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Thursday, January 15, 2015

REVIEW: CHOPIN CONCERTO FEATURED BY BONJ

Sheila and OreoBy Sheila Abrams

Though it’s called the Baroque Orchestra of New Jersey, the talented Madison-based group has definitely altered its identity to “Baroque and Beyond,” the title of its newsletter. Its repertoire has encompassed the Classical period as well as the Baroque, and far beyond that. In recent months, it has presented the work of Modernist composer Paul Hindemith and, notably, it has premiered compositions from living composers, including conductor Robert W. Butts.

Two arias for soprano were presented at the Jan. 11 concert held at Grace Church in Madison, from operas composed by Butts. Sung by Emily Thompson, the short pieces were from Gesualdo and The Cask of the Amontillado, based on a short story by Edgar Allen Poe.

The arias were part of a very varied program that seemed to be building toward a climactic performance of a work from the Romantic literature, Piano Concerto No. 1 in E Minor, by Frederic Chopin, featuring the spectacular Sohyun Ahn as the soloist.

The concerto was a remarkably youthful work, one of just two composed by Chopin when he was in his late teens. Identified as his first, the concerto was premiered with the young composer as the soloist shortly before he left his native Poland. He was ultimately to live most of his life in Paris, and the bulk of his work was composed for solo piano.

The thundering passion that fills the work is intense. That passion seems, in fact, to reflect the youth of the composer. Ahn, such a gifted virtuoso, has performed Mozart’s music with BONJ in the past. Remarkably, she is as wonderful performing the emotional storm that is Chopin as she was with the perfectly balanced elegance that is Mozart.

The orchestra’s Baroque roots have, happily, not been forgotten. Following a presentation by the Grace Church young men’s group, The Gargoyles, the first half of the concert featured two Baroque masterpieces. First was the Concerto Grosso, Opus 6, No. 9 by Arcangelo Corelli. Featured were Agnes Kwasniewska and Allen Weakland on violin and Janis Kaplan, cellist. Maestro Butts explained that, in a concerto grosso, the soloists play as part of the orchestra and perform their solos from their seats in their sections.

The second Baroque piece, composed a few years later than the Corelli, was the Oboe Concerto in B Flat by Tomasso Albinoni. The soloist was Elizabeth Engelberth, a former winner of the BONJ Pearl and Julius Young Music Competition. Both the Corelli and Albinoni pieces were glorious in the clarity and mathematical precision that makes Baroque music such a joy. The soloists were all superb.

The next BONJ concert, on April 26 at Dolan Hall, The College of St. Elizabeth, will be unique. It will feature four works for two pianos, by four composers, each representing a different style and period of music.