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Kansas City's Online Journal of the Performing Arts

With an interestingly constructed program, the Kansas City Symphony, directed by Michael Stern, presented a delightful concert this past weekend. It featured Mozart’s Prague Symphony, Smetana’s “The Moldau” from Má vlast, Khachaturian’s Violin Concerto, and Messiaen’s Un sourire. The orchestra maintained an excellent balance across the varying styles. Soloist Baiba Skride, who performed the solo role in the concerto, displayed an ease and maturity throughout the demanding episodes of the concerto.

The program began with Olivier Messiaen’s Un sourire [A Smile], an homage to Mozart and his joie de vie. Though short, it was an excellent opener with its brightness and exciting colors. It had a delicate, elegant structure, with striking chordal elements. The winds matched exceptionally back to front against well-paced string chords. The final build, led by the suspended cymbal, flourished into a powerfully resonant cadence.

Mozart’s Symphony No. 38 in D Major followed, nicknamed “Prague” from the premiere’s location. Though in a typical Classical style, it was an excellent foundation for the performance, contrasting with the darker pieces that followed. The first movement began with a blossoming introduction and playful melody. Throughout, the lead voices were brought forth without exaggeration, accented by bouncy rolls from the timpanist. This lightness was retained in the second movement. The fluid line altered with breadth in the separations of the accompanying strings and a consistency across the sections. However, there was not the same conviction from the woodwinds as we’d heard in the first movement and there was a mismatched dynamic in the sforzandi from the horns and woodwinds. The third movement was robust as the lower voices dug deeper, adding a tinge of ferocity. The woodwinds graced the challenging individual solos with clean execution. Overall the piece seemed subdued, but still with an airiness that was charming.

KCS continued the concert with an exploration of Eastern Europe. Though a young player, Baiba Skride’s performance was assuredly professional and abundantly enjoyable. Latvian-born, she brought forth a graceful and stirring rendition of Armenian-born Aram Khachaturian’s Concerto for Violin and Orchestra. The highly ornamented solo lines layered the many folk-like themes constructed throughout the piece, with jaunty melodies giving way to virtuosic runs. In the orchestra, however, the horn/celli soli was shaky and the trombones slightly overpowered during their entrance. The cadenza began with an intimate exchange between the clarinet and violin, though as the cadenza progressed it became a tad mechanistic, with more push than pull. Skride’s dazzling technicality brought well-deserved applause at the end of the first movement.

The bassoon and clarinet solos introduced a mystic second movement as lush chords gave way to a Rubenesque waltz pattern as a robust yet elegant dance. Here Skride played more passionately, with a warmer tone than the fireworks of the first movement had allowed. The subtle movement in the strings contrasted nicely to her lilting solo lines. The orchestra displayed good dynamic control into brass chords, before settling into the viola soli. The subtle passing of motives from clarinet to viola made way for powerful brass and percussion interjections over quick, yet effective, descending lines. A boisterous fanfare began the third movement. Again, Skride’s nimble fingers offered up inviting folk-like tunes full of vibrancy. The interlocking rhythms in the accompanying strings created a motivated forward motion. Though at times the intonation in the midst of runs came out squeaky and the final double stops weren’t perfectly tuned, the end result was still exhilarating.

This musical tour ended with a trip down “The Moldau” from Bedřich Smetana’s tone poem cycle Má vlast [My Country], a celebration of Bohemia. The flutes and the pizzicato in the strings took a measure or two to coordinate tempos, but the flutes’ undulating treatment matched the aural image of capering brooks. Under the flowing melody in the strings, the brass presented deep, warm chords. With the woodwinds, the strings brought out the slower moving theme. The timpani/bass drum rolls forewarned and heightened the build to the riotous climax, culminating in the piccolo’s fierce interjections that ricocheted through the hall. The celebratory finale after this tumultuous chaos ended with fully formed, resounding chords—an exciting finish to a pleasantly designed and well-performed program.

REVIEW:
Kansas City Symphony
Mozart’s “Prague” and “The Moldau”
Friday, February 4, 201
Lyric Theatre
11^th and Central, Kansas City, MO
For more information visit www.kcsymphony.org

By Libby Hanssen

Traditional and New Classical, Theatre Contributor

Libby Hanssen holds degrees from University of Missouri-Kansas City (M.M.) and Ball State University (B.M.) in trombone performance and also studied music education at Indiana University. She has studied trombone with Carl Lenthe, JoDee Davis, John Seidel, John Huntoon and Denis Wick, and music education with Brent Gault, Estelle Jorgensen and Katherine Strand.

While at IU, she taught classes in general music, focusing on listening skills and music fundamentals through practical music usage and exploring new sound constructions. During the course of her studies at UMKC, she performed with many ensembles, including the Conservatory Orchestra and Musica Nova. She has also performed with the Kansas City Puccini Festival, the People's Liberation Big Band of Greater Kansas City, the New Jazz Order, the Indiana Wind Symphony and the Muncie Symphony Orchestra.

In 2010, she was a fellow (one of 23 journalists selected from across the US) for the seventh annual National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Arts Journalism Institute in Classical Music and Opera at Columbia University’s Journalism School in New York City.

Most of her free time is spent with her three boys (son, dog and husband) and camera, exploring the many fine aspects of Kansas City living. She enjoys listening to KKFI - Kansas City Community Radio and KCUR - Kansas City's NPR station, visiting Kansas City's fine collection of museums and galleries, and scavenging in thrift and antique stores to add to her collection of toy instruments.

She writes for the joy of words and the process of constructing a story, maintaining the blog Proust Eats a Sandwich (www.prousteatsasandwich.wordpress.com). She is working on her first book: Murray Goes to the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art.