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Kansas City's Online Journal of the Performing Arts

On January 14th, the Kansas City Symphony resumed their final season at the Lyric Theatre, presenting a program that featured one of the favorite concertos of pianists and piano aficionados alike, Sergey Rachmaninoff’s Second Piano Concerto in C Minor with guest pianist André Watts, as well as Beethoven’s Grosse Fuge and Martinů’s Fourth Symphony.

The program opened with Felix Weingartner’s arrangement of the Grosse Fuge for String Orchestra. Originally intended to be the last movement of Beethoven’s Op. 130 String Quartet in B-Flat, the music was replaced with a less ostentatious finale and the fugue published separately. The string ensemble version of the piece is particularly lovely thanks to rich color achieved by the addition of the powerful (yet judiciously used) double bass section. Beethoven ramps up the intensity of the music in the opening “overture” section of the piece for a ridiculous amount of time before the second section appears like the eye of a storm. The orchestra executed some lovely pianissimo moments here, though I found the third return of the primary thematic material too consistently forte for too long a stretch without variation.

KCS conductor Michael Stern took several minutes after the Beethoven to announce the programming for the 2011–12 inaugural season in the new Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts. The season will feature several high profile performers such as Yo-Yo Ma, Joshua Bell, Yefim Bronfman, and Joyce DiDonato. Programming highlights from my point of view will include several modern compositions by Stephen Hartke, Daniel Kellogg, Chen Yi, and Jake Heggie as well as a performance of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony to close the season.

The program continued with Martinů’s Fourth Symphony, truly an under-appreciated masterpiece. The piece is full of beautiful exotic sonorities and well-paced writing. Martinů’s harmonies called to mind Beethoven’s 6th Symphony and Copland’s Appalachian Spring in the pastoral second movement, while the Largo of the third seemed an eclectic mix with hints of Bruckner, Mahler, Copland, and old Hollywood film scores. The Poco Allegro finale felt like the last ten minutes of an Indiana Jones movie— exhilarating for the audience with a well executed performance by the orchestra as well as being a satisfying composition.

For the second half, esteemed pianist André Watts took to the stage in a dark blue suit and long coat tails. Watts’ opening to Rachmaninoff’s famed Second Piano Concerto was supremely powerful. The repeated pedal tone, the lowest bass F on the piano, reverberated rich, fortissimo overtones throughout the hall. Watts’ best attributes as a pianist are most certainly a strong, beautiful bass sound and his singing, sustained melodies. I appreciated the ensemble approach Mr. Watts took to his concerto, respectfully acknowledging Maestro Stern’s cues when the piano was part of the background texture, and providing his own nods and cues for Stern and the orchestra when the spotlight was on the pianist. Only twice did the two men seem to clash on their interpretation. At one point in the first movement, Stern appeared to look towards Watts for a greater crescendo against a full orchestral texture. Later in the second movement, Watts appeared to want a greater accelerando from the orchestra, but was held back by a tactful Stern.

Of the several woodwind solos paired with Watts that open the second movement of the concerto, the clarinet soloist seemed most ready to start an Eric Carm en tribute band with the pianist. Syncing nicely with the Watts, Rachmaninoff’s theme, which was later borrowed by pop songwriter Carmen for the verse of his “All By Myself” hit, had a rich and confident tone. An audience of one thousand was rapt at the more delicate, introspective moments. Watts turned his right hand above the keyboard after a particularly lovely arpeggio as if to hold the sound like a bouquet of flowers. As the concerto reached a climax in the third movement, Mr. Watts could be seen stomping the damper pedal. A bit theatrical, but I felt it was certainly appropriate and fun in this context. In reviewing my notes for the third movement, I realized they were unusually sparse because I found the performance so captivating. This was a fabulous performance that I would rank as one of the top three or four I’ve seen all season. Certainly my favorite interpretation of Rach 2 to date.

REVIEW:
The Kansas City Symphony
André Watts Plays Rachmaninoff
Friday, January 14, 2011
Lyric Theatre
11th and Central, Kansas City, MO
For more information visit kcsymphony.org

By Topher Levin

Classical Editor and Contributor

Christopher (Topher) Levin is a composer, pianist, music theorist, and music blogger based in Kansas City, MO. His compositions have been performed at music festivals across the US and in Europe. He has spent two summers in Paris, France studying music at the Ecole Normale de Musique through the EAMA program. His trio for clarinet, piano, and percussion is published in the SCI Journal of Scores.

Topher holds degrees from the University of Missouri-Kansas City (M.M.) in music theory and (M.M.) in composition and from James Madison University in Virginia (B.M.) in composition. Primary composition teachers have included John S. Hilliard, Paul Rudy, Zhou Long, James Mobberley, Chen Yi, Claude Baker, Narcis Bonet, Michel Merlet, and João Pedro Oliveira. His piano teachers have included Patricia Brady and Karen Kushner. Topher maintains a piano studio of 22 students.

Having recently completed a Master's thesis on the beautiful complexities of Chinary Ung's trio, Spiral I, Topher turned his writing attention to the more informal blogging medium. He has taken to it quite well, sharing posts on strange and wonderful music and art found across the web with a modest but growing number of blog followers. He looks forward to writing for KCM and sharing with its readers the stories of all the amazing musicians performing in Kansas City.