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Kansas City's Online Journal of the Performing Arts

Last Friday’s fundraising concert for Park University’s International Center for Music, “Fête Ioudenitch and Friends,” was a delightful mélange of musical styles performed with great aplomb and finesse. Ranging from chamber repertory staples like Tchaikovsky, Mendelssohn, and Chopin, to opera and Broadway arrangements, Piazzolla tangos, and a bit of jazz, the Folly Theater concert offered something for every taste. “We had this wide variety of styles and it was our idea just to have fun,” explained concert headliner and director of Park University’s International Center for Music, Stanislav Ioudenitch, when I caught up with him after the show. “And not only for us, but for the public,” he continued. “You can get a public loving classical music, somebody loves jazz, somebody loves tango... and we wanted to perform it on a high level.”

There was indeed a number of high caliber performances throughout the program. It was perhaps the two tango selections on the program which were the highlight of the show. Piazzolla’s Adiós Nonino opened the program with a darkened stage and a small spotlight on Ioudenitch. The Van Cliburn winner has a unique approach to the piano, drawing rare colors out of the instrument that would be the envy of many a pianist. Here, Piazzolla’s aggressive, dense timbral washes were rich and full-sounding yet lacking any sharp edges. The more flourished moments had a delicate, gossamer quality. When the rest of the ensemble joined Ioudenitch, the full-stage lights came up and a more biting sound took hold. Violinist Maria Ioudenitch sounded the part of an Argentine, playing a convincing, stylistic solo. Guest bandoneónist, Héctor Del Curto, performed an impassioned solo, creating a delicate vibrato effect at times by carefully controlling the air pressure in his concertina-like instrument.

This authentic performance was all the more impressive when I learned from Ioudenitch after the concert that most of the players had never played this style of music before. “It was an extraordinary, wonderful experience for us, just to learn to [play this kind of music]. It was fun, really fun! We really didn’t know how we were going to do it,” he continued. Del Curto, one of the best bandonéon players in the world, was coming in from New York to coach and rehearse with the rest of the musicians. He came late, due to several flight cancelations, limiting the time the Park University musicians had to rehearse. “We had to be fast learners,” Ioudenitch acknowledged.

Later in the program, Piazzolla’s Libertango perhaps suffered more noticeably from the short rehearsal schedule. Cellist Daniel Veis’ pristine intonation worked to his disadvantage in this setting. His playing was too pretty when it needed to be sullied by the dust of the poorer barrios of Buenos Aires. Violinist Ben Sayevich fared better, but still seemed somewhat out of his element bowing the bridge of his instrument. Great energy from Ioudenitch, Del Curto, and guitarist Beau Bledsoe, however, saved the piece, keeping it from becoming too square.

The other significant moment of Friday evening came when Ioudenitch’s protégé, Behzod Abduraimov, took the stage. The eighteen-year-old received an uproarious applause from a large number of fans before he even played a note. Behzod began Liszt’s arrangement of Paganini’s La Campanella with a supremely delicate and intimate sound. As this approach to the piece seemed to fit Abduraimov’s quiet persona, I assumed I was in for a complete performance that was nuanced and understated. I was sorely mistaken. As the piece built to a powerful conclusion, Abduraimov brought more power and volume out of the Folly’s Steinway-D than I have heard at any of the last five concerts I have attended at the hall this season. The performance was likewise impressive in the way the pianist took control of the technical showiness inherent in Liszt and Paganini and used it to create a musical statement that was more than virtuosity. I also noted that Abduraimov was definitely his teacher’s student, flittering his left foot on the una corda pedal in the softer sections, at times nearly as quickly as his repeated notes. I had noticed Ioudenitch using this technique in his Chopin earlier in the evening.

I was appreciative of the significant planning that went into this variety show. The programming was such that, even if one wasn’t a fan of Mendelssohn, tango, or Broadway, none of the selections lasted long enough to wear on listeners. Likewise, each ensemble’s set was kept brief, making the 700-strong audience forget that they had sat through a two-hour concert without the typical intermission. The program was a model introduction to the immense talent just down the road in Parkville. “Since 2003, I had to make the calculation, we have over twenty prizes, and with this little body of students,” Ioudenitch said. ICM’s program currently has only 33 students in its program and only three full-time faculty. He continued that the main goal of tonight’s fundraiser was to fund scholarships for the programs immensely talented students.

I also took the opportunity of talking to one of Kansas City’s best musicians to ask him what he thought of Kansas City’s future with respect to the arts. “Ah, my dream is- let’s do something like Tokyo! We are doing this amazing performing arts center. We don’t have a way back. It HAS to grow into the major hub for the arts, you know? In our case, we are thinking a lot about music and with this amazing stage which they are going to construct, I mean, its already [here]- we can see it, chang[ing] the skyline of Kansas City. So, I think we will have to offer a lot of great music. That’s the hope. That’s the ambition of Kansas City,”

REVIEW:
Park University’s International Center for Music
Fête Ioudenitch and Friends
Friday, October 29 at 7:30 p.m.
Folly Theater
300 W 12th St, Kansas City, MO
For more information, visit www.park.edu/icm

Photos courtesy of Park University

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.