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I’ll open with a confession: before venturing to see Park University’s International Center for Music String Orchestra’s performance last Saturday I had never managed to make the 10-mile trip from downtown Kansas City to Parkville, MO. I’d always know it was there but had never had a reason to visit the tiny, picturesque, riverside town of 5,000 residents.

Park University’s music program, the International Center for Music (ICM), is likewise small. With only a handful of full-time faculty and a tight budget (with a significant amount of income going towards generous stipends for talented students from across the globe) ICM has built up a noteworthy program in a few years time. Following an opening work by the string orchestra, Tchaikovsky’s Serenade in C Major, the feature of Saturday’s program was a performance of Chopin’s Second Piano Concerto by star pupil, Behzod Abduraimov, winner of the 2009 London International Piano Competition. The University’s Graham Tyler Memorial Chapel was near its capacity with a crowd of around three hundred looking to be made up of residents, administrators, and students.

The most impressive thing about the opening strain of Tchaikovsky’s famous Serenade was the rich volume produced by a student ensemble of twenty people. Violin professor Ben Sayevich led the ensemble as concertmaster sans conductor. The ensemble playing of the first movement was impressively cohesive, both rhythmically and interpretively. However, I still think ICM should work towards using a conductor for their ensembles for both educational as well as technical benefit. The B section seemed to lose some of the focus that the opening had and there were moments where a conductor could have corrected the balance on a cello section that never escaped the prominence of the violins.

The same balance issues persisted in the second movement, with many of Tchaikovsky’s lovely polyphonic textural riffs in the cello and viola parts obscured by the violins. The exception was a lone forte melodic statement from the cellos that achieved sufficient prominence.

The orchestra’s opening chorale in the third movement was so rich and harmonious that the sound of this undergraduate orchestra could well rival that of a professional ensemble. The inner pizzicati section was somewhat less locked-in with, again, too much violin. A tempo change and more rhythmic counterpoint required Sayevich to conduct with his bow rather than play in the final section.

The fourth movement had good energy in the pizzicati section, which, in contrast to the third, was quite cohesive. The cyclic return of the work’s opening theme had a joyous energy and sound that brought the diverse audience of students, administrators, and Parkvillians quickly to their feet upon its conclusion.

In the second half of the program, it became clear early on that the usually shy pianist Behzod Abduraimov was in charge, despite the presence of guest conductor Amir Shiff in the orchestra’s performance of Chopin’s Second Piano Concerto. Abduraimov’s expansive phrasing and rubato made for beautiful artistic statements in the soli passages of the opening Maestoso movement. However, in ensemble passages, I found a few rubato moments excessive and detracting from the flow and cohesion of the piece. Nevertheless, Abduraimov produced a number of lovely moments and, as one could imagine, made the virtuosic filigree of Chopin’s pianism look unassumingly easy.

The second movement was quite beautiful. Here, Abduraimov’s expressive rubato worked perfectly with the ensemble’s texture of glacially–paced, suspended harmonies. There were impressively delicate moments in the filigree and a beautiful atmosphere was achieved and maintained by the young soloist.

Soli lines by the flute and oboe in the third movement were nearly covered by Abduraimov’s too-prominent background arpeggios while the clarinet’s soli passage was indeed buried. The middle reappearance of the waltz in full orchestration in the piano was exceptional for the effortless viscosity of Abduraimov’s playing of the technical demands, while maintaining the third movement’s waltz character and daunting tempo.

Though not a flawless evening, one does have to be impressed with the ability, energy, and community pride on display at the Graham Tyler Chapel Saturday evening. Park University’s ICM continues to produce quality, artistic performances and professional musicians on a tight budget and sparse faculty to the betterment of the Greater Kansas City’s music community.

REVIEW:
The International Center for Music at Park University
ICM String Orchestra with Behzod Abduraimov and Amir Shiff
Saturday Feb. 26, 2011
Graham Tyler Memorial Chapel
8700 NW River Park Dr, Parkville, MO
For more information about the International Center for Music, visit www.park.edu/icm

Top Photo: Behzod Abduraimov in rehearsal (Photo courtesy of Behzod Abduraimov)

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.