United States Various: Jeremy Denk (violin), Mark David (trumpet), Academy of St. Martin in the Fields / Stephanie Gonley (violin, music director). NJPAC, Newark, 3.8.2025. (DS)
C. P. E. Bach – Symphony in G major
Shostakovich – Piano Concerto No.1 in C minor
Janáček – String Quartet No.1 ‘Kreutzer Sonata’ (arr. for String Orchestra)
Mozart – Symphony No.15 in G major
With a casual elegance, members of the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields approached the stage. After a quick and friendly bow (and not much time for fanfare), the players slid right into presenting the gloriously intriguing C. P. E. Bach Symphony that opened their concert at Newark’s New Jersey Performing Arts Center in this, their only tri-state area concert.
Without a conductor but under the focused and hypnotic first-violin leadership of Stephanie Gonley, the whole concert connected across works with a gestural strength and a perfectly articulated approach to interpretation that left no measure ill-formed.
Joining them on piano was Jeremy Denk, who sat in for the originally planned appearance of Bruce Liu. There was no disappointment in Denk’s takeover of the Shostakovich Piano Concerto No.1 which was riveting from the start. His masterly shifts between folk-themes, sardonic motifs, snippets of quoted material and modernist tonalities resulted in four movements of stunningly varied technique and musical intensity.
In the Lento second movement, Denk delivered a beautifully tense lament that he transformed into a jazzy, virtuosic melody with sultry undertones – a rarity of form in Shostakovich and executed brilliantly. The intense final movement, Allegro con brio, was strengthened by Mark David’s exquisite timbres on solo trumpet, allowing the climax to build with stupendous brassy pointed shouts that gradually aligned with strings and piano. Together, they built momentum into the concerto’s Dada-like ending which the musicians pulled off with an emotionally electrifying finish – not once losing their perfection of ensemble to the tumultuous material of the work.
After the intermission, the Academy offered a pair of thoughtfully chosen works – Janáček’s String Quartet No.1 and Mozart’s Symphony No.15. With equally colorful delivery, both the modern quartet and the classical symphony were inspired in their delivery with a poignant ensemble-sensitive approach. Dominated by markings of con moto in the Janáček, the Academy’s marked attention to charged moments of silence buoyed energetic passages and powerful, choppy melodies. The Mozart flowed with heavenly sequences of dynamic swoops and swells, and their controlled approach to following tempo markings made for a virtuosic rendition that nevertheless held a courtly, operatic charm.
Daniele Sahr