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Kansas City's Online Journal of the Performing Arts

As the temperatures drop, lovely music can certainly help warm the soul.  Unfortunately, the Kansas City Symphony Chamber Players’ Old World Holiday concert at Visitation Church on Friday night seemed frozen to the bone.  While showing initial promise, the well-attended concert conducted by Associate Conductor Steven Jarvi ended up as dry and unappetizing as your grandmother’s fruitcake.

I approach holiday concerts differently from the rest of the season.  Call me a Grinch, but I want my spirits to be uplifted and to catch myself unexpectedly smiling.  Instead, I found my head lolling backwards in boredom, sighing exasperatedly, and counting down movements until I could vacate the building.

Matthew Naughtin’s arrangement of Michael Praetorius’ “Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming” had wonderful use of straight tone strings, reminiscent of ancient viols.  As the piece progressed and the range expanded, I heard elements of Aaron Jay Kernis’ evocative musica celestis.  Arcangelo Corelli’s Christmas Concerto was not as fortunate.  I found the principale soloists timid in their attacks and unsure of themselves in their sustains.  The ripieno ensemble fared better, but that may have been the result of safety in numbers.  The cello and organ continuo playing was light and crisp though, and never overpowering.

Organist Janet Kraybill served as soloist for Handel’s Concerto in F Major, Op. 4, No. 4.  Thought undoubtedly historically informed as per Kraybill’s impressive pedigree, I found her smaller flute stops registrations too strident.  Her technical proficiency was evident, but I think the instrument failed her in expressive possibilities.  The second movement Andante tempo was more appropriate for a Lento and proved interminably long.

The pièce de résistance was an uninspired rendition of the lovely Finzi Romance. Finzi’s music requires a gentle lilt and warm homogenous tone, instead the strings were shrill and rhythmically cold.  Jarvi notably tried to inject some much needed energy into the room with Holst’s “Dargason” Finale from the St. Paul’s Suite.  Anyone with band experience instantly knew the piece, as it is a note-for-note translation of the finale from the Second Military Suite in F.  I prefer the band version as it offers more timbral contrasts.  The ensemble ripped through the piece and even though it was a homogeny of strings, the individual lines and “Greensleeves” countermelody were all deftly balanced.  The bane of the movement is the ending because of its tricky counting, and unfortunately the basses stumbled in these final moments.

Liszt’s own string orchestra arrangement of “Angelus! Priere aux anges gardiens” from Années de pèlerinage III was new to me.  Though I was growing weary of the incessant compound time signatures that had prevailed since the Finzi piece, I found Liszt’s work to be enjoyable partly due to my unfamiliarity.  The rests within the piece gave welcome relief and the climax, though powerful, was satisfyingly restrained.

Closing the program was Leroy Anderson’s Suite of Carols. Composer of the ubiquitous Sleigh Ride, Anderson was often an adroit orchestrator.  The suite of six carols was nothing earth-shattering though.  With straightforward harmonies and predictable phrasing, this suite seemed tailor-made for a sing-along.  The exception was the “Wassail Song” with its drones and open-voiced chords.

A clever arrangement of “We Wish You a Merry Christmas” channeled Beethoven as an encore and might have, just maybe, forced me to crack a half-smile. With so many groups presenting engaging holiday concerts and performing them well, it was a shame that the Kansas City Symphony Chamber Players could not do the same.

REVIEW:
Kansas City Symphony Chamber Players with Janet Kraybill
An Old World Holiday
Friday, December 10 and Saturday, December 11, 2010 (Reviewed: Friday, December 10)
Visitation Church
5141 Main St., Kansas City, MO
For more information visit http://kcsymphony.org

By Lee Hartman

Editor-in-Chief; Traditional and New Classical Contributor

Lee Hartman holds degrees from the University of Missouri-Kansas City (D.M.A., M.M.) and the University of Delaware (B.M.). At the University of Delaware, he received a Dean's Scholar position enabling him to pursue an individually designed academic program combining music education and composition. At the University of Missouri-Kansas City he served for three years as the Assistant Director to Musica Nova, the conservatory's new music ensemble, while teaching a variety of composition classes.

In 2007 he was invited to both the Iceland Academy of the Arts in Reykjavík, Iceland and the Sichuan Conservatory in Chengdu, China to give lectures and master classes in composition. In the summer of 2009, Hartman served as an orchestra manager for the Aspen Contemporary Ensemble and Aspen Opera Theater Center for various performances. He serves on the National Executive Committee of the Society of Composers, Inc. as Submissions Coordinator. His primary composition instructors include James Mobberley, Chen Yi, Zhou Long, Paul Rudy, John Beall, and Jennifer Margaret Barker. He currently teaches music theory at the University of Central Missouri and general music classes at Park University having previously taught at UD (2007–08) and UMKC (2006–07).

His compositions can be found at http://www.leehartmanmusic.com