The Princeton Symphony Orchestra is set to finish their season on Sunday April 27th at 4:00. The ensemble will be led by guest conductor Rossen Milanov. David Grielsammer will be the featured piano soloist. The program will include Prokoviev’s Puskin Waltz’s Opus 120, in celebration of the composer’s birthday. Mozart piano concerto #5 in D major is next, followed by the eternal Symphony #5 by Ludwig van Beethoven. Beethoven’s 5th symphony is the most recognized melodic theme in the entire classical music repertoire. This will surely be an exciting way to end a very interesting season.
This is the second year that I have been playing with the symphony. The Princeton Symphony is a professional orchestra, not to be confused with any of the music groups from the University. It is a very fine ensemble. The 2007-2008 season has been an important transition year for the group. The orchestra is in the midst of a conductor search. What is intriguing for the musicians is that we get a chance to play with several different guest conductors. The first concert of the year the orchestra was lead by Shi-Yeon Sung. She is the new assistant conductor for the Boston Symphony, in addition to winning the top prize at the famed Gustav Mahler conducting competition in Europe. This concert was excellent and was definitely a great way to start the season. Subsequent concerts were lead by Jens Georg Bachmann of the Metropolitan Opera and Mischa Santora. The next concert was quite a treat. Gunther Schuller was the guest conductor and lead us with his own piece Seven Studies on Themes of Paul Klee. We concluded this program with Paul Hindemith’s Matis der Maler Symphony. Just as we began rehearsing the symphony, Schuller pleasantly commented that he succeeded Hindemith at Yale. This concert was in conjunction with the Princeton University Art Museum. The PSO plays a lot of contemporary music and the new works are very well received.
Princeton, New Jersey is a beautiful town with many cultural offerings. This is a great advantage for the ensemble. One of my first impressions of Princeton was that is an ideal marketplace for the arts. It is a good combination of affluence and intelligentsia. The concerts here in Princeton are very well attended. Next season is also going to be a host of new guest conductors and will be announced publicly in the near future. Once the symphony finds its new leader, the sky is the limit for sure. For more information and history on the Princeton Symphony visit their website by clicking on the following link www.PrincetonSymphony.org.
The Princeton Symphony plays on the campus of Princeton University in Richardson Auditorium. Richardson Auditorium is located in Alexander Hall. The picture below is the interior of this historic building. This concert hall has some of the best acoustics I have ever experienced. It frequently hosts many guest orchestras and it is one of the busiest theaters on the east coast. For more information on this architectural gem click here.
The San Francisco Symphony led by music director Michael Tilson Thomas will be playing for the first time at the State Theater in New Brunswick, New Jersey. The concert is Thursday March 13 at 8:00. The program will consist of Shostakovich Symphony #9 in E minor and Beethoven’s Symphony #3 “Eroica”. The San Francisco Symphony performs around the world and plays at Carnegie Hall in New York on an annual basis. Take advantage of this opportunity to see this noteworthy ensemble at the State Theater. Michael Tilson Thomas is a world renowned conductor who will surely lead an extremely exciting performance. Do not miss this memorable event. For ticket information on this concert click here.
The State Theater in New Brunswick, New Jersey is an premier venue for the performing arts and entertainment. They present top notch talent across the board in many areas. In addition to this upcoming San Francisco Symphony concert, the theater is also presenting Tony award winning Blast, Carmen with the St. Petersburg Ballet and concerts with the New Jersey Symphony just to name a few. For more information about events at the State Theater, visit their website at www.StateTheatreNJ.org.
For a virtual tour of the State Theater click here.
A long, bizarre journey is now in the distant past for the New Jersey Symphony. According to a news release that came out on Nov. 23, the NJSO finally sold its instrument collection which was named the “Golden Age”. To read the official press release from the NJSO click here.
There has been so many ups and downs to this situation that it is difficult to know where to start. A plethora of scenarios have been flooding the classical music world since the orchestra purchased the collection back in 2003. A whole series of unanticipated events ensued and it just went on from there. Instead of dwelling in the past, I would like to comment on the future benefits of the situation. The NJSO has recouped all of the money that has been spent during the tenure of owning the collection. This includes all the finance charges, interest fees and transaction costs. The orchestra also is going to play on 28 out of 30 of the instruments for the next 5 years. They are also a partner in the future appreciation of the collection. This leaves the organization with a balanced budget for the first time in a decade. Being the deficit-driven machines that modern day orchestras are, the loan was another liability that was a drain on the finances. Just like when a mistake is made in a concert, one needs to move on quickly and look ahead. What’s done is done. The famous makers of this collection include violins, violas and cellos from Stradivarius, Guarneri and Amati.
For more information about the New Jersey Symphony click here.
The New Jersey Symphony performs in the New Jersey Performing Arts Center. This is an amazing facility that includes two concert halls. For more information on NJPAC click here.
This week the New Jersey Symphony is set to perform Gustav Mahler’s mighty Symphony #2 in C minor. The NJSO will be joined by the formidable Westminster Symphonic Choir. The New Jersey Symphony music director Neemi Jarvi is on the podium. There are two soprano soloists that are on the bill. Twyla Robinson is the soprano soloist and the mezzo soprano will be Nancy Maultsby.
I look forward to playing this concert very much. Playing Mahler Symphonies are a very interesting and unique experience. Mahler was also a conductor, as well as being a prolific composer. The detail in the work is just incredible. While visiting the State Opera House in Vienna, I was able to take a tour and see his office. It is now a museum and they have his scores out for display. They are so many colored pencils, music notes, German words written all over the music. You can really see how a conductor was composing music. Mahler conducted a lot of opera as well and even served a term as director of the Metropolitan Opera. At the same time, Toscanini was conducting the New York Philharmonic. Just imagine being in NYC back then and hearing these concerts. They were known to switch from time to time. Mahler to the Philharmonic and Toscanini to the Met. Pretty Awesome. Here is a great page to study this momentous work click here.
For concert and ticket information on these performances visit the website of the New Jersey Symphony by clicking here.
I have also added an amazing video of Claudio Abbado conducting the finale of this amazing work. Click on the video below to listen to this great recording.
This past weekend I was privileged to play my first concert with the Iris Orchestra in Memphis, TN. The program consisted of Osvaldo Golijov’s Last Round, Samuel Barber’s Violin concerto and Brahm’s Symphony #3. The soloist for the Barber was Cho-Liang Lin. Cho-Liang sounded really great. It was such a pleasure playing this piece with a musician of such a high caliber. The Golijav piece consisted of a string orchestra split into 2 parts. It is a very passionate, exciting piece that written as an homage to the Argentinian composer Astor Piazzola. We finished the first half with the Barber Violin Concerto. Following the concerto, we played a Piazzaola encore with Cho-Liang. We concluded the concert with Brahms Symphony #3.
The conductor of the Iris Orchestra is Michael Stern. He is the son of the late great violinist Issac Stern. He is an excellent musician and I enjoyed working with him a great deal. One interesting point that he made about the concert was that in the time of Brahms, they played most of the symphonies with a smaller orchestra that we usually do today. We had an orchestra just a little bigger than a chamber orchestra. The result was fascinating. You can hear so much of the color changes and all these interesting lines and figures that would probably be covered up in a larger symphony orchestra.
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About John Grillo
John started playing Double Bass at the age of 11. He attended The Julliard School during high school and was a scholarship student at Indiana University School of Music in Bloomington, Indiana where he studied with Lawrence Hurst. After graduating from IU, he attended the Manhattan School of Music completing his Masters Degree. (more)
