Last Saturday April 28, I went to see the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra conducted by Lacombe and featuring violinist Gil Shaham at the State Theatre in New Brunswick. The venue was built 90 years ago, and it was designed for both movies and live performances (vaudeville).  In spite of being seated at the gallery section, I was able to hear the music clearly just as those sitting at the front section.

Before the start of the program, the audience was given the theme of that night’s performance. The conductor mentioned the theme as the feeling of death and mourning for and by a loved one.  The featured program named lasted for two hours and included several musical pieces.

Conductor Lacombe got things going with Mozart’s Masonic Funeral Music which Wolfgang composed for two of his deceased Freemason colleagues.  The opus began with a funeral dirge, out of which emerged stringent chorale melodies that are interrupted by convulsive stabs of brass and jarring harmonic shifts, culminating in a relatively soothing finale.

Alban Berg’s violin concerto To the Memory of an Angel followed. The composer wrote this as a tribute to the life and death of a teenager named Manon Gropius, daughter of Alma Mahler, who died of polio at the young age of 18. The piece follows Schoenberg’s 12-tone system with a two-part movement: the Andante-Allegretto and Allegro-Adagio. Listening to the opus was very challenging.

Danielpour’s Kaddish for Violin and Orchestra  came out melodious sounding by comparison. The piece is a tribute to the composer’s father. The title refers to the Jewish prayer for the dead. It was written for violin and string orchestra, which came out as a surprise because there were no brass and percussion instruments to be heard. But the music came out as an extremely moving melody that captured the feeling of sadness.

Lastly, we listened to Prokofiev’s Symphony No. 3 in C Minor, Op. 44. It was written when the composer’s audacious opera “The Fiery Angel” ran into difficulties in production. It was based on a novel about demonic possession. Maitre Lacombe, being a ballet conductor, conducted this complex piece without using score sheets. On cue, the orchestra delivered a rousing performance.

It was a night to remember.