Date Night: The KC Symphony, Carmina Burana March 30, 2019

I stopped by the box Office at the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts on Thursday this week to buy tickets for the Saturday evening performance of Carmina Burana. This performance was not part of my season ticket package, but I really wanted to hear it, and my wife and I ended up having a free weekend, so we decided to make this a Date Night…and our favorite Date Night destination is the KC Symphony.

Well, this quick errand to buy tickets turned out to be a brief window into what was to come. There were only a few tickets left for Saturday’s performance in our price range, and they were not together. I texted Cheryl before making the purchase and she was OK with sitting apart…this was Carmina Burana after all. (Our price range for this weekend was less than $50 per ticket. I got one for $38 and the other for $48…a good deal in my book.  One can spend more and sit closer, but there are no bad seats in this world class Hall.)

On the way out of the box office, there was a line of vehicles pulling into the loading area at the Convention Center just across the street. I happened to be on my afternoon run and asked one of the dudes working security what was going on…”Planet Comicon!”  The calculus in my head was instantly altered because our favorite destination before a Symphony concert is Los Tules, an awesome Mexican restaurant just across the street from the Kauffman Center. On a normal Saturday night, it is busy. On nights when there are other events going on, it can be impossible to get into! I already knew that the NCAA Regional Basketball tournament was being played at the Sprint Center downtown. Now we had to anticipate that thousands of comic book enthusiasts would be trying to get in to drink margaritas too.

Tickets secured, I had a couple of days to listen to Carmina Burana, which I did twice. To be honest, it is not a work that I listen to very often, and revisiting it this week made me realize why…I don’t like it. Sure, the “O Fortuna” introduction is one of the most famous musical statements of all time…used in movies, commercials, TV news stories, ESPN-type documentaries, etc. I have always felt there was more flash than substance to this work.  And the two recordings I listened to this week did not change my opinion of it. It just did not move me, and it never has….and I don’t know why.

But the buzz around this piece is huge and orchestras continue to program it. I have to assume it is a big draw and money maker, which is great. One of Cheryl’s co-workers saw the Friday performance and just raved about it. She said she wanted to clap between every movement (There are about 24 segments or scenes…so that would be a lot of clapping).

No one has really heard of Carl Orff either. I liken Carl Orff to one of the many artists called “one hit wonders.” Carmina Burana was his one big hit. I can’t take credit for saying this because I found a piece online where the someone created a list of the top 10 classical music “one hit wonders”, and Orff is on the list.

Maybe Carmina Burana is really just “Game of Thrones–Comicon-Dungeons and Dragons” background music, and that’s why it has never had much effect on me. And then we have all of the questions surrounding Orff’s true relationship with the Nazi Party. If you Google Carl Orff, you will see many articles and essays discussing this topic. There is is a very good one by Robert Greenberg that makes some interesting points about this. 
https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/music-history-monday-to-dance-with-the-devil/
But I digress….

Saturday arrived and I found myself very excited about the concert, even though I was a Carmina-hater. For me, I always welcome an opportunity to go to Helzberg Hall and hear my hometown orchestra play. At the end of the day, hearing live classical music at this level is a treat for me every time.

Sure enough, when we arrived at Los Tules, the line to get in was out the door. And everywhere you looked, you could see Pikachu, Harry Potter and Superheroes walking around. So we abandoned Los Tules on this night and had a great dinner instead at the Rockhill Grille, though that was dicey as well. They had no tables available until 9:45 except for some open seating upstairs, and we got the last table. As we were looking out the window at the skyline, Cheryl and I reflected on how far this Downtown-Crossroads area of KC has come in the last 20 years. It really is great to see so much activity on a Saturday night…so many places to go for food, culture, and nightlife. Kansas City is so alive. It has not always been that way.

As we pulled up to the parking garage at Kauffman, the signs saying “Parking lot Full” set us back. We only had 20 minutes until the concert started. I was afraid we were screwed…street parking looked impossible. But miracles do happen and just down the street, two blocks away, a spot had just opened up. Score.

We made it into the Hall, said “good-bye” and went to our respective seats. I was in the second to last row of the upper balcony. Cheryl was several rows down from me. The Hall was packed. There was absolutely a palpable sense of excitement and anticipation buzzing around us.

Mr. Frank Byrne, Executive Director of the KC Symphony, came out to welcome everyone to the concert. He acknowledged how challenging the parking situation was, and echoed what Cheryl and I had been saying earlier….there was a time when KC on a Saturday Night was a ghost town. Now it is alive and thriving.

(Not only was there a basketball tournament, Planet Comicon, and KC Symphony going on at the same time, next door at the Muriel Kauffman Theater, Manhattan Transfer was performing too!)

Following Mr. Byrne’s announcements, guest conductor Ryan McAdams came on stage and addressed the audience as well. He seemed to enjoy the comparison of Carmina Burana to “Game of Thrones” made earlier this week in the KC Star and joked about how the horns and violas were mythical comparisons to dragons and medieval lore.

The first half of the program featured two works by American composers. First was Something for the Dark by Sarah Kirkland Snider (2016). This piece was commissioned by the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and draws inspiration in part from the poetry of Philip Levine. In the program notes, Snider states that she was trying to write about hope. McAdams lifted his baton, gave the musicians one measure before his downbeat, (the piece is in ¾) and on beat 3 a drum cracks the silence and kick starts the music. One could sense this “hope” for about 5 minutes, but the mood then changes to a darker tone…hope seems overtaken by shadows and uncertainty. At this point, the trumpets introduce a very cool little riff that is then followed by flowing, wistful aimlessness.  The trumpets then return with their seven note statements –one trumpet playing it, followed by a second trumpet a measure later…a very cool effect. The strings enter next with long, lush brushstrokes over which woodwinds exchange a conversation. The brass soon interrupt with a very sharp rebuke of their own, punctuated by a tight snare drum and then the trumpets begin their riffing again. A solo violin restores calm, and the strings then begin a repeated four note wave until the end. This was such a cool piece, and not having heard it before, I can’t wait to listen to it again.

EOS: Goddess of the Dawn, a Ballet for Orchestra (2015) by Augusta Read Thomas was next on the program.  In a video interview I found on YouTube, Thomas describes this piece as a “17 minute crescendo” and compares it to a painting by Georges Seurat, who used tiny dots to create images. Maestro McAdams did not use a baton for this piece…not sure why, or if it matters…but I noticed it. This is a very percussive work. The vibraphone, marimba, piano, celeste, snare drum and harp created most of the “dots” of this Seurat painting. Strauss’ Alpine Symphony came to mind as this work unfolded.  He created the image of a huge storm in the Alps one drop at a time. (Movement V of EOS is called Spring Rain…thus the weather comparison.) The final Movement is called Sunlight and echoes the music of Aaron Copeland to my ear, with a powerful G major 7^th introduced in the strings that then is resolved by the flutes a short time later when they sound a beautiful high G. But immediately a dissonant chord replaces this resolution and the work concludes with a crescendo that resonated in the Hall before McAdams brought his hands down to his side.  This seems like it would be a very hard piece to play given its rhythmic sophistication, but if it was, the musicians did not show it. They made it look easy to me and from the downbeat, they were large and in charge.

I love hearing new music…at least music that is new to me…so part one of tonight’s program was a real treat. I will certainly revisit both of these works again soon.

After intermission, the real reason everyone came tonight was ready to begin…Carmina Burana by Carl Orff (1937). Maestro McAdams once again used a baton. In front of him was a stage filled by the great musicians of the KC Symphony, joined by 123 members of the Kansas City Symphony Chorus, and behind him were soprano, Jennifer Zetland and baritone, Hugh Russell. Tenor, Nicholas Phan, performed from the seats above and to the side of the stage. And later in the work, the Lawrence Children’s Choir joined.

The opening scene introduces the most famous phrase of the work… the O Fortuna “anthem.”  Like I mentioned, earlier, CB has been used in countless ways. Even a local sports radio talk show called Between the Lines with host Kevin Kietzman uses “O Fortuna” as outro music for his program. I should also add that CB suffers from the same problem as Richard Strauss’ Also Sprach Zarathustra (made most famous by Stanley Kubrick in 2001 A Space Odyssey.) The opening statement of ASZ may be one of the most famous pieces of all time. It’s about 2 ½ minutes long, but after it ends, there are still another 25 minutes left of the work, and most people have not heard the rest of it. I think the same may be true for CB.

From the downbeat, the energy and anticipation that preceded the start of the concert washed over us as both musicians and singers belted out “O Fortuna.” I was in the next to last row of the upper balcony, and I was pushed back in my seat by the sound waves generated by over 200 humans making music. For the next hour, we were treated to a wonderful performance that brought out the many elements of this medieval story… lust, excess, and longing, amongst them. McAdams was quarterback for this elaborate stage show that included dramatic lighting, a screen above the stage that displayed the “libretto” and the colorful costumes of the children’s chorus. Phan even wore a cool white jacket for his role.

The overall balance was spot on. The soloists were not overwhelmed by the orchestra or the chorus. Attacks were very sharp. Entrances were strong and confident. I detected no ambiguity or hesitancy. Everyone on stage looked engaged and completely bought in. And yet, (and I mean this in a good way) the performance was not TOO polished. It had just enough edge to it. It got pretty hot. This creates that tension and energy that really brings a performance to life.

My favorite moment was “In Trutina,” sung by Ms. Zetlan. Such a beautiful melody, backed by two flutes playing in thirds with a descending line played by the French horns. She sang so perfectly.

By the time “O Fortuna” was restated at the end I realized that this performance had changed my opinion of this piece of music. Whatever the reason I had failed to connect to it prior to tonight, I was now a fan. It took seeing it and hearing it here in Helzberg Hall performed by The KCS and Chorus to move me.