tone, on the level of a Leonard Rose or a Mstislav Rostropovich, it’s easy for the instrument to get swallowed up. MacRae could be heard best in the concerto’s reflective second movement. And he was a standout in that wonderful anticipatory passage that leads into the work’s uplifting finale. In the outer movements, he was done no favors by a performance that seemed to lack dynamic shading. Make no mistake, everything was played very well, as it invariably is by this ensemble. But the poor cello, in its low register, while it could certainly be heard, lacked the advantages of the violin and of course the piano. (By the way, Beethoven worked at the “Triple Concerto” concurrently with his Piano Concerto No. 4.) Perhaps everyone was simply caught up in the excitement of the moment. As I say, the composer’s great innovation in the piece is the marriage of the piano trio with the classical concerto form. The only problem is, the piano trio is all about chamber music.
Much more nuanced was Milanov’s characterful performance, on the concert’s first half, of Prokofiev’s “Classical Symphony.” This was a textbook example of a conductor really “conducting,” with Milanov, in his element, punctuating the piece with little accents and teasing out certain details in a way that revealed its careful preparation. The courtly second movement at its core opened up into a true pastoral interlude. Timpanist Jeremy Levine, who is always one of the great pleasures of attending these Princeton concerts perhaps lacked a little classical restraint at times, but when it lent such a sense of propulsion to the last movement, who cares? It was also enjoyable to be able to pick up on some of the counterpoint that too often slips by when listening to a recording, such as the bassoon part played so compellingly on Sunday by Brad Balliett.
The concert opened with Pulitzer Prize winner Michael Abels’ “More Seasons,” a quasi-minimalist riff on Vivaldi’s “The Four Seasons.” The insistent basso continuo (with Hanbyeol Lee on the harpsichord) anchored the work’s inexorable progress, with the gradual introduction of later musical developments betraying that this is not indeed a genuine Baroque composition. It is, however, quite an effective piece! I must say, Abels mastered some very idiomatic Vivaldiesque string solos (much more convincing than Fritz Kreisler’s once-notorious forgeries). Guest concertmaster Claire Bourg got to show her mettle, as she played many of them.
Another fine concert, then, by perhaps the state’s best-prepared and often most exciting regional orchestra. For a complete schedule, visit http://www.princetonsymphony.org.
PHOTOS: (top) Princeton Symphony Orchestra principal cellist Alistair MacRae, concertmaster Basia Danilow, and pianist Steven Beck, with Rossen Milanov on the podium for Beethoven’s “Triple Concerto;” (bottom left) the Capital Philharmonic of New Jersey and friends, following their performance of highlights from “Porgy and Bess;” and (bottom right) yours truly, in the balcony of Patriots Theater at the Trenton War Memorial, with Marjorie and Buzz Herman
