Bringing Bach, Beethoven and Schoenberg together -- and bringing them each to life -- is no small thing.
At once familiar and eclectic, the final program of the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra's 2017 Winter Festival proved an agreeable way to spend two hours. Who says intense German music needs to be alienating?
All three works on the program are hefty -- in both length and stature -- and they highlight 200 years of musical progress. Credit Pinchas Zukerman, a serious artist and classical music celebrity in his own right, for making the opening night at bergenPAC in Englewood on Thursday as fleet and delightful as it was substantive.
The concert opened with Bach's Violin Concerto No. 2 in E Major, featuring Zukerman himself conducting and playing the violin solo. He took the podium, as in the two earlier programs of the Winter Festival, eschewing jacket or tie in favor of a long black shirt with Nehru collar. And once again, Zukerman and his Guarneri dazzled the audience with a kaleidoscope of different sounds brought forth from the gentle gracefulness of his playing.
In many musical spheres today, the fashion is to play Baroque music in a fast, furious, expressive matter. Zukerman, in this residency with the NJSO (with whom he's been performing for more than a quarter-century), has shown that he's a throwback to times when individual expression, flash and flare took a backseat to quiet professionalism.
No composer rewards this style as well as Bach does. Bach's mathematical and musical genius can be rendered in different ways, but Zukerman's straightforward virtuosity made the nearly 300-year old concerto sound as fresh as something you might hear on Broadway this season or on James Corden last night.
The melodies still grab the ear; the structure of the music satisfies. Zukerman, with almost no discernible effort, can make a simple rising arpeggio vibrate with such force that it quickens your pulse. As the piece came to a close in the allegro assai, Zukerman's agile playing of the score's trills, triplets and demisemiquavers was masterful. Yet his calm demeanor as he played these virtuosic notes -- while presiding over a full string orchestra -- made it seem like no big deal.
Next for Zukerman was Schoenberg's "Verklarte Nacht" (or "Transfigured Night"), for which the orchestra doubled in size. This is not one of those fierce, atonal pieces that frightens audiences outside of Vienna or campus music departments. Nonetheless, the NJSO and Schoenberg aren't as good a fit as they are with Bach. Zukerman clearly likes this piece -- he gave the 1917 work its NJSO premiere 25 years ago. But while "Verklarte Nacht" held the audience's attention, it rarely evoked the big emotions the young, pre-twelve-tone Schoenberg was reaching for. The piece sounded big, if not deep.
Give the band credit as they played with both vigor and clarity. The 30-minute work opened with a great growl of cellos and violas; and Concertmaster Eric Wyrick played a hauntingly sweet extended phrase over the burbling notes in the piece's middle stanza. At times the music swelled with proper Brahmsian romantic sweep, while at others there was detailed, sensitive playing.
After intermission, it was on to another massive symphony -- one of the world's favorites: Beethoven's 3rd, the "Eroica" (or "Heroic"). In Zukerman's hands it was once again a crowd pleaser. The first two movements were lovely enough to listen to, even if they felt a little routine. (It should also be noted that acoustics at bergenPAC are less than ideal -- the small setting is much better suited to Bach than Beethoven.)
Unlike Bach, though, Beethoven rewards a little more sweat and personal stamp. Comparisons are unfair, but last year when Simon Rattle brought the Berlin Philharmonic to Carnegie Hall, he highlighted the crash of old and new in the "Eroica," to make it sound like something radical -- he conducted the piece as if seeing it anew in 1804, whereas Zukerman conducts it as an established masterpiece, seeing it from today.
For much of the piece, the symphony sounded more honorable than heroic, but in the third movement, Zukerman kicked the band into a higher gear. The pace quickened in the Scherzo and suddenly you could feel the audience getting excited. Feet started tapping, coughing subsided, and Zukerman kept his foot on the pedal into the final movement. The flutes that had been drowned out started to power through in the finale, and the whole piece started to fizz.
The "Eroica" ends big, and the audience responded with a proper ovation. Zukerman's bows are as low key as his playing, but don't let his modesty fool you. Bringing Bach, Beethoven and Schoenberg together -- and bringing them each to life -- is no small thing.
New Jersey Symphony Orchestra
2017 Winter Festival: Zukerman Delights with Bach & Beethoven
Jan. 26, Bergen Performing Arts Center, Englewood
James C. Taylor can be reached writejamesctaylor@gmail.com. Find NJ.com/Entertainment on Facebook.