KCMETROPOLIS.org
Kansas City's Online Journal of the Performing Arts

Friday evening, October 23^rd, at the Lyric Theatre, the Kansas City Symphony continued its 2009-10 Classical Series under Music Director Michael Stern's baton, performing Bach's 3^rd Brandenburg Concerto (in G Major), Mendelssohn's E Minor Violin Concerto (featuring Concertmistress Kanako Ito), and Haydn's "Lord Nelson" Mass in D Minor. It was a vibrant evening.

Beethoven once called Bach "the immortal god of harmony," testament to the Baroque master's gargantuan genius. Tape all of Bach's manuscripts to a wall, throw a dart - blindfolded - and you'd nevertheless be guaranteed to hit a work that, if not masterful in its entirety, had something astounding to behold within its "mathemusically" beautiful structure. Consider the six Brandenburg concerti:  microcosmic, contrapuntal gems that glisten like stars in a clear night sky. The 3^rd concerto is particularly energetic and, I am convinced, impossible to listen to without feeling cheerful - its unbridled energy and excitement capable of lifting the darkest of moods. The performance, while not flawless, was a stunning display of compositional and technical virtuosity, the effects of which were aptly summed up by a lone patron who, in the brief instant between the last note and the first clap, uttered a sentiment the ensuing applause enthusiastically ratified:  Whooaaa..."

Within an otherwise dazzling performance the violins had a few, isolated intonation problems and in the 3^rd movement enthusiasm got the better of the 11-piece ensemble, which got a little ahead of Stern's timing, but quickly recovered and settled into his pace. Stern's lively interpretation yielded an invigorating pulse. With that driving force he deftly led the musicians through nuanced dynamics that made the work shimmer. For technical execution, hats off to the cellos and basses for their remarkable precision and clarity in the lower register, a realm that does not often equate with dexterity and nimbleness.

Felix Mendelssohn, already an accomplished composer as a teenager, had fully mastered his craft by age 29 when he first conceived, as the program cites, "his only mature violin concerto." Many of history's greatest composers had several decades to achieve such maturity, so it is with an extra dose of reverence that I listen to music by composers who never saw their 40^th birthdays:  Mozart, Mendelssohn and Chopin among them.

The program listed the concerto as a four-movement piece, which yields analytical insights that might otherwise be overlooked (indeed, one can find countless three-movement recordings that present the 3^rd and 4^th as one). The 1^st and 4^th are like rival juggernauts of Romantic antimatter kept apart only by the thin membranes of the 2^nd and 3^rd. That same structure provides a unique inverse symmetry with the sweeping solo theme of the 1^st movement transitioning - through the single sustained note of a lone bassoon - into the serenity of the 2^nd, which drips deliciously with Romantic pathos. Balancing this, the 1^st movement's theme returns as a calmer, morphed recapitulation in the very brief, transitional 3^rd movement before erupting into the blistering pace of the 4^th movement Finale.

Kanako Ito was spectacular, although the 1^st movement (similar to the Brandenberg's 3^rd movement noted earlier) got just a tad ahead of itself at the outset but recovered and settled comfortably within a dozen or so measures. From there it was a smooth and seamless ride. Ito looked positively stunning in a bright blue gown that reinforced her commanding presence, and it mirrored well Mendelssohn's mature, energetic composition. By the 4^th movement both she and the orchestra were fully "in the zone" and I was unable to find a single flaw worth mentioning. Perfection strived for is a lofty and elusive goal, but this performance (after the opening settled down) came impressively close.

Lastly - Haydn, which (honestly) I dreaded; regrettably, Haydn bores me. Ironically, perhaps because of that bias - I ended up enjoying the D Minor Mass much more than I expected. The orchestra was, well, orchestral; it is about all I can say. Haydn's orchestrations and thematic material revealed no profound musical epiphanies. The most I can ever find to say about a Haydn work is just that very fact:  "It's Haydn..."

Thankfully, this was a Mass, which leaves plenty to discuss about the vocal aspects of the chorus, and the Soprano (Mary Wilson), Mezzo-Soprano (Sasha Cooke), Tenor (Thomas Cooley) and Bass (Nathaniel Webster) soloists. First impressions of Ms. Wilson were guarded. Her timbre during the first few sections was shrill, but mellowed nicely about one-third of the way through and by the Angus Dei she had won me over. Ms. Cooke, conversely, captured my interest immediately with rich, consistent textures, which coincidentally (to Ms. Wilson's detriment) peaked in the Agnus Dei. It was, however, Mr. Cooley's pure, soaring tenor that prevailed, with consistency in both timbre and projection. As for Mr. Webster, one can only hope that the performance was the result of his having an "off" night. He was atrocious - unable to project beyond the first few rows, with intonation in his lowest register a complete mess and not helped at all by his posture, where at times he seemed to be singing to his own feet. I am usually not this blunt - but I was astonished at how poorly he came across.

The Kansas City Symphony Chorus - different story entirely:  impressive and much (much!) improved since the last time I'd heard them a few seasons ago. Haydn failed again to deliver any choral revelations, but the chorus had solid intonation and came through where it counted most: diction. They were mostly spot-on, with their percussive consonants falling simultaneously as a single entity rather than as the efforts of 116 individuals. When executed with skill, the achievement of that singularity seems deceivingly easy to the untrained listener, but in fact the magnitude of the challenge grows exponentially with the number of performers, and succeeding with a group this size is quite a feat. Kudos are in order for Chorus Director Charles Bruffy's guidance, and to the chorus itself for skillful execution.

REVIEW:
Kansas City Symphony and Michael Stern
Kansas City Symphony Chorus and Charles Bruffy
With Kanako Ito, Violin
October 23, 2009
Lyric Theatre
1029 Central S, Kansas City, MO
www.kcsymphony.org

By Christopher Guerin

Traditional and New Classical music, and Theatre Contributor (Past writer)
Christopher Guerin holds degrees in Music Education, Music Business, and Music Theory & Composition, the latter from the University of Massachusetts (Lowell) College of Music where he co-founded the college's Composers' Guild, and, in 1985, won the Artin Arslanian Composition Award. During college, he also obtained some musical theatre experience as a member of pit orchestras for Threepenny Opera and My Fair Lady. Since 1989, Christopher has been in the very non-artistic corporate sector, where his creative energies have been put to more mundane endeavors 

Christopher credits his musical motivations to his late father, who was concertmaster of the Springfield (MA) Community (pre-cursor to the city's current Symphony) Orchestra and performed popular music on radio in the 1930s. Christopher began his classical training in 1972 at age 10, began teaching at 16 (continuing to take private students throughout college), and traveled extensively with a youth orchestra - including to New Zealand in 1980. After college, and until 1989, Christopher focused on the business end of music as a successful sales manager for one of New England's largest music chains.

Over the past 20 years, Christopher's expertise has focused on medicine as a life risk underwriting officer for a large Midwest insurance group. His past duties included responsibility for risk underwriting in Pacific Rim markets where he traveled extensively to Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines, Hong Kong, Thailand and Burma. Time permitting, he has continued to compose intermittently throughout this period. Christopher is married to Paula, a fellow musician he met during college, and together they have "composed" their magnum opera in three very creative children - an architecture student (go K-State!), an aspiring classical pianist, and a budding writer/journalist. He and his wife relocated from Massachusetts to the Kansas City area in 1997.