I still say there is nothing more amazing than listening to a symphony orchestra play live. Rock bands, rap artists, country bands, big bands, etc etc can all give great concerts, sure. But the depth, variety, heat, heart, and energy of an orchestra rises above all. Saturday night, the Kansas City Symphony reinforced this for me.
Starting in the middle, the second piece tonight was the world premiere of American composer, Jonathan Leshnoff's Piano Concerto. A friend of mine had remarked earlier in the week that he wished he still lived in KC so he could attend this concert for this piece alone. I was not familiar with Leshnoff's music, so this was completely new to me. The pianist was Joyce Yang. The concerto is comprised of four movements and is as much an orchestra concerto as a piano concerto...I'm not sure if that makes any sense, but from the introduction of the first phrase, a very rhythmic pattern that moves back and forth between the piano and orchestra, I felt like we were on a great ride of....and I give my mom credit for this descriptor....energy. Yes, this work is one of musical, rhythmic and dynamic energy. I enjoyed the orchestration as much as the piano. The second movement was exceptionally beautiful, despite the hacking and coughing contributed by some resident tuberculin patrons...please just stay home! I liked this work...but I think it will take repeated performances and time for it to emerge as a classic concerto. Well done though Mr. Leshnoff. And what a brilliant performance too by Ms. Yang!
I will admit, well into the first movement of Leshnoff's piano concerto, I was still hung up on what I had heard before the premiere of his work...the Adagio of Mahler's 10th Symphony. I'm not sure it was a good idea to program Leshnoff's piece second, because after the KCS was finished with Mahler, all of the oxygen had been sucked out of Helzberg Hall. Mahler was a pretty good composer himself, and after the pressure of writing 9 symphonies was off his back, I believe he could have written 9 more, and what he could have said in those works would have been amazing. But his health did not allow him the time to achieve this, except for the first movement of his 10th symphony.
Maestro Stern conducted the Mahler like he wanted to tell us a secret that would blow our minds. He shaped each phrase like a sculptor, lasered each entrance to precision and gave the musicians just enough room to turn the pages of their music...but no more. I could sense that he was on a mission...
Mahler is not for everyone. and his music was lost for decades after his death until Leonard Bernstein and a few others resurrected it in the 1960's. Maestro Stern knows the magic of Mahler's music too. And tonight, Stern detonated the Mahler bomb at 8 pm, and neither Leshnoff nor Strauss stood a chance. I must say too that the viola and second violin sections stole the show in both the Mahler and Strauss...they were true gangsters.
The bass section numbered eight on both the Mahler and Strauss. This was a sensational move. I am certainly not qualified to assemble an orchestra, but I feel like the ONLY area for improvement of the KCS has been with the bass section...not the quality of playing, but the number of basses. Eight is great. Helzberg Hall can handle a very beefy low end, so I hope we continue to staff up here.
Speaking of gangsters, Alberto Suarez killed it tonight on the french horn. This dude is legit.
Also Sprach Zarathustra by Richard Strauss is a work that EVERYONE knows the first 2:30 minutes of, but almost nothing of the remaining twenty nine minutes. If you like killer trumpets, this piece is for you, and Julian Kaplan and his crew were flawless tonight. As were the seven french horns, three trombones, and eight basses...oh, and the strings! Wow, well done strings, you were awesome tonight too. Guest concertmaster Wyatt Underhill knows his way around the fingerboard for sure. He played the solo passages in the Strauss, some reaching notes at the fringe of audible sound, with swag and a great tone. Maybe we could convince him to move to KC?!? What else am I forgetting here...oh that's right, how about the superb woodwinds of the KCS. We are truly blessed with virtuoso's at every position. My goodness they are good.
This was a great concert that reinforces just what a great house band Kansas City has playing most weekends...the Kansas City Symphony.
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