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The Kansas City Symphony offered a strong, well–balanced performance Friday evening for their penultimate program in the Lyric Theatre with selections by Grieg, Beethoven, and Schumann. The program featured impassioned guest conductor Juanjo Mena, who, it quickly became apparent, had won the respect and allegiance of the players during the course of rehearsals. Pianist Markus Groh gave a nuanced and enjoyable performance as featured soloist in Beethoven’s Third Piano Concerto.

Opening the program with Grieg’s Lyric Suite, Op. 54, the orchestra’s cantabile of the suite’s first movement, “Shepherd Boy,” was extremely unified, notably in the first violin section, with quite a pretty tone to boot. The pastoral woodwind motives of the second movement, “Norwegian Rustic March,” were precisely-timed and there was good intonation from all. Michael Gordon’s principal flute solo achieved a rich sound in the gently-lilting movement throughout. “March of the Dwarfs,” the fourth movement, was perhaps the best of the set. The crisp ppp opening had excellent energy as well as impressive character and dynamic contrasts. Concertmaster Gregory Sandomirsky provided a stronger solo here than that of the third movement, while there was another strong showing from flutists Michael Gordon and Shannon Finney.

In Beethoven’s Third Piano Concerto, Op. 37, guest conductor Juanjo Mena worked admirably to bring out the character of the orchestra’s exposition in this double exposition concerto. I found guest pianist Markus Groh’s playing enjoyable from his first notes. Textures were clear and Groh brought across a beautiful, refined tone very suitable for this Beethoven. Additionally, Mena and Groh worked well collaboratively; Groh was excellent at lyrically shaping the music at a micro level, while Mena concerned himself with shaping the orchestra’s overall macro direction of the movement and expertly controlling the balance of piano and orchestra throughout.

In the cadenza, the opening span of arpeggios and scales surprisingly lacked the crisp rhythmic work that characterized the rest of Groh’s playing—this was after all a Beethoven cadenza (not a twentieth-century cadenza) where symmetrical groups of sixteenth notes ought not sound quite so nebulous—but it got better. The return of the principle theme brought with it the return of the rhythmic certainty of the previous minutes.

The concerto’s Largo movement achieved an expansive stride while Groh’s tone became more muted and delicate. The big picture was less cohesive here, though there were some nice moments.

The third movement contained brief moments where the nebulous rhythm problems in the first movement’s cadenza returned in the more soloistic passages, though the ensemble work was still unified. Groh developed nice tonal contrasts between the principal rondo theme incarnations and the delicate, introspective una corda moments.

Though I would hardly characterize myself as an orchestral Schumann fan, Friday’s performance of the Fourth Symphony in D Minor was the best playing I’ve ever heard from KCS. I found Juanjo Mena’s decision to dispense with both a score and a conductor’s podium strikingly intimate.

The orchestra sounded confident from the opening slow Langsam through to the transition to the movement’s animated Lebhaft section. Mena controlled dynamics and phrasing just right to give a huge structural architecture to the movement. The thematic incarnations in the development were riveting, while the coloristic ending was striking.

The following Romanze movement was a satisfying duo between oboist J. Scott Janusch and cellist Mark Gibbs which was again quite unified. Mena’s movement, here, as elsewhere in the concert were arresting—in the Romanze’s more ominous strains, imagine a silent movie era villain in slow, gliding gestures; in other moments, picture a statesman, Shakespearean actor, or impassioned minister. The conductor was fascinating to watch without being so over-the-top as to elicit any snickers from the audience—often a fine line to walk.

The Scherzo movement shifted easily between the intense, majestic material of the scherzo and the swaying, romantic sighs of the trio, though it was the final movement which was the best of the evening. The fourth movement showcased an ensemble playing at their best, with a conductor who was all smiles feverishly coaxing out the more fervent entrances from the ensemble, whether the soloist was in directly front of him or at the back of the stage. The brass section had an especially strong showing in the finale, particularly the trombones with later spotlight-worthy moments for the trumpets and horns as well.

In their penultimate program before the organization embarks on a new adventure in their new home at the Kauffman Center next season, I hope the orchestral members can pull together and work amicably together for the betterment of the music next year as they did so this week. If they do, it will greatly shorten the time before we are discussing the KCS in the same breath as some of the nation’s best orchestras. 

REVIEW:
Kansas City Symphony
Beethoven’s Third Piano Concerto
Friday, June 3, 2011 (reviewed)
Saturday, June 4, 2011
Lyric Theatre
11th St and Central Ave, Kansas City, MO
Sunday, June 5, 2011
Yardley Hall
12345 College Blvd, Overland Park, KS

For tickets call 816-471-0400, or purchase tickets online at www.kcsymphony.org.

Top Photo: Juanjo Mena

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.