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Sunday’s inaugural concert of the Rainbow Performing Arts Series featured the beautiful, little nineteenth-century organ tucked away in the charming Rainbow Mennonite Church. Music coordinator and organist of Rainbow Mennonite, Rosi Penner Kaufman, served as concert curator, soloist, and emcee for the audience of 100.

With its cobalt blues, rich reds, velvety taupe, gold accents, and dark walnut stain, the E. and G.G. Hook, Op. 488 organ may have looked demure, but its sound was perfectly suited to the space.  The organ's sound filled every nook and cranny without overwhelming the small space. Its pitch, however, was very sharp and caused problems throughout the performance as other instrumentalist struggled to raise their pitch to match.

The Harder Family from Wichita joined Kaufman on a Gloria attributed to Handel. Soprano Lois Harder performed the florid, melismatic passages with grace and clarity.  Her light, flexible voice was well suited for the small Baroque work.  The meter shift in the “Laudamus te” was unexpected and delightful, but the organ’s intonation was problematic with the cellist on the “Domine Deus.”

With birdhouses adorning the top of the organ, Handel’s “Cuckoo and Nightingale” Organ Concerto was suitable and almost a necessity. The timbres of the Baroque oboes of the Kansas City Baroque Consortium and the organ registration were especially well matched. The first Larghetto was marred by some miscommunications around the final cadences and the second by too slow of a tempo, as there was not enough forward motion. Throughout the work, tempo maintenance seemed to be a problem, most noticeably in the contrapuntal sequences.

Kaufman served as soloist for the remainder of the program. Her performance of Mendelssohn’s Sonata in F major, Op. 65, No. 1 showed some impressive coupling of the pedal to the swell and her registeral choices were tasteful and appropriate. Her Adagio movement was sensitive, however, there were too many wrong notes and hesitations in the fast outer movements to overlook.

Two shorter, lighter works by former Bethel College organ professor Albert D. Schmutz were miniature gems of early twentieth-century American organ repertory. The Allegro Maestoso was a pompous processional that would be at home in many a celebratory worship service and I could easily imagine hearing the borderline-saccharine Pastorale accompanying an offertory. 

Closing the concert were Joe Utterback’s Hudson River Voluntaries. These pieces were a great choice by Kaufman, as the organ was once housed at Woodside Presbyterian in Troy, New York, which is located on the Hudson River.  “Stream of Gladness” with its quick chirps and arm clusters had the audience knowingly chuckling.  “Riverside Prayer: A Quiet Air” was subdued and relaxing.  Kaufman seemed most at ease with that movement and the concluding “River Euphrates Trumpet,” which had a catchy ostinato showcasing Utterback’s jazz piano background.

Though far from perfect, the inaugural concert of what could become a wonderful series is one to watch.  With upcoming recitals by the UMKC Graduate Fellowship Brass Quintet and other area organists, I hope the music continues to usher forth from that lovely little organ in that lovely little church.

REVIEW
Rainbow Performing Arts Series
Roseann Penner Kaufman and Friends
Sunday, November 7 at 4 p.m.
Rainbow Mennonite Church
1444 Southwest  Blvd
Kansas City, KS
For more information visit http://www.rainbowmennonite.org/index.htm

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