Glimmers of hope on a summer night: The NJSO gets the band back together. – NJ.com

Orchestral music is finally back in New Jersey — sort of.

The New Jersey Symphony Orchestra held an impromptu summer concert Thursday night in Newark’s Branch Brook Park, playing together as a full band and in front of an audience for the first time since February 2020. It was a short, hour-long set, not a traditional classical program — not at their home at NJPAC — and not in formal attire. The troupe was dressed in casual, white polo shirts (appropriate given the muggy, 90-plus degree temperatures). Also NJSO Music Director Xian Zhang was not on the podium.

But this was a step closer to a full return and reason to celebrate nonetheless, which made the fireworks immediately after the concert feel particularly appropriate.

The evening began at 7:30 with Chilean guest conductor Jose Luis Dominguez (wearing a black face mask) leading the NJSO through “The Star Spangled Banner.” The program that followed was a mix of pops, Americana and some South American flare. After the anthem, Dominguez led the NJSO though a French rhapsody about Spain and then a Chilean air.

Next was the most conventional classical work on the bill, a snippet from George Bizet (of “Carmen” fame). All three of the opening pieces were brisk, lively and fun — Bizet’s “Farandole” from “L’Arlesienne” Suite had a particularly manic energy to it. The outdoor amplification made the NJSO sound a bit heavy and tinny through the speakers. But more importantly, the orchestra members sounded like they were happy to be playing together again.

The concert really started coming together when the NJSO performed George Walker’s “Lyric for Strings.” Walker was not only a New Jersey (and Essex County) resident, he was also the first African American composer to win the Pulitzer Prize for music. Walker’s music isn’t often performed by American orchestras, but recently “Lyric” has become an informal anthem for our COVID and Black Lives Matter era. It’s also a piece the NJSO knows how to play well, as they did Thursday night. The deep, evocative work calls to mind Barber’s “Adagio for Strings,” though it’s shorter and more ambiguous. Yes, it’s a lament, but it also a probing rumination, and in it one can hear glimmers of hope.

Pioneering female musician Florence Price is another American composer the NJSO has been championing these days. After Walker’s slow meditation, Price’s upbeat, two-minute “Nimble Feet” was a burst of toe-tapping delight. After Price came two marches from “The Maestro of the Movies,” John Williams. The Oscar-winning film composer’s themes from “Superman” and “Raiders of the Lost Ark” can certainly be heard with more precision and snap on their soundtrack albums, but outdoor concerts are about atmosphere and the NJSO (no stranger to playing film scores) brought both brash, familiar anthems to life.

The concert ended with the Armed Forces Salute and Sousa’s “The Stars and Stripes Forever,” during which Maestro Dominguez turned to the estimated 1,500 people gathered at the park and asked them to clap along. All of this, combined with the fireworks, gave the proceedings the feel of a July 4th spectacular. (Hard to argue with that after the lost year of 2020 and a season and a half of cancelled concerts — why not celebrate?)

And yes, while most of the program was a triumph of just getting the band back together, one piece was truly unique from a musical performance perspective. The centerpiece of the program was an excerpt from Aaron Copland’s ballet score “Rodeo.” This 1942 work is a staple in both concert halls and theaters. And yet, while these ears have heard the score — in particular, the “Saturday Night Waltz” section — countless times, there was something about listening to it in a public park that made it sound special.

This slow movement contains great melodies — sure — but this was the one piece on the program that the electronic amplification didn’t seem to affect. The lovely woodwind passages in “Saturday Night Waltz” sounded clean, and one could even hear the nuanced harp plucks that often get drowned out inside. (It also didn’t hurt that the five-minute piece went on just as the sun was setting.) But mostly, Copland’s simple, nostalgic American tune is augmented when hearing trains, cicadas and children playing in the background.

The Garden State is ready for proper concerts to resume this fall, but the NJSO’s summer season (which ends this weekend in Madison at the Giralda Music & Arts Festival with a repeat of Thursday night’s program on Saturday evening) is a healthy reminder that classical music doesn’t just belong in august auditoriums; it can be heard wherever people want — and need — to hear it.

James C. Taylor can be reached writejamesctaylor@gmail.com. Find NJ.com/Entertainment on Facebook.