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Kansas City's Online Journal of the Performing Arts

Kansas City Symphony
Juanjo Mena, Guest Conductor
Anton Nel, Piano
Works by Arriag, Rachmaninoff, Bizet and De Falla
Friday, November 28 at 8 p.m.
Saturday, November 29 at 8 p.m.
Lyric Theatre, 11th & Central, Downtown Kansas City, MO

 

Anton Nel

Sunday, November 30 at 2 p.m.
Carlsen Center at Johnson County Community College,
College Blvd. and Quivera Rd., Overland Park, KS

To fans only casually acquainted with the piano repertory, the most instantly recognizable piano concerto may be the Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 2 (okay, "Rock Two" to those of you who are into such mod abbreviations). The first few notes alone let you know right off the bat that this is a great one.  There's just something special about the size of the piece....big concepts, big pounding chords, lush string writing.  The final movement with its riveting and ultra-emotional finish is one of the great moments in all of pianistic history. This is music writ large, just the way the Romantics (and their enthusiastic audiences) loved it.

The funny thing, however, is that Sergei Rachmaninoff wasn't a Romantic composer at all.  Born in 1873 in Novgorod, Russia, he lived until 1943, long after Romanticism was on the wane and Schoenberg, Berg, and the other atonal composers were on the upswing. Even such a traditionalist composer as Richard Strauss had long since abandoned the big-tune-and-rich-accompaniment formula of the Romantic masters such as Tchaikovsky, Gounod and Verdi.

But Rachmaninoff held his ground against the modernists, as if to prove that tuneful composition was not dead, even in the midst of a schizophrenic 20th Century.  Unyielding in his support of the classical forms and traditional harmonies of 19th Century music, he carved for himself an enduring popularity that far surpassed that of most of his contemporaries.

Where did this seemingly lost Romantic come from? Born of an aristocratic family, he showed a prodigious talent at the piano at an early age and entered the St. Petersburg Conservatory at the age of ten. His teacher, Alexander Silot, would give him long and demanding pieces to learn and the young man would memorize them overnight. His professors were baffled; he was up to any challenge they could throw his way. "Whatever composition was ever mentioned," one said, "if Rachmaninoff had at any time heard it, and most of all if he liked it, he played it as though it were a work he studied thoroughly."

In no time he was one of the world's three or four greatest pianists, in an era of great pianists.  He would come onto the concert stage "stiff and severe," one critic wrote, and then wait for audience to quiet down with "terrible dignity." He played with a brooding concentration, and "from his fingers came an indescribable tone: warm...reaching into every corner of the hall, capable of infinite modulations." In an age of spectacular technicians, his technique was peerless.  And he played with great emotion in addition to his virtuosity.

When Rachmaninoff turned his prodigious talents to composition, he wrote music that moved securely, confidently and apparently without any regard for modernistic influences.  "Rachmaninoff may not have contributed anything to twentieth-century form or harmony," wrote the music historian Harold Schonberg, "but he did suffuse the old forms with something highly personal, and was one of the better melodists of his time."

To critics Rachmaninoff was a throwback, often a freak, and he was often and loudly denigrated for sticking to outdated musical concepts in an era of exciting change.  But he stuck true to his course, and the audiences always loved him even when the critics sneered.  "There was never a time when Rachmaninoff was out of the repertory," Schonberg noted, in sharp contrast to the up-and-down popularity of most other 20th Century composers.

His Piano Concerto No. 2 is perhaps the most expressive example of his elegant musicality, and at this weekend's concerts the Symphony audience will have a chance to luxuriate in the boundless beauties of perhaps this greatest of 19th Century throwbacks.  Just put your history button on pause, and tune in and enjoy the music. The soloist is Anton Nel, winner of the first prize in the 1987 Naumburg International Piano Competition at Carnegie Hall whose nearly three decades of concertizing include performances with the Cleveland Orchestra, the symphonies of Chicago, San Francisco, Seattle, Detroit, and London, among many others.

This concert also features Arriaga's Overture to Los exclavos felices, the Suite No. 1 from Carmen by Georges Bizet, and Da Falla's Suites No. 1 and 2 from Three Cornered Hat.  What a series of treats!

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

Kansas City Chamber Orchestra
Handel for the Holidays (Royal Fireworks)
Tuesday, December 2, 2008, 7:30 p.m.
Unity Temple on the Plaza
707 West 47th Street, Kansas City, Missouri
For tickets call 8160-235-6222 or online at www.kcchamberorchestra.org

Classical music offerings on Thanksgiving weekend are a little slim, other than the Symphony concert described above, but on Tuesday right after the holiday weekend, the Kansas City Chamber Orchestra will give its annual holiday concert featuring the works of Handel.  This concert os definitely for those of you who just didn't get enough of Handel during the Lyric Opera's recently completed run of Julius Caesar (and, by the way, how is it possible to ever get enough of Handel?!).

The Music for the Royal Fireworks featured on this concert is a showpiece composed by Handel to impress the British King James in honor of the Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle in 1743, and impressive it is.  The Royal Fireworks contains some of Handel's most exhilarating music, so it's perfectly appropriate for the holidays.

The real treat of the concert, though, will probably be the Handel Gloria featuring virtuoso soprano Sarah Tannehill.  Tannehill, one of this writer's favorite local sopranos (remember her astonishing performance as Ophelia for the Lyric Opera few years ago, stepping in on almost no notice to sing the role from the pit after the principal singer fell ill?).  Even for Handelians this may be "new" music - it was rediscovered in London during the last decade and had not been heard for over two hundred years.

Lionheart

The Friends of Chamber Music
Lionheart
Tydings Trew: Feasts of Christmas in Medieval England
Thursday, December 4, 2008, 8:00 p.m.
Cathedral of Immaculate Conception
416 West 12th Street, Kansas City, Missouri

Lionheart, one of America's leading ensembles in medieval and Renaissance a cappella music, has appeared at Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall, the Kennedy Center, the National Cathedral, the Boston Museum of Fine Arts and in various festivals throughout Europe, to say nothing of its celebrated appearances at The Cloisters in New York City and at Saint Ignatius of Antioch Episcopal Church. 

The Friends of Chamber Music is bringing the group back for a holiday concert featuring medieval songs for the season.  This is bound to be one of the more unusual, and thus one of the most refreshing, concerts of the season.  Plus, who can not feel the holiday spirit seated amidst the giant columns and towering windows of the Cathedral of Immaculate Conception?

For tickets call 816-561-9999 or online at www.chambermusic.org

UMKC Conservatory of Music and Dance
Conservatory Wind Ensemble
Wednesday, December 3, 2008 at 7:30 p.m.
White Recital Hall, Performing Arts Center
4949 Cherry St., Kansas City, Missouri

The Conservatory Wind Ensemble is always one of more interesting groups to perform at the Conservatory of Music and Dance.  The program for this concert includes Kubik's Fanfare for the Century, Dello Joio's Variants on a Mediaeval Tune, Fascinating Ribbons by Joan Tower, and Gould's Ballad for Band and Symphony for Band.

For tickets call 816-235-6222 or online at www.conservatory.umkc.edu

By Don Dagenais

City Classics Music and Dance Columnist; Classical Contributor

A lifelong classical music fan, Don Dagenais is a frequent preview speaker for the Lyric Opera of Kansas City and has taught classical music and opera courses at several Kansas City venues. He has served on the boards of directors of a number of performing arts organizations including the Lyric Opera of Kansas City, the Lyric Opera Guild, UMKC Conservatory of Music and Dance, Opera Volunteers International, the Civic Opera Theater of Kansas City, Inspiration Point Fine Arts Colony, Octarium, and the Friends of the Symphony.  He has been the past president of most of these organizations and is current the president of the Friends of the Symphony. 

Dagenais co-authored a history of the Lyric Opera of Kansas City, published on the occasion of its 50th anniversary (2007) and has written books on the histories of both the Lyric Opera Guild and Opera Volunteers International, as well as an introductory book for opera novices (Your Passport to the Opera).  He has received several local and national awards for outstanding volunteer work for the arts, including a lifetime achievement award from The Coterie Theatre in 2000, the Kansas City Musical Club's annual award in 2001, a Partners in Excellence Award from Opera Volunteers International in 2002, a Bravo Award from Opera Volunteers International in 2004 and a community service award from the Daughter of the American Revolution in 2008 honoring him for his community service to the arts.

In addition to his music interests, Don is president of the board of directors for the Metropolitan Ensemble Theater and has served on the boards of The Coterie Theatre and the Heart of America Shakespeare Festival, serving as president of each organization.  He publishes newsletters for seven arts organizations.  When not involved in the performing arts, Don is a senior real estate attorney with Lathrop & Gage LLP in Kansas City, Missouri, where he has practiced law since 1976 after graduating from the Cornell Law School.