Jim Beckerman

Staff Writer@jimbeckerman1

Violinist Pinchas Zukerman conducts the NJSO on Jan. 26 and 29

Budapest Festival Orchestra performing Beethoven at NJPAC on Feb. 4

"The older I grow, the more I am convinced that the most portentous phenomenon in the whole history of music was the first public performance of the 'Eroica' on April 7, 1805."

So, in 1922, wrote critic H.L. Mencken – caustic foe of Prohibition, evangelists and cheap sentiment of any kind. For Beethoven, he swooned, gushed, wept beery tears of joy. "The feelings that Beethoven put into his music were the feelings of a god," Mencken wrote. "There was something Olympian in his snarls and rages, and there was a touch of hellfire in his mirth."

The third symphony – the "Eroica" – is widely thought of as the work where Beethoven became Beethoven: the symphony where he threw out the rulebook, the conventions he inherited from Haydn, Mozart and others, and boldly staked out his own turf. The famous story that Beethoven dedicated his manuscript to Napoleon, and then tore up the dedication when Bonaparte declared himself emperor, is disputed. What's beyond dispute is the music. "The noblest piece of absolute music ever written in sonata form," Mencken called "Eroica's" famous first movement.

Those of us mere mortals who want to commune with the great god Ludwig can do so when violinist/conductor Pinchas Zukerman takes the helm of the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra to conduct the "Eroica." Also on the program: Bach's Violin Concerto No. 2 (with Zukerman as soloist) and Arnold Schoenberg's "Transfigured Night." You can catch the program at Englewood's bergenPAC on Jan. 26 and Newark's NJPAC on Jan. 29.

If your Beethoven appetite is still ravenous, you can return to NJPAC at 8 p.m. Feb. 4 to see the Budapest Festival Orchestra, conducted by Ivan Fischer, playing the most famous four notes in history: the da-da-da-DUM of Fifth Symphony. Also on the menu: Symphony No. 1, with the Piano Concerto No. 2 thrown in for garnish (Richard Goode is at the keyboard).

MUSIC

WHAT: "NJSO: Winter Festival."

WHEN: 7:30 p.m. Jan. 26, bergenPAC; 3 p.m. Jan. 29, NJPAC.

WHERE: bergenPAC, 30 N. Van Brunt St., Englewood, 201-227-1030 or bergenpac.org; NJPAC, 1 Center St., Newark, 888-466-5722 or njpac.org.

HOW MUCH: $24 to $79, bergenPAC; $20 to $90, NJPAC.

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WHAT: Budapest Festival Orchestra plays Beethoven.

WHEN: 8 p.m. Feb. 4.

WHERE: NJPAC, 1 Center St., Newark, 888-466-5722 or njpac.org.

HOW MUCH: $39 to $99.