photo courtesy of NJSO
Jacques Lacombe
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Maestro Jacques Lacombe’s inaugural season at New Jersey Symphony Orchestra is going, well, swimmingly!—especially now in the second half of the season, where the multi-year theme of Man and Nature kicks off with Water. Traditionally the Winter Festival has had a theme, but this year’s theme spans the next several. Particularly, water emphasizes the resource and its multiple capabilities.

The first program, “Water: From the River to the Sea,”spans genres and nations. Kicking off with Gabriel Fauré’s “Suite from Pelléas et Mélisande, Op. 80,” we begin with a passionate piece that does Maurice Maeterlinck’s symbolist play true justice. Though the play also inspired other composers, including Claude Debussy, it was the recommendation of famous British actress, Mrs. Patrick Campbell, that led to Fauré’s selection for incidental music for its English premiere. “Prelude” sets the mood with sweep and passion, and the sense of motion, with the flying shuttle almost visible in the warp and weft of the music in “Fileuse” or “The Spinner” is tangible. Hitting its stride with the haunting and familiar “Sicilienne,” it is then that the sense of familiar comes home, with Fauré clearly standing astride Brahms’ romanticism and bridging what was to come in the early 20th century. “La Mort de Mélisande” ends the suite that condenses the action of an entire play, with pathos and emotion, into a very complete four movements. Different instruments play peek-a-boo throughout, as they peep and play in and around the orchestral passages.

Tan Dun is most familiar to movie aficionados as the composer who took home Oscar for the score to Ang Lee’s “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” and to operaphiles as composer of “The First Emperor,” starring Plácido Domingo, for the Metropolitan Opera. Tan Dun is also an avid experimenter with sound and tone in organic materials. David Cossin, one of only a handful of approved soloists for the work of Tan Dun, spoke in a pre-concert lecture about how he came to be such a soloist and the tremendous appeal in the latitude and voice of what many people take for granted—in this case water. Other Tan Dun works include concerti for solo instruments of paper, and rocks/ceramics.

Fluid in his discussion, pun intended, Cossin gave a brief demonstration of some of his techniques using specially mic’d deep clear basins of one of the building blocks of life. Cossin also demonstrated the water drum, whose sound is somewhere between Bugs Bunny’s “singing sword” and a theremin. Played with a bow and with a very familiar sound, it is eerie and thrilling at the same time. Whenever you have an opportunity, like a pre-curtain lecture, in which to learn more about a particular work, it adds so much more to the experience. At the point of the concert when the opening notes were struck, Cossin was coming in from the back of the house, in semi-darkness, bowing the water drum—and rather than being scary, it was a thrilling moment. Very “Brave New World” and exciting and the piece went up and up from there, a perfect piece to end the first act. Utter joy was on the faces of all the percussionists, and the orchestra was there at every turn in the partnership with the primary soloist and his minions. Inspired by these gifted men, there may have been others in the audience like me, considering which of my kitchen vessels would provide me with the right tones and depth to “play” water. Brilliant!

Tobias Picker’s “Old and Lost Rivers” is part of the New Jersey Roots Project, highlighting composers born in New Jersey or whose time here influenced their art and work. Picker’s piece is broad and very American-sounding. One can hear the dry river beds, as enough water finally falls to give them a ghost of their former glory, but these rivers near Houston are destined again to be dry. This is a beautiful piece to change pace and prepare for the lushness of a different sort—Debussy’s “La Mer.”

Dry river to bountiful sea, the first movement of “La Mer” is “From Dawn till Noon on the Sea”. When “La Mer” was first published, Debussy insisted that the publisher use a detail from Katsushika Hokusai’s “The Hollow of the Wave off Kanagawa,” from “Thirty Six Views of Mt. Fuji,” on the cover of the work, thus exposing musical genius to printmaking genius from half a world away. Passion for the sea is a special love and Debussy’s genius has us hearing the sun sparkling on the water, as its sparkling active fingers reach further and further across the waves. Maestro Lacombe conducts the Debussy from memory—clearly this is a favorite composer.

“Play of the Waves” is the movement where I heard mermaids and mermen gamboling, as they swim with the swift ships, and once they reach critical mass, a seagoing soiree pairs them off for ballroom steps. But all good things come to an end and we hear the distant rumblings in the very beginning of the final movement, “Dialogue of the Wind and Sea.” Something’s brewing from the very beginning and there is turmoil, skirmish and then once again, all is peace.

There was, of course, an encore and again we turn to Debussy. Now that there’s peace on the ocean, we were all invited aboard “Un Bateau.” We’re in the boat together, and enrobed in joy, we left with a twinkle of light remaining in the day.

The next outing starts on January 13, in Morristown, with the “Best of Water,” featuring Strauss and of course, Smetana’s “Die Moldau.” I hope to see you there! I’ll be the well-hydrated person with a HUGE smile on my face! “Die Moldau” is one of my first harbingers of spring!

Make sure you don’t miss a concert! For tickets, subscriptions or more information on NJSO programs, call 1/800-ALLEGRO (255-3476) or visit www.njsymphony.org.