The New Jersey Symphony Orchestra (NJSO) presents Romantic masterworks from Schumann and Brahms, March 17-20 in Newark and New Brunswick. British born classical composer and pianist Stephen Hough performs Robert Schumann's Piano Concerto in A Minor, while Royal Philharmonic Orchestra of Liège Music Director Christian Arming is set to conduct a program that opens with Richard Wagner's Siegfried Idyll and closes with Johannes Brahms' Second Symphony.
Performances are scheduled to take place on Thursday, March 17, at 1:30pm and Sunday, March 20, at 3:00pm at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark and Saturday, March 19, at 8:00pm at the State Theatre in New Brunswick.
In a recent press release touting the upcoming concerts NJSO Music Director Jacques Lacombe remarked that very few are better suited to play Schumann than Stephen Hough:
"Stephen Hough is one of my favorite pianists, and I am excited to welcome him back to the NJSO for Schumann's Piano Concerto. The way Schumann conceived musical phrases might have had something to do with his own state of mind.
"He was a very complex man, and life was not easy for him; that is reflected in his music -- some of it can be very joyful, and some of it can be pretty dark -- and there's some beauty in that. You feel the big weight, the ups and downs, of his mood and his music."
NJSO Accents include Riffs -- NJSO clarinetist Andrew Lamy and violist Michael Stewart will perform traditional Irish tunes in a St. Patrick's Day salute before the March 17 performance and after the March 19 performance
Tickets for the concert start at $20 and are available through the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra official website or by phone at (800) ALLEGRO [255-3476].
