Rutgers Symphony Orchestra hits right notes
On Saturday, the Rutgers Symphony Orchestra hosted its final performance of the month at the Nicholas Music Center on Douglass Campus. In their concert, the Orchestra, conducted by Kynan Johns, a professor in the Department of Music at the Mason Gross School of the Arts, performed three pieces.
The first piece was "Hymn for Everyone (2021)," written by Jessie Montgomery.
In the program, Montgomery mused that, "It is a kind of meditation for orchestra, exploring various washes of color and timbre through each repetition of the melody."
Even for those not trained well enough to recognize that distinction, the hymn was certainly an attention-grabbing piece.
From the start of the composition, percussionists sounded the tubular bells in a room-filling resonant ringing. Cellists and bassists plucked at their strings, creating a staccato sound while the woodwinds and brass sang out.
If there was one defining element to this piece, it was the texture and wide variety of instruments. Montgomery composed the piece in such a way that there were least two different types of sound coming from the stage at all times.
When the violinists played flowing melodies, percussionists struck cowbells to form musical stops along the way. The finale of this piece returned to the tubular bells. The musician in charge of the bells played the notes with a swift hand, making it seem as if the instrument could sustain a single note for longer than it could.
As the bells continued, the collective heartbeat in the room sped up with the excitement of the music. The bells finally died out, and clapping resounded from the audience.
The second piece the Orchestra performed was "Piano Concerto No. 2 in C Minor, Op. 18" by Sergei Rachmaninoff.
Just before the piece began, Min Kwon, a professor of piano at Mason Gross, took to the stage. There were audible "oohs" and "ahs" from the audience as they witnessed her take her seat at the piano.
As her hands flew across the keys, the emotion of the piece touched everyone watching. The rest of the orchestra joined her with standout performances from the French horn and clarinet.
Although the performance started strong with the "Moderato," the second part, the "Adagio Sostenuto," lacked some of the life that the rest of the performance had. It was still nice to listen to, but it did not capture the same attention.
Regardless, the symphony had a strong finish with the "Allegro Scherzando." This featured crashing symbols, an engaging timpanist and powerful crescendos.
Kwan's masterful playing, combined with Johns' animated conducting, led to a captivating performance throughout. When the last part of the Rachmaninoff concerto ended, the audience exploded with applause. Many audience members stood to express their praise.
Kwan walked offstage but quickly returned to perform a solo piece. Again, she played masterfully, ending her performance by leaning backward, her hands lifting gently off the keyboard and her body hanging precariously off the bench.
The show closed out with the third piece, "Pictures at an Exhibition" by Modest Mussorgsky. Mussorgsky composed this set of piano pieces following the death of his artist friend Viktor Hartmann. Hartmann was posthumously honored with an exhibition art show, a display which saddened Mussorgsky and inspired these pieces.
In the program for the Rutgers Symphony Orchestra performance, Tomás Garcia, a DMA conducting candidate, wrote, "Hartmann's work was soon forgotten in the arts circles, and many of the paintings have since been lost, but his oeuvre remains immortalized in Mussorgsky's Pictures."
It was a worthy end to the triumphant performance of the symphony. The audience left with the music replaying in their heads and in their hearts.
