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Kansas City's Online Journal of the Performing Arts

From the sleek curved white marble, glass, and wires of the Brandmeyer Great Hall guests in tuxedos, fine suits, and gowns filtered into the visual polar opposite, the comfortable, wooden, and striated Helzberg Hall Saturday night to continue the weekend-long celebration of Kansas City’s newest statement to the world, the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts.

Helzberg Hall hits in stages. First, for me, was the sheer omnipresence of wood, Alaskan cedar to be precise. The room glows with warmth and the cool teal, blue, and green seat cushions contrast nicely. Metal is used sparingly throughout on railings, a few exposed pipes on the Casavant Frère organ, and the curved portions linking wall to ceiling. Secondly, I realized that there were no balcony overhangs and therefore nowhere for the sound to get trapped; and this makes the room seems long, tall, and narrow. The audience wraps three-quarters of the way around the stage, albeit the sides are sheer one-row sections. I was seated in the very top of the hall, row GGG, behind the first violins. Although a strange angle visually, it did not affect the acoustics at all.

And what wonderful acoustics they are! Individual instruments were easy to pick out from the mass, but like the warm wood tones, the overall sound envelops without being too reverberant. Theatre designer Richard Pilbrow, acoustician, Yasuhisa Toyota, and architect Moshe Safdie, in attendance Saturday, must have been delighted by the audience’s reaction. These men and their creative teams are to be commended indeed. I did a double-take when I realized that Michael Stern was speaking without amplification, and most importantly, was audible to all.

The Kansas City Symphony under Stern opened with a piece fitting a grand opening: Verdi’s overture to La forza del destino. Putting the hall through its paces in a brisk seven minutes, the Symphony seemed right at home in their new space. The strings were especially rich, with the timbre of the winds adding to the overall sound. Hearing a hall with an audience for the first time is nerve-wracking; the musicians and Maestro Stern handled themselves with aplomb. Yes Maestro, it certainly is a “wonderful thing to be home!”

Violinist extraordinaire Itzhak Perlman, joined the Symphony for some lighter fare of Kreisler, Carlos Gardel, and John Williams. The John Williams arrangement of Gardel’s tango “Por una cabeza” (the tango used in Scent of a Woman) was full of whimsy with interlocking wind lines. The theme from Schindler’s List was rendered lovingly by Perlman (for whom the piece was written) and supported solidly by the Symphony strings. Kenneth Lawrence on English horn and Shannon Finney on alto flute shared in elevating the emotive piece with their sensitive playing. The crown jewel of the Perlman set was the final movement of Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto in E minor. Perlman’s dexterity and bow-work was prominently displayed; it was effortless and vibrant. He was assisted by the acoustics in that he did not need to saw away at his instrument in order to be heard. The audience granted Perlman a standing ovation and two curtain calls for his magnificent playing.

The 125-plus member Kansas City Symphony Chorus sang local composer Mark Hayes’ This Moment. Hearing a full massed choir singing pianissimo is one of the most glorious sounds. Helzberg Hall added to that enjoyment by actually rendering the diction audible! Consonants are fully formed and it seemed as though there was no need to push in order for the sound to make it past the lip of the stage. Concluding the first half was Wagner’s “Entrance of the Guests” from Tannhäuser. Just from a sheer numbers perspective, I felt a couple more stands of violins could have been present to properly balance with the choir, but it was lush send-off for the first half which included a clever text substitution honoring Julia Irene Kauffman.

The highlight of the evening for me was hearing Bobby Watson play on Charlie Parker’s saxophone. Consider my mind blown! What a great idea and even better, the suite of tunes celebrating Kansas City’s jazz and blues heritage was equally strong. With the massed forces of the Kansas City Symphony and American Jazz Museum All-Star Orchestra backing Watson and later vocalist Kevin Mahogany, the hall was rocking—showing that it will be able to handle the popular (read amplified) acts that come to town. The combined ensembles wailed with “Shake, Rattle, and Roll.”

After all of the accumulated energy of the previous act, Canadian jazz vocalist/pianist Diana Krall was a dramatic tonal shift. She and her band were top-notch, with some great solos (especially those from the guitar player) but the audience did not seem ready for such a stark contrast from brass and brash to wispy contralto. “The Look of Love” was the strongest number in their set. Perlman joined Krall, Stern, and the Kansas City Symphony for the final number of the evening, “Fly Me to the Moon.” It was a strange assortment, but oddly worked well due to the higher caliber musicians.

REVIEW:
Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts
An Evening of Acoustical Wonders
Grand Opening Celebration
Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts, Helzberg Hall
Saturday, September 17, 2011 at 7 PM
1601 Broadway, Kansas City, MO
For more information visit www.kauffmancenter.com or call 816-994-7200

Top Photo: Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts Opening Night 2 (Photo used with permission. Photo by Eric Bowers)

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