Ever since 1850, when P. T. Barnum helped to make Swedish soprano Jenny Lind a household name, America has been a vital destination for classical musicians. Some have come to advance their careers, others to escape political strife. All have contributed to the unparalleled richness of American concert life.
One such musician is the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra’s Estonianborn Music Director Neemi Järvi, an American citizen since 1987. Under his direction, the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra is proud to present the 2008 Winter Festival: Coming to America, a threeweek celebration featuring composers who have brought their creative inspiration to this country, whether as visiting virtuosos or permanent residents. Dvořák, Tchaikovsky, Bartók, and Stravinsky are just a few of the masters represented in Coming to America. Says Järvi, “We’re very excited to be playing this festival. We’ll be bringing the audience great music which we rarely perform in our regular subscription concerts.”
The Winter Festival takes place during the first three weekends of 2008, beginning Friday, January 4 and continuing through Sunday, January 27 at venues throughout New Jersey. Tickets to all Festival events and performances may be purchased by calling 1.800.ALLEGRO (800.255.3476) or by visiting www.njsymphony.org. Groups are welcome, and can save up to 30 percent off regular ticket prices. In choosing Coming to America as the theme for its Winter Festival, the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra is paying homage to those who play the music, as well as those who create it. Among the NJSO’s 68 regular members are musicians born in Canada, China, Germany, Japan, Korea, Poland, Romania, Taiwan, and Ukraine – reflecting the tremendous diversity of the orchestra’s home state. Says section first violinist Judy Wu, who came to the U.S. from Taiwan at the age of eleven, “We’re so much luckier here, since we’re surrounded by so many worldclass musicians, especially in the TriState area... I definitely wouldn’t be the same kind of player had I not come to America. It’s so different here – you’re always encouraged to explore, to be creative, to step outside the box.”
Week 1: January 4–6
Bronfman Plays Prokofiev
Pianist Yefim Bronfman shares the stage with Maestro Järvi and the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra on Friday, January 4 at Richardson Auditorium in Princeton (8 pm), Saturday, January 5 at Prudential Hall, NJPAC in Newark (8 pm), and Sunday, January 6 at the State Theatre in New Brunswick (3 pm).
Bronfman takes the solo role in Serge Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 3 – a work written in the United States and given its premiere by the Chicago Symphony in 1921 with the composer as soloist. In a letter written shortly before the premiere, Prokofiev complained that the part he had written for himself was “devilishly difficult... I’m practicing hard three hours a day.” Deftly balancing drama and introspection, dazzling technique and sly wit, Piano Concerto No. 3 is one of Prokofiev’s most finely crafted concertos.
The program opens with The Oceanides by Finnish composer Jean Sibelius, who came to America for the first time to conduct this 1914 tone poem, commissioned by an American arts patron for a festival in Norfolk, Connecticut. Inspired by the ancient Greek legend of the oceanides ocean nymphs who lived in rivers, streams, and other waters this shimmering, luminous score displays the composer’s mastery of orchestral color – an apt showcase for Järvi and the NJSO.
German composer Paul Hindemith emigrated to America in 1940, and wrote his most famous work, Symphonic Metamorphosis on a Theme by Carl Maria von Weber, in 1943 while teaching at Yale University. Contrary to the title, Hindemith actually treats several themes by his German Romantic predecessor to concise and imaginative transformations. The piece originally began life as a ballet, and even the slower Andantino movement is charged with kinetic energy and excitement.
Stravinsky arrived in America in 1940, settling in Beverly Hills, and became an American citizen five years later. The Barnum and Bailey Circus commissioned his witty Circus Polka: Composed for a Young Elephant (1942), and it was at Madison Square Garden that the piece had its premiere, danced by 50 elephants and a corps de ballet consisting of “50 beautiful girls.” Brief, yet indelible, the Circus Polka is full of musical jokes, and aptly conjures the festive, incongruous spectacle of dancing elephants.
The 200708 season marks Neeme Järvi's third season as music director of the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, a vibrant partnership that has recently been extended through the 200809 season. He is also Chief Conductor of the Hague Residentie Orchestra in the Netherlands, Music Director Emeritus of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Principal Conductor Emeritus of the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra (National Orchestra of Sweden), Conductor Laureate of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, and First Principal Guest Conductor of the Japan Philharmonic Orchestra. Born in Tallinn, Estonia and an American citizen since 1987, Järvi is one of today’s busiest conductors, making frequent guest appearances with the major orchestras and opera houses throughout the world.
Yefim Bronfman is widely regarded as one of the most talented virtuoso pianists performing today. Born in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, he became an American citizen in 1989. His commanding technique and exceptional lyrical gifts have won him consistent critical acclaim and enthusiastic audiences worldwide. He appears regularly with such celebrated ensembles as the Berlin Philharmonic, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Vienna Philharmonic, the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, the London Philharmonic, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the New York Philharmonic, the Orchestre de Paris and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. He is an exclusive SonyBMG recording artist, and won a Grammy in 1997 for his recording of the three Bartók Piano Concertos with EsaPekka Salonen and the Los Angeles Philharmonic.
Week 2: January 10, 11, 13
From the New World
Neemi Järvi takes the podium to lead the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra in three concerts: Thursday, January
10 at the State Theatre in New Brunswick (8 pm); Friday, January 11 (8 pm) and Sunday, January 13 (3 pm) at Prudential Hall, NJPAC in Newark.
The program opens with the Polonaise from Tchaikovsky’s greatest opera, Eugene Onegin. In the opera, this Polish dance, with its skipping triplemeter pulse, takes place during an elegant ball in the home of a Russian noble, striking a note of grandeur and intrigue. Tchaikovsky came to America, though only once: he toured the country in 1891, conducting in the very first concert given at Carnegie Hall. Some 88 years later, Maestro Järvi crossed the Atlantic to make his debut with the Metropolitan Opera – conducting Eugene Onegin.
Maestro Järvi considers Czech composer Bohuslav Martinů “a great composer whose music should be played much more often. His Second Symphony is a masterpiece.” Certainly, this compact and engaging piece is ripe for discovery. Martinů favors propulsive rhythms that call both Baroque and folk music to mind; his themes are by turns playful and melancholy, forceful and tender. Fleeing the Nazis, Martinů and his wife emigrated to the United States in 1941.
Five of Martinů’s six symphonies were written here, including Symphony No. 2, commissioned by the Cleveland Orchestra, which gave the work its premiere in 1943. The music of another Czech composer completes the program as Järvi leads the NJSO in Antonin Dvořák’s wellloved Symphony No. 9 “From the New World.” Tradition holds that the composer adapted many of his themes from folk songs and spirituals he heard during his years in America, 189295. In fact, he once wrote, “I have only composed in the spirit of such American national melodies,” as he was equally affected by the music of his own homeland. Dvořák composed Symphony No. 9 while living on East 17 Street in New York City; while the building is gone, a statue of him stands in Stuyvesant Square.
Week 3: January 25–27
Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto
Guest conductor Gilbert Varga conducts pianist Haochen Zhang and the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra in three concerts: Friday, January 25 at Prudential Hall, NJPAC in Newark (8 pm); Saturday, January 26 at Patriots Theater at the War Memorial in Trenton (8 pm, preceded by a Classical Conversation at 7 pm) and Sunday, January 27 at Prudential Hall, NJPAC in Newark (3 pm).
Many of the young musicians now coming to America are from East Asia, where interest in classical music has seen a tremendous surge. So it’s particularly fitting that 17yearold pianist Hoachen Zheng, from Shanghai, joins British conductor Gilbert Varga and the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra in Tchaikovsky’s dazzling showpiece, Piano Concerto No. 1. Tchaikovsky himself conducted Piano Concerto No. 1 at Carnegie Hall during his visit to New York in 1891, to rapturous response. Wrote The Evening Sun newspaper, “Tchaikovsky’s concerto is one of the finest in modern music. It is replete with expressive melody lines and fresh orchestral effects.” By turns dramatic and sentimental, the work adapts themes for its outer movements from Ukrainian folksong, while the lovely slow movement draws on French song material.
It was in New York City that Béla Bartók, who had emigrated to America from Hungary in 1940, composed his most famous work, the Concerto for Orchestra (1943), commissioned by the Boston Symphony Orchestra. This, too, is a virtuoso showpiece – but for the entire orchestra. Nearly every instrument has a turn in the spotlight, giving the gifted players of the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra ample opportunities to display their artistry. In the second movement, Bartók introduces an ingenious device: a “game of the pairs.” Introduced by a side drum, like a ringmaster announcing a circus parade, the winds enter two by two, displaying their musical personalities with distinctive melodies. Inventive and gripping, with moments of deep reflection and raucous humor, Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra serves as a brilliant finale to Coming to America.
Gilbert Varga has conducted many of Europe’s major orchestras including the Munich Philharmonic, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Orchestre de Paris, Budapest Festival Orchestra, Oslo Philharmonic Bayerische Staatsoper Orchestra, Orchestra of Santa Cecilia. In recent seasons, Varga’s American profile has seen exponential growth. In 2005, he made a highly successful debut with the Philadelphia Orchestra, and in 200708 he will make his debut with the orchestras of Dallas and Detroit. Varga is a regular guest with the St. Louis Symphony and the Minnesota Orchestra, having conducted both orchestras almost every season since his debuts in 2002. Further afield he has conducted at Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires, Sydney Symphony and the Yomiuri Nippon Symphony in Tokyo. Varga’s discography includes recordings with ASV, Discover Records, Tring (The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra's Collection), Koch International (Munich Chamber Orchestra and Bamberg Symphony) and Claves Recordings (The Basque National Orchestra).
Haochen Zhang entered the Curtis Institute of Music in 2005 and studies with renowned pianist Gary Graffman. In 2006 Haochen Zhang won the junior division of the Philadelphia Orchestra’s Albert M. Greenfield Student Competition and performed as soloist with the orchestra in November 2006 and will appear again in February 2007.
He began studying piano at age 3, and in 1996 at the age of 5, he made his debut with a solo piano recital in Shanghai Music Hall playing works by Mozart, Haydn, and Bach. Since then he has appeared as a soloist with the Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen symphonies; Xiamen Philharmonic Orchestra; Hong Kong Children’s Symphony Orchestra; Krakow State Philharmonic; and China National Symphony Orchestra. Haochen Zhang won first prize in the Fourth International Tchaikovsky Competition for Young Musicians, third prize in the Fourth Moscow International Frederick Chopin Competition for Young Pianists, and the Golden Prize in the all ages concerto competition at the Fifth International Chopin Piano Competition in Asia. -- www.njsymphony.org
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