OLLIE ALI
RANDALL GOOSBY
Randall Goosby’s return to the New Jersey Symphony after two years is so highly anticipated that the program title reads more like an assertion than a description: “Randall Goosby Returns.” For an artist of Goosby’s caliber, that is all that needs to be said.
He will play Samuel Barber’s only violin concerto, a dynamic showpiece that speaks to a wide audience and doesn’t get as much stage time as the classical warhorses. It makes a fine match to his brilliant tone, straightforward phrasing and sportive virtuosity. He is not big on theatrics; his playing is free of affectation and grandiloquence.
The concerts, which will be led by New Jersey Symphony music director Xian Zhang, will take place in Newark, New Brunswick, Morristown and Princeton from Jan. 8 to Jan. 11, and also feature Sibelius’ Finlandia and Tchaikovsky’s “Ukrainian” Symphony.
The last time Goosby played with the Symphony was in June 2023. The program, titled “Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto,” represented his New Jersey premiere.
He was 27 and already had an extensive command of the standard repertoire plus some of the bravura pieces, including the Tchaikovsky, a 19th century crowd-pleaser that has been one of his calling cards in the last couple of years.
“It was a really exciting time but also kind of scary because the Tchaikovsky is sort of the Mount Rushmore of violin concerti,” he says. “But I had such an incredible time with the New Jersey Symphony and Xian, and I’m excited to come back and continue on the journey with them.”
JEREMY MITCHELL
RANDALL GOOSBY
He is shelving the Tchaikovsky piece in the first half of 2026 to revisit Barber, plus violin concertos by Bruch and Mozart.
Barber’s violin concerto has been his favorite since he was a child, and happens to be his mother’s, too. “It must’ve been last season when I sort of pulled it out for the first time and took it on tour with orchestras,” he says. “It was due partly to the fact that it’s my mom’s favorite concerto and she said, ‘Hey, you’ve got to play the Barber — it’s been long enough!’
“We’re a very Romantically inclined family when it comes to classical music: Barber, Brahms, Tchaikovsky. The kind of ‘heart on your sleeve’ repertoire is right up our alley and has been a long time.”
While Barber’s 20th century peers were experimenting with serialism and atonalism, he was an unabashed Romantic who stayed rooted to the European musical traditions. The work is lyrical and intimate, and does not invite fanfare or swagger.
“As the kids say, it is one of the more ‘slept-on’ concerti,” says Goosby. “It’s not up there with the Tchaikovsky or Brahms or Beethoven and, in a sense, it’s not a surprise: It is a much shorter and concise work and, in a way, it has a bit less of that ‘soloist at the forefront at all times’ characteristic. But as far as the impact from an emotional standpoint, I think it’s right up there with some of the best music that’s ever been written for violin.”
It only really entered the standard repertory in the 1990s and is loaded with an intriguing backstory. It was commissioned in 1939 by the Philadelphia industrialist Samuel S. Fels for Iso Briselli, a violinist who had emigrated from Russia to study. Upon receiving the third (and final) movement from Barber, Briselli felt that it was not up to his standards — he had wanted a concerto that would show off the soloist’s bravura — so he asked for a revision. Barber said no and they agreed to abandon the project. It eventually premiered in 1941 (with the Philadelphia Orchestra and Albert Spalding as soloist). Since then, it has inspired debate: Is it a great American violin concerto or not?
Goosby thinks it is. “In the way of American composers and music that is relevant in American history, I think Barber was sort of a trailblazer in the world of violin concerti. It’s a really fun piece and I think — as with any great violin concerto — there is something in it for everyone, no matter what your taste is. Each movement is so distinct in its character and feeling.”
ZIGGY TUCKER
RANDALL GOOSBY
The first movement, which Barber composed in the Swiss mountains, begins with the solo violin without orchestral introduction. The music is joyful, carefree and melodic.
“That opening is just so expansive and cinematic, and it sort of pervades the whole first movement,” Goosby says. “I’m not necessarily a visually associative player — I don’t always have a picture or scene in mind — but just knowing the history of the piece and that Barber was in Switzerland when he began composing it, I always imagine an Alpine scene and soaring over some kind of beautiful landscape.”
He calls the second movement “breathtaking with a really juicy violin part. It’s one of those ‘heart on the sleeve’ kinds of expressions that I really enjoy. Whereas the first movement is kind of airborne with beautiful scenery, the second movement is more on the ground. It’s quite misty and it’s not so bright outside, so it feels like a lament of sorts.”
He says he is a sucker for second movements. His all-time favorite is the Adagio in Brahms’ Violin Concerto, even though the violin soloist only gets to play embellished versions of the theme, which is introduced by the oboe. In the Barber work, while the second movement also begins with an extended oboe solo, the violin gets to repeat it (after entering the movement with a contrasting and rhapsodic melody), which Goosby really enjoys digging into.
“Barber has Brahms beat in that the violin actually gets that theme, and I get to play it nice and high up on the G String, which is a really comfortable and satisfying place for most violinists.”
Barber wrote the third movement while in The Poconos. It is fast and vigorous, and marked by a moto perpetuo middle section followed by a quick sprint to the finale.
“It’s almost like Barber was saving all the fireworks for the end,” Goosby says. “It’s a perpetual motion, so even though there are a few bars of rests here and there for the solo violin part, the music never stops. It keeps going and going and going, and as we get closer to the end, it starts to feel like a race to the finish line. Even though it’s constantly moving, I think it’s quite dynamic. There are many different sorts of rhythmic characters and feelings in it. There’s a little bit of everything, including some American fiddling-style writing, and it’s just such an exciting way to finish out the piece.”
RANDALL GOOSBY
Fun fact: Barber was 29 when he began composing his violin concerto, and this is also Goosby’s current age. “That’s really cool and feels like a full circle moment, in a way,” he says, and then jokes: “Maybe I’ll find something new in the concerto that I just need to unlock by turning 29.”
In his free time, Goosby is an avid golfer. He always brings his golf clubs with him on the road (plus his violin, of course, which is the Cremonese “Strauss” Stradivari of 1708, on loan from the Samsung Foundation of Culture since 2023).
He finds common ground between professional golfers and professional musicians. I asked him about Tiger Woods’ belief that his biggest wins have come down to clearing his mind to a blank slate and letting his training and instinct take over. Goosby can relate. He finds that when he looks back at some of his most successful performances, he couldn’t tell how they were going at the time because he was so immersed in the moment with his colleagues on the stage.
“I think one of the many interesting parallels between playing violin and playing golf is that you go through hours upon hours of repetition, and of building not just a muscle memory but kind of an emotional memory as far as how things feel to play. I think in a perfect world, the brain shuts off and you just sort of surrender to the moment.”
Will he slip into that mindset during the quick attacks and bowings of Barber’s third movement?
“In some ways the third movement is easier than the first two movements to get into that sort of flow state, because once it gets going and the rhythm starts to set in, it’s almost like the pace just carries you through. It moves so quickly that if you get caught up thinking about the technical details of what you’re doing, it can slip through your fingers in the blink of an eye.
“I think from an emotional standpoint, if you’re able to sort of tap into how that music affects you and therefore how it affects the audience, that’s when you’re able to trust in your preparation and in your sense of what’s happening in the music in that particular moment.
“So absolutely that’s a parallel, and I’m sure Tiger would be really interested to hear how that works with violin playing, too,” he adds with a laugh.
Goosby, like Woods, showed prodigious talent at a young age. He started playing the violin at 7 and made his orchestral debut two years later.
At 13, he became the youngest winner of the junior division of the Sphinx Competition, which is held in Detroit and promotes artistic excellence and inclusion. This spring he will tour the Sphinx organization’s flagship chamber ensemble, The Sphinx Virtuosi.
Another turning point came at 14 when he entered The Perlman Music Program, co-founded by Itzhak Perlman and his wife Toby on Shelter Island, New York. He became Perlman’s protégé and continued to study under him at The Juilliard School for his bachelor’s, master’s and artist diploma degrees.
The Renaissance Quartet (from left, Daniel Hass, Randall Goosby, Jeremiah Blacklow and Jameel Martin).
Although Goosby travels the world as a star guest soloist, he credits the intimate art of chamber music as one of the reasons he decided to pursue a career in classical music. In 2021, he founded The Renaissance Quartet, a New-York based ensemble that includes violinist Jeremiah Blacklow, violist Jameel Martin, viola and cellist Daniel Hass. They are best friends and have known each other since high school. They all attended The Perlman Music Program and overlapped at Juilliard.
“Chamber music was one of the kick-starts as a younger person to decide, ‘Hey, I really want to play music as a career and as a livelihood,’ ” Goosby says. “It was that sort of exposed and unabashed collaboration that it requires that really got me excited for music, and it’s something I feel that really seeps into all different settings that I happen to play in, whether it be concerti or recitals or even unaccompanied playing.
“Just that sense of being really empathetic to all the voices that are involved in the performance. And, in some respects, a sense of empathy toward the audience as well.”
Randall Goosby will perform with New Jersey Symphony at The State Theatre in New Brunswick, Jan. 8 at 7 p.m.; Richardson Auditorium at Princeton University, Jan. 9 at 7:30 p.m.; Prudential Hall at NJPAC in Newark, Jan. 10 at 7:30 p.m.; and The Mayo Performing Arts Center in Morristown, Jan. 11 at 2 p.m. Visit njsymphony.org.
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