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Kansas City's Online Journal of the Performing Arts

Welcome back Kansas City Symphony! After two rickety concert weekends, the Symphony returned to top form with Michael Stern back on the podium, a world-class soloist in Gil Shaham and a great repertoire from Stravinsky, Barber, Prokofiev and Shostakovich.

As I sat listening (on the edge of my seat for the majority) I couldn't help but wonder about the programming. It was like a double-billed boxing match between 20^th century heavyweight composers. The exhibition match - "The Battle of Neo: Stravinsky's Neoclassical Pulcinella Suite vs. Barber's Neo-Romantic Violin Concerto." The main event - "Quirky Russian Rumble: Prokofiev's Violin Concerto No. 2 vs. Shostakovich's Symphony No. 1." Color commentary a la Larry Merchant was provided by master violinist Gil Shaham. Barber wins by KO and Shostakovich by TKO ... I apologize for my thinly stretched pugilist metaphor. Fear not; I have exhausted my knowledge on the subject.

The Pulcinella Suite was performed precisely the way I like it - reverent to the (now spurious) Pergolesi original but whimsical when the Stravinsky-esque passages became predominant. The concertante work of the principal strings was sensitive and emerged out of the ritornello sections with ease. Oboist Mingjia Liu's solos of awkward descending intervals (when, if performed subpar, sounds more like a donkey bray then double reed) and bassoonist Anne Bilderback's nimble arpeggios showcased some spectacular wind playing. Bassist Jeffrey Kail and trombonist Roger Oyster stole the piece with their delightfully charming "Vivo." Kail showcased a rare, sonorous bass timbre and Oyster played the harlequin role of clown quite convincingly in this commedia dell'arte-based piece. Stern's conducting was crisp to negotiate the tricky time signatures and off-kilter entrances.

Shaham commanded the stage during the Barber Violin Concerto. Was it a perfect performance? No. Was it amazingly beautiful, sensitive, lush, and did it make me revel in the glorious sound of a solo violin with orchestra? Yes. Crescendos, from a mere whisper to full throttle, occurred within a fraction of a second. Shaham drank in the orchestra's sound and seemed to channel it through his violin. Mingjia Liu's yearning oboe solo of the second movement was sublime and the fiery orchestral playing in the third had Shaham's bow and fingers flying. It was a great concerto performed by one of the best.

Of all the pieces in the concert, Prokofiev's Violin Concerto No. 2 faired the worst. Prokofiev is one of those difficult composers to grasp. He'll write something completely astounding, but before you have a chance to relish it, he's on to a new idea or different orchestration. Sometimes it's delightfully whacky; other times it's overwrought. This concerto is one of Prokofiev's most ADHD pieces. He'd start a lovely gossamer canon between the soloist and the violins but then all of a sudden you find yourself in a thicket of woodwind bubbling or in a hollow viola/bass exposed section. Shaham tried to bring some life into the piece but some faulty intonation in the strings at the beginning seemed to sap the energy from the performance that it could never quite regain.

Shostakovich's Symphony No. 1 in F Minor renewed the energy however. I like a performance that enables you to discover something about a piece.  For me, it was realizing that the isolated obbligato piano chords of the second movement correspond to the exposed timpani solo in the fourth. Just one of those "aha" moments I did not pick up having heard the piece before.  Speaking of the piano, why was it amplified so far out of the mix? Why was it amplified at all? Surely it's supposed to be a timbre within the orchestra and is not meant to obliterate everything around it. Now the brass section in Shostakovich is supposed to unload a tsunami of sound. They did not disappoint as the dark harmonies erupted into brassy sustained climaxes. The winds with always treacherous unison or octave doublings also performed very well. Kudos to the bassoonists, bass drum, and basses for not over-playing their low rhythms in the final moments.

It was a great evening to be at the Symphony, hearing top musicians performing demanding repertoire. Yes, the program was a bit long but it was musically fulfilling, aesthetically coherent, and above all, enjoyable.

REVIEW:
Kansas City Symphony
Gil Shaham Plays Barber and Prokofiev
Friday, January 22 at 8 p.m.
Saturday, January 23 at 8 p.m. (Reviewed)
Sunday, January 24 at 2 p.m.
Lyric Theatre
11^th and Central, Kansas City, MO
For tickets to other events, call 816-471-0400 or visit online www.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