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Kansas City's Online Journal of the Performing Arts

Audience members seeking virtuoso instrumentalists will get their fill with great pianists Radu Lupu (The Friends of Chamber Music) and Jean Yves Thibaudet (Harriman-Jewell Series) take the stage.  On the string side Alisa Weilerstein, cello performs with the Kansas City Symphony.

The first two weeks in February bring Valentine’s day concerts, and we have some special ones by The Friends of Chamber Orchestra, Fine Arts Chorale and Heartland Men’s Chorus. Although not billed as such, the recital by Kansas City’s own world-famous Joyce DiDonato on February 13th would certainly be a treat for any classical music-loving romantic interest in your life. Also on tap are a Kansas City Symphony concert featuring a Mozart symphony and Smetana’s luscious “Moldau” from Ma Vlast, an appearance in Independence by Chanticleer (The Friends of Chamber Music), one of today’s top male vocal ensembles, the Alexander String Quartet at the Lied Center, and several other treats.

For fans of dance there is only one local performance in early February, but it’s a doozy…City in Motion Dance Theater’s annual A Modern Night at the Folly, featuring the work of a number of local choreographers. For this audience member, it is always once of the dance highlights of the season.

Kansas City Symphony
Ravel’s Spanish Rhapsody, Plus Shostakovich
Friday and Saturday, January 28 and 29, at 8:00 p.m.
Lyric Theatre, 11th and Central
Kansas City, Missouri
For tickets call (816) 471-0400 or online at www.kcsymphony.org

A decidedly Spanish theme marks the Symphony’s last concerts in January, performed under the baton of guest conductor Giancarlo Guerrero. The performances will open with the Interlude from Geronimo Giménez’ zarzuela called La boda de Luis Alonso.  This brief but brilliant piece of music by the late 19^th Century Spanish composer and conductor was one of his most popular zarzuelas and remains a classic in his home country.

The concert also features the Sinfonia No. 4 of composer Roberto Sierra and one of the greatest pieces of Spanish music composed by a non-Spanish composer, Maurice Ravel’s Rapsodie espagnole. 

Sierra, a contemporary American-born but Spanish-influenced composer, has had a significant career in symphonic composition with his works performed by the orchestras of Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Atlanta, New Mexico, Houston, Minnesota, Dallas, Detroit, San Antonio and Phoenix, as well as by the American Composers Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, National Symphony Orchestra, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, the Tonhalle Orchestra of Zurich, the Spanish orchestras of Madrid, Galicia, Castilla y León and Barcelona, among others. In 2003 he was awarded the Academy Award in Music by the American Academy of Arts and Letters, which cited his “brilliant music, mixing fresh and personal melodic lines with sparkling harmonies and striking rhythms. . ." His Sinfonía No. 1 won the 2004 Kenneth Davenport Competition for Orchestral Works, and the Sinfonia No. 4 to be played by the Symphony is one of its successors.

Ravel, like his fellow Frenchman Georges Bizet before him, did not feel it necessary to necessarily be of Spanish blood to feel the hot passion of Spanish music. Following in the footsteps of Bizet, who wrote the “Spanish” opera Carmen, Ravel used Spanish themes and influences in his Rapsodie espagnole and wrote music that many listeners will identify as more “Spanish” sounding than many genuine Spanish compositions. Regardless of whether you consider it authentic, you will thrill to the marvelously nuanced orchestrations and great Romantic passion of Ravel’s vision, one of classical music’s great masterpieces.

Finally, just in case you have tired of dancing in the aisles, the Symphony gives you a break with a decidedly un-Spanish piece of music, the Cello Concerto No. 2 of Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich.  Shostakovich, a mid-20^th-century master who fought his whole compositional life against the strictures and horrors of Stalinism, somehow managed to carve a distinct and somewhere modernistic musical language against the reactionary tugs and pulls of the totalitarian Soviet state. His Cello Concerto No. 2, written for his close friend, the cellist Mstislav Rostropovich, is one of his final works, composed after the death of Stalin, and shows the composer stretching his compositional legs and engaging in adventurous flights of imagination.

The Symphony’s soloist is the young American virtuoso Alisa Weilerstein, who has appeared with many prestigious ensembles, among them the orchestras of Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Minnesota, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and San Francisco, as well as the New York Philharmonic and National Symphony Orchestra. An ECHO “Rising Star” and alumna of Lincoln Center Chamber Music Society II, she has performed as recitalist and chamber musician in many of the world’s top concert halls and festivals. She records for EMI classics and she was the recipient of an Avery Fisher Career Grant.

Harriman-Jewell Series
Jean Yves Thibaudet, pianist
Friday, January 28 at 8:00 p.m.
Folly Theater
12th and Central, Kansas City, Missouri
For tickets call (816) 415-5025 or online at www.hjseries.org.

Like Joshua Bell, appearing with the Harriman Jewell Series on January 22, French pianist Jean Yves Thibaudet is making his fourth appearance with the Series this month. Also like Bell, Thibaudet was a child star who has grown into one of the most impressive virtuosos of our day, and we are extremely fortunate here in Kansas City to have had several opportunities to hear him play.

For this recital, Thibaudet has outlined a challenging program featuring works entirely by Franz Liszt.  One of the most brilliant piano virtuosos of any age, Franz Liszt was the “rock star” of the mid-19^th century, a performer at whose concerts young ladies would swoon and faint, and whose many fans stomped and cheered his every move, both on and off the stage.  Liszt virtuosity was so great that some rumored him to be possessed by the Devil.  How else could it be that anybody could cram so many notes and so much volume into such a short space of time? 

Nobody today would mistake the mild-mannered Thibaudet for one possessed by the Devil, but he does not lack for technical expertise, which is required in spades for any aggressive Liszt program. This listener is especially looking forward to Liszt’s arrangement of Chopin pieces, and Liszt’s piano version of the “Liebestod” from Wagner’s historic opera Tristan und Isolde. 

The Performing Arts Series at Johnson County Community College 
Lar Lubovitch Dance Company
Saturday, January 29 at 8:00 p.m.
Yardley Hall at Carlsen Center
Johnson County Community College
12345 College Boulevard, Overland Park, Kansas
For tickets call (913) 469-4445 or online at www.jcc.edu/performing-arts-series

Lar Lubovitch is one of the most significant choreographers on the American scene.  Born in Chicago and educated in Iowa and at the Juilliard School in New York, he founded the Lar Lubovitch Dance Company 41 years ago and since then has choreographed more than 100 works for the ensemble.  The company gives an annual fall season at the New York City Center and tours throughout the rest of the year. It has performed in virtually every state of the United States and in more than 30 foreign countries. Lar Lubovitch has been cited by The New York Times as “one of the ten best choreographers in the world.”

The company’s reputation is as one of the world’s foremost modern dance companies. It has received many awards and grants, including citations from from the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York State Council on the Arts and numerous foundations, including the Lila Wallace-Reader’s Digest Fund.

Kansas City Symphony
Mozart’s “Prague” and “The Moldau”
Friday and Saturday, February 4 and 5, at 8:00 p.m.
Lyric Theatre, 11th St and Central Ave, Kansas City, MO
Sunday, February 6, at 2:00 p.m.
Yardley Hall at Carlsen Center, Johnson County Community College
12345 College Blvd, Overland Park, KS
For tickets call 816-471-0400, or purchase tickets online at www.kcsymphony.org.

The Kansas City Symphony is performing just one classical concert in February, on the weekend of February 4 through 6.  The concert features Un sourire, Hommage à Mozart, by the twentieth century French composer Olivier Messiaen, and then a late symphony by Mozart himself, the No. 38 “Prague.”  Also on tap are the virtuosic Khachaturian Violin Concerto with guest soloist Baiba Skride, and “The Moldau,” a popular excerpt from the monumental series of tone poems, Ma Vlast (My Fatherland) by the giant Czech composer Bedrich Smetana.

Messiaen was one of the experimental composers of the 1940’s and 1950’s who experimented with new musical vocabulary including “scales” consisting not only of notes but of loudness, duration and attack, leading to compositions which focused on elements of music other than tone. He was also a fastidious observer and recorder of birds and bird songs, and wrote a number of pieces derived from bird songs from his native France.

Un sourire (A smile), Hommage à Mozart, is one of Messiaen’s last pieces, written in 1989 to honor the bicentenary of Mozart's death. Like many of his other works, it is quiet, meditative, and joyful. Messiaen felt that Mozart's music “always smiled,” hence the work's title.

The actual Mozart work on the program, the “Prague Symphony, ” is one of Mozart’s happiest works, written out of affection for the music-going audiences of Prague, who during his lifetime loved the generally-unrecognized composer more than any others. It was in Prague where Mozart’s opera The Marriage of Figaro first achieved the sensational success which foreshadowed its later worldwide popularity, and it was for the audiences of Prague that Mozart wrote his next opera, the classic Don Giovanni.

First performed in Prague in 1787, a mere four years before the composer’s death, the Prague Symphony immediately captured the public’s heart. “The performance…brought forth the warmest enthusiasm,” reports music historian Charles O’Connell, “and at the conclusion of the symphony, the audience would not let Mozart depart until he appeared and improvised at the piano for their delectation…His audience was completely at his feet.”

Strains of Don Giovanni can be heard in the first movement. In the second, the pace is measured and calm. Mozart’s final movement is a minuet, full of animation and zest, a fitting tribute to the joy he felt towards his Czech audiences.

Composer Aram Khachaturian (1903-1978) is best known to American audiences for his powerful and dramatic ballet Spartacus, but an equally compelling and memorable work is the Violin Concerto of 1938. As in many of his compositions he utilizes folk tunes from his native Armenia, but it is “no less brilliant in its exploitation of the virtuoso possibilities of the solo instrument,” according to classical music expert David Ewen. The first movement is a “powerful lament” with a “heroic stride.” The second movement is intensely passionate, resembling a lament. In the third movement is full of lush romanticism and a spectacular ending for the virtuoso soloist.

For its violinist this weekend, the Symphony features the 29-year-old Latvian virtuoso Baida Skride.  She first took the music world’s notice when she won first place at the 2001 Queen Elisabeth Competition in Brussels, so impressing the jurors that at one point they burst into unheard-of spontaneous applause. The ovations have continued ever since. Reviewing her performance of Lalo’s Symphonie Espagnole, the Washington Post wrote, “Skride was completely unfazed by the work’s myriad technical challenges, playing not only proficiently but with flair and a nearly improvisatory freedom.” The Los Angeles Times music critic praised her recording of Shostakovich’s First Violin Concerto as “the most sophisticated performance of the concerto I know.”

Bedrich Smetana’s monumental Ma Vlast (My Fatherland) is one of the seminal works of 19th-Century Romanticism. The brilliant Czech master’s dedication to his homeland of Bohemia (now the Czech Republic) led to his absorption in folk melodies and his commitment to writing a series of tone poems dedicated to various natural beauties of his country. Late in his career Smetana, like Beethoven, became deaf, but it did not stop him from composing his most memorable score, which premiered in 1882. Although the entire series of compositions is well worth repeated listening, Smetana’s pulsating melodies depicting the Moldau river have come to be the most popular with audiences throughout the world. See if you can hear the bubbling streams, a distant hunter’s horn, the playfulness of the wood nymphs and naiads, and the rapids of St. John, rushing through the gorge of the river.

UMKC Conservatory of Music and Dance
Conservatory Orchestra Concert
Friday, February 4 at 7:30 p.m.
White Recital Hall, James C. Olsen Performing Arts Center
4949 Cherry St, Kansas City, MO
For tickets call the Central Ticket Office at 816-235-6222 or online at www.umkc.edu/cto.

Robert Olson directs the full orchestra of the UMKC Conservatory of Music and Dance in one of the three major concerts the orchestra gives each year. This performance will feature the overture to the opera Il Guarany by Gomes, Stravinsky’s challenging Firebird Suite in the 1919 version, and Dvorak's Symphony No. 7. The Gomes piece is a rarity which should be more often heard, and this offers you a rare opportunity to sample the music of this classic Brazilian nineteenth century composer. Stravinsky’s Firebird is one of the most exciting pieces in the repertory (in fact, the Kansas City Symphony has recently chosen it for its very first concert in the new Kauffman Center next September), and the Dvorak is one of the most lusciously beautiful works in the Romantic repertory.  Olsen has chosen well.

The Friends of Chamber Music
Chanticleer: The Divine Orlando
Saturday, February 5 at 8:00 p.m.
Community of Christ Temple
1001 West Walnut St, Independence, MO
For tickets call 816-561-9999 or order tickets online at www.chambermusic.org. 

Chanticleer is one of the country’s most honored male singing groups, and appears again in Kansas City under the sponsorship of Cynthia Siebert’s The Friends of Chamber Music. Described by The Philadelphia Inquirer as "the only American chorus able to compete on equal terms with the great choirs of Europe in the performance of the Renaissance choral masterworks," Chanticleer will perform a program of sacred works by Orlando di Lasso, the most published composer of the 16th century. The program is entitled The Divine Orlando, after a title bestowed on him by di Lasso’s own contemporaries.

City in Motion Dance Theater
A Modern Night at the Folly 2011
Saturday, February 5 at 8:00 p.m.
Folly Theater
12th St and Central Ave, Kansas City, MO
For tickets call 816-686-8763 or online at www.cityinmotion.org.

One of this writer’s favorite dance events of the year is the Modern Night at the Folly, presented each winter at about this time by City in Motion Dance Theater.  This performance is Kansas City’s only adjudicated showcase, featuring ten of the area’s most talented choreographers. The evening will feature the choreography of Maura Michelle Garcia, Tara Glaus, Mary Pat Henry, DeeAnna Hiett, Justin Hundley, Maggie Osgood Nicholls, Susan Rieger, Suzanne Ryan, Tiffany Sisemore, Patrick Suzeau, and Stephanie Whittler.

Community of Christ Church
Jan Kraybill, Organist: Super Bowl Sunday Concert
Sunday, February 6 at 3:00 p.m.
Community of Christ Church
201 South River St, Independence, MO
Free admission.

For the past eleven years, Jan Kraybill, the talented organist for the Community of Christ Church in Independence, has been offering a free organ concert on Super Bowl Sunday for those whose leanings are not towards football, or for football fans wishing to enjoy an afternoon of fine organ music before settling in for the game.

This year Kraybill’s program will feature Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition in an organ version. Kraybill’s outstanding playing on the superb Community of Christ Casavant organ is always a treat for the senses.

Lied Center, University of Kansas
Black Violin
Tuesday, February 8 at 7:30 p.m.
1600 Stewart Dr, Lawrence, KS
For tickets call 785-864-2787 or online at www.lied.ku.edu.

This is really not your typical classical music event, but we’ll include it because the featured group in this concert, Black Violin, consists of two classically-trained instrumentalists, a violinist and a violist.  They stage “an evening of contemporary classical, jazz, funk, and hip-hop music.” They cite Shostakovich and Bach among their influences, along with Nas and Jay-Z. The publicity material says that “this ensemble breaks all the rules, remixing classical works with current popular music. The group creates a soulful, concert-like atmosphere [and] produces the ultimate synergy between classical and hip-hop.”

Heartland Men’s Chorus
Homegrown Cabaret
Friday, February 11 at 8:00 p.m.
Grace and Holy Trinity Cathedral, Founder's Hall
13th St and Broadway Blvd, Kansas City, MO
For tickets order online at www.hmckc.org.

This performance of the Heartland Men’s Chorus is to raise funds for the Chorus’ participation in the GALA Choruses Festival, and will feature “an intimate cabaret show starring the HeartAches and individual soloists from the Chorus, complete with wine and decadent desserts.” Ooh, the “decadent” part sounds interesting!  But in a church…?!

Fountain City Brass Band
An Evening at the Opera
Saturday, February 12 7:30 p.m.
Bell Cultural Events Center
Mid America Nazarene University
2030 East College Way, Olathe, KS
Tickets available at 913-971-3636 or online at www.mnu.edu/ticket-information.

The Fountain City Brass Band directed by Joseph Parisi, is our community’s resident award-winning brass band which gives four concerts a year at Mid America Nazarene University in Olathe. This concert will feature brass transcriptions of opera favorites, including music of Verdi, Wagner, Mozart, Dvorak, Borodin, Bizet, Gershwin and Rossini. Sounds like great fun.

Liberty Symphony Orchestra
Mozart’s 40th
Saturday, February 12 at 7:30 pm
Liberty Performing Arts Center
1600 South Withers Rd, Liberty, MO
Tickets available at 816-439-4362 or online at www.libertysymphony.org.

The Liberty Symphony Orchestra, one of the area’s best community ensembles, performs Mozart’s great Symphony No. 40 this evening. Other works on the program include the Stravinsky's Suite No. 2, Beethoven’s Egmont Overture, and performances by William Jewell College Artist Competition Winners.

Topeka Symphony Orchestra
Mmmm….
Saturday, February 12 at 7:30 p.m.
White Concert Hall
Washburn University Campus, Topeka, KS
Tickets are available by calling 785-232-2032, or online at http://www.topekasymphony.org/

The Topeka Symphony Orchestra performs Mozart’s Overture to Don Giovanni, Mozart’s Exultate Jubilate and the Mahler's Symphony No. 4 featuring Kristen Watson, soprano, a favorite of Topeka audiences.

Harriman-Jewell Series
Joyce DiDonato, mezzo-soprano
Sunday, February 13 at 3:00 p.m.
Folly Theater
12th St and Central Ave, Kansas City, MO
For tickets call 816-415-5025 or online at www.hjseries.org.

Remember when Tom Watson of Kansas City was one of the most famous golfers in the world, bringing attention and acclaim to our community?  Well, the same thing that happened in the world of sports then is happening in the world of music now, as Prairie Village native Joyce DiDonato has become one of the most acclaimed opera singers in the world.

You can hardly pick up a classical music or opera magazine or recording catalogue and not see her picture on the cover or prominently displayed inside. Her recordings are coming out in a seemingly constant stream, her opera performances are issued promptly on DVD, and she is featured on almost every prominent stage in the world.  (For a chance to see her “live,” check out the Metropolitan Opera’s upcoming simulcast of Le Comte Ory on April 9.)

This evening DiDonato returns to the Harriman-Jewell Series for a recital of music by Haydn, Rossini, Chaminade and Leoncavallo, among others. The concert is a sell-out, so count yourself lucky if you are among those with tickets.  It would be a good idea to arrive early.

For those who are missing this recital, please note that DiDonato will return to Kansas City next year for a Symphony concert at the new Kauffman Center where she will sing music of Rossini and contemporary composer Jake Heggie, who writes pieces especially for her. As for a return to the Lyric Opera (where she sparkled in La Cenerentola a few years ago), stay tuned….

Please note the unusual starting time.

UMKC Conservatory of Music and Dance
UMKC Graduate Fellowship Brass Quintet
Sunday, February 13 at 3:00 p.m.
Rainbow Mennonite Church
1444 Southwest Blvd, Kansas City, KS
Free admission.

UMKC’s graduate brass quintet always gives interesting concerts of brass transcriptions of romantic and modern classics. This free concert is given at an unusual location, so please take note.

Fine Arts Chorale
A Valentine's Tribute to Ginger Rogers
Sunday, February 13 at 6:30 p.m.
Californos Restaurant
4124 Pennsylvania Ave, Kansas City, MO
Tickets available online at www.fineartschorale.org.

Terri Teal’s Fine Arts Chorale has an interesting Valentine’s treat in store for you and your loved one.  This concert at Californos Restaurant in Westport (Californos is a great supporter of the performing arts in Kansas City, as you probably know, and besides which, the food is terrific!) includes dinner, the Fine Arts Chorale concert, and dessert treats by Andre’s Confisserie.  What a combination!

The musical portion of the evening celebrates the birth centennial of Ginger Rogers, born on July 16, 1911, in Independence, Missouri. The concert features popular songs from Ginger Rogers movies by Irving Berlin, George Gershwin, Jerome Kern, and Cole Porter.

The performance also includes professional dancers from the TC Dance Club International of Overland Park.

Kansas City Chamber Orchestra
Dvorak’s Serenade
Monday, February 14 at 8:00 p.m.
Old Mission United Methodist Church
Johnson Dr at Mission Rd, Prairie Village, Kansas
For tickets, call the Central Ticket Office at 816-235-6222 or online at www.kcco.org.

The Kansas City Chamber Orchestra continues its tradition of offering a candlelight Baroque concert at Old Mission United Methodist Church.  Bruce Sorrell will lead his forces in the Dvorak Serenade for Strings, a classic of Romanticism which should be perfect for a Valentine’s Day evening. Other selections are yet to be announced.

Lied Center, University of Kansas
Alexander String Quartet
Tuesday, February 15 at 7:30 p.m.
1600 Stewart Dr, Lawrence, KS
For admission call 785-864-2787 or online at www.lied.ku.edu.

The Alexander String Quartet is one of the most venerable of American string quartets, having been founded in San Francisco a quarter of a century ago. The group is celebrated for its interpretations of classical repertoire, and will perform an all-Beethoven program.

The Alexander String Quartet has appeared at Lincoln Center, the 92nd Street Y, and the Metropolitan Museum in New York City; Jordan Hall in Boston; the Library of Congress and Dumbarton Oaks in Washington; and chamber music societies and universities across the North American continent. Recent overseas tours took the musicians to the U.K., the Czech Republic, the Netherlands, Italy, Germany, Spain, Portugal, Switzerland, France, Greece, the Republic of Georgia, Argentina, and the Philippines.

By Don Dagenais

City Classics Music and Dance Columnist; Classical Contributor

A lifelong classical music fan, Don Dagenais is a frequent preview speaker for the Lyric Opera of Kansas City and has taught classical music and opera courses at several Kansas City venues. He has served on the boards of directors of a number of performing arts organizations including the Lyric Opera of Kansas City, the Lyric Opera Guild, UMKC Conservatory of Music and Dance, Opera Volunteers International, the Civic Opera Theater of Kansas City, Inspiration Point Fine Arts Colony, Octarium, and the Friends of the Symphony.  He has been the past president of most of these organizations and is current the president of the Friends of the Symphony. 

Dagenais co-authored a history of the Lyric Opera of Kansas City, published on the occasion of its 50th anniversary (2007) and has written books on the histories of both the Lyric Opera Guild and Opera Volunteers International, as well as an introductory book for opera novices (Your Passport to the Opera).  He has received several local and national awards for outstanding volunteer work for the arts, including a lifetime achievement award from The Coterie Theatre in 2000, the Kansas City Musical Club's annual award in 2001, a Partners in Excellence Award from Opera Volunteers International in 2002, a Bravo Award from Opera Volunteers International in 2004 and a community service award from the Daughter of the American Revolution in 2008 honoring him for his community service to the arts.

In addition to his music interests, Don is president of the board of directors for the Metropolitan Ensemble Theater and has served on the boards of The Coterie Theatre and the Heart of America Shakespeare Festival, serving as president of each organization.  He publishes newsletters for seven arts organizations.  When not involved in the performing arts, Don is a senior real estate attorney with Lathrop & Gage LLP in Kansas City, Missouri, where he has practiced law since 1976 after graduating from the Cornell Law School.