For its annual Thanksgiving weekend concert this year, New Jersey Symphony Orchestra (NJSO) looked back through music history. NJSO concertmaster Eric Wyrick served as both conductor and violin soloist for three works harking back to the days before conductors formally stood in front of orchestras. Friday night’s NJSO performance in Richardson Auditorium showed the nearly full house how an instrumental ensemble can work within itself to create music rooted in solid communication and musical trust.

In his career, Mr. Wyrick has had extensive experience as both a follower and a leader in an ensemble; in conjunction with his position as concertmaster of NJSO, he regularly appears as soloist with orchestras worldwide and has recorded an extensive repertory. Friday night’s concert was centered on Antonio Vivaldi’s early 18th-century concerto set The Four Seasons, for which Mr. Wyrick served as violin soloist. In the four concerti selected, a chamber-sized NJSO demonstrated the true orchestral intricacy of 18th-century music with themes passed among players and complex musical conversations. Mr. Wyrick brought The Four Seasons into the 21st century by playing off an iPad, and added a wealth of 19th and 20th-century interpretive style to music which is sometimes considered repetitive. In this performance, nothing was boring, and there was tremendous variety in dynamics, contrast, and melodic lines. 

Throughout the 12 movements of Vivaldi’s work, Mr. Wyrick maneuvered well from the long melodic lines of the inner slow movements to the ferocious virtuosity of the closing “Prestos” and “Allegros.” While the ensemble violinists played without excessive vibrato, Mr. Wyrick added a bit of color to the solo lines. The solo violin was often paired with solo cello, perfectly timed and elegantly played by NJSO principal cellist Stephen Fang. Principal violist Frank Foerster provided a clean contrast to Mr. Wyrick’s solo violin in the middle movement “Largo” of the opening “Spring,” and Mr. Wyrick was paired multiple times with violinists Brennan Sweet and Francine Storck, creating lively melodic interplay. The musicians of the NJSO well captured Vivaldi’s depictions of the seasons, ranging from the blazing heat of summer to the icy starkness of the dead of winter.

The other two works performed on the program dated from later than Vivaldi, yet both recalled the courtliness of the Baroque era, if not earlier. The symphonic works of Italian composer Luigi Boccherini are familiar, yet people often forget he was a contemporary of Mozart, with the same sophisticated classical style. Boccherini bridged the period between the Baroque and Classical eras, and his 1771 Symphony No. 6 in D minor fused the precision of the early 18th century with the musical drama so well exploited by Mozart.

Led by Mr. Wyrick, the NJSO began Boccherini’s three-movement symphony with a spirited “Allegro” full of the melodic “rockets” prevalent at the time. The violins in particular moved along quickly, with clean melodic turns. The second movement “Andantino,” for strings alone, was dark in its minor key without being overly somber, as the players delicately cadenced phrases together. The NJSO maintained musical drama until the end of the operatic “Allegro” which closed the work.

Ottorino Respighi’s Ancient Airs and Dances recalled the music of an even earlier time — as far back as the early 17th century. Respighi’s three suites which comprise Ancient Airs drew on lute and vocal works of the Renaissance period, infused with 20th-century orchestral color. From the outset of Suite No. 1, Mr. Wyrick led the orchestra in an interpretation which was light and delicate. The addition of winds to the orchestral color was clean, marked by graceful oboe solos throughout the work by Nick Masterson. Harpsichordist Robert Wolinsky was a constant foundation throughout the work (as he was throughout the evening) and a flowing harp played by Nancy Allen added a modern touch to the orchestral color. Throughout the suite, the NJSO created a pastoral atmosphere recalling a 17th-century countryside, exemplifying the musical precision and accuracy which marked the entire evening.