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Kansas City's Online Journal of the Performing Arts

UMKC Conservatory of Music and Dance
Master Class: Roberta Alexander
Wednesday, February 17 at 3:00 p.m.
Grant Hall, Room 122|
University of Missouri-Kansas City campus
Kansas City, MO
Free admission. For more information visit www.umkc.edu/conservatory

If you can make it to the UMKC campus at 3:00 on Wednesday afternoon you will be in for a treat, and it's free.  Roberta Alexander, one of the most impressive soprano vocalists of the last few decades, is an artist in residence at the Conservatory this month, and Wednesday afternoon will give a master class. She is known as an expressive and communicative teacher who is an inspiration to students, and this may be your only chance to see her in action locally.



Harriman Jewell Series
Marc-Andre Hamelin, pianist
Friday, February 19 at 8:00 p.m.
Folly Theater, 12^th and Central Streets
Downtown Kansas City, MO
For tickets call 815-415-5025 or online at www.harrimanjewell.org


This listener waits with anxious anticipation every appearance of Marc-Andre Hamelin in Kansas City. For an introduction, we can do no better than quote pianist James Rhodes in a recent issue of BBC Music Magazine, who writes:

"Marc-Andre Hamelin is for me the greatest living virtuoso. He's recorded a CD called Kaleidoscope which is short pieces that are absolutely mind-numbingly difficult and very rare - everyone from Kapustin to Blumenfeld, and his own compositions. Every time I listen to it I'm awestruck by what this guy can do. In Canada they used to call him 'the monkey' because he was so agile - he could turn a score of some obscure Richard Strauss upside down on the piano and still sight-read it."

We don't know if Hamelin will be playing any upside-down musical scores or not, but his athletic virtuosity will amaze you. For this program he has selected some relatively tame Haydn and Mozart, but ventures into the virtuosic repertoire with Liszt and Faure, and then will perform some music by Alkan, a composer of fiendishly difficult piano pieces in whose repertoire Hamelin excels.

You simply have to see and hear Hamelin to believe it. This is one of the can't-miss recitals of the Kansas City classical music season.




Kansas City Symphony
Stern Conducts Beethoven & Tchaikovsky
Friday, February 19 at 8 p.m.
Saturday, February 20 at 8 p.m.
Lyric Theatre, 11^th and Central
Downtown Kansas City, MO

Sunday, February 21, at 2 p.m.
Yardley Hall, Carlsen Center
12345 College Boulevard, Overland Park, Kansas
For tickets call 816-471-0400 or online at www.kcsymphony.org

The Symphony mixes in some old favorites with a world premiere this weekend.  The old favorites on the program are Beethoven's Symphony No. 8 and the Overture to Francesca da Rimini by Tchaikovsky, along with a Rossini overture, to the opera La scala di seta.

Beethoven as a young man shattered the traditional symphonic forms as perfected by his great predecessors Mozart and Haydn, turning a charming little 25- or 30-minute composition involving 35 or 40 musicians into a bombastic and furious performance lasting 45 minutes to an hour and requiring as many as 90 musicians on stage.  His Symphony Nos. 3, 4 and 5 were the pathbreaking works on this vein. 

By the time Beethoven reached Symphony No. 8 his passion had cooled a little, and this symphony represents a tuneful and somewhat less bombastic work which still explores the full breadth of his compositional style.  It is this symphony, along with his No. 9, which laid the path for such great successors to Beethoven as Dvorak, Mahler and Bruckner.

Tchaikovsky, a couple of generations later, learned much from Beethoven but was not a breaker of molds as was the older master.  In fact, he was looked down upon as "old school" by such Russian new music vanguards as Balakirev, Cui, Rimsky-Korsakov, Mussorgsky and Borodin.  Tchaikovsky, however, prevailed in the end, with a series of magisterial compositions which surpassed, both in quantity and quality, the entire output of his competitors.

For the world premiere on the program, the Symphony is bringing composer Luca Lombardi to Kansas City for a Flute Concerto to be performed by Swiss flutist Emmanuel Pahud.  The 64-year-old Lombardi, a native of Italy, was trained in a German conservatory and has written music that crosses between the Italian and German styles, often of a highly charged political nature. He has written in almost every musical form, including opera, and according to one writer his work ranges from "expressive cantilenas, violent outbursts, meditative contemplation to alienation and deconstruction," constantly displaying "flashes of wit and irony."

Pahud, born in Geneva 40 years ago, has won a raft of international competitions and has served as principal flutist for the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra (Claudio Abbado), Basel Radio Symphony Orchestra (Nello Santi), Munich Philharmonic Orchestra (Sergiu Celibidache), and Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (Simon Rattle). As a soloist he has performed with the Berlin Philharmonic, Berlin and Stuttgart Radio Symphony, Suisse Romande, Zurich Tonhalle, Tokyo Symphony, Yomiuri Nippon Symphony, Osaka Century, London Symphony, Belgian National, Liege Philharmonic, Dutch Radio and many others.

In addition to his appearances at the Symphony concerts, Pahud will give a free public master class the evening of Thursday, February 18 at 7:00 p.m. at the Lyric Theatre. For free tickets call 816-471-0400 or visit www.kcsymphony.org.




Kansas City Baroque Consortium
Baroque Harpsichord Concert
Friday, February 19 at 7:30 p.m.
St Michael's and All Angels Church
6630 Nall Avenue, Mission, KS
Free admission.  Donations accepted.
For more information visit www.nicholasgood.net

The Kansas City Baroque Consortium presents harpsichordist Nicholas Good in a program that includes a Bach harpsichord concerto, the Fifth Brandenburg, one of the Paris Quartets of Telemann and solo harpsichord music by Böhm and Rameau. The Kansas City Baroque Consortium, a period instrument group, is lead by Trilla-Ray Carter, artistic director.

This concert will be repeated in Topeka, Kansas at the First Presbyterian Church, 817 S.W. Harrison, at 3:00 p.m. on Sunday, February 21. 


University of Kansas Symphony Orchestra
Friday, February 19 at 7:30 p.m.
Lied Center
University of Kansas
1600 Stewart Drive, Lawrence, KS

The University of Kansas Symphony Orchestra led by David Neely performs at the Lied Center on Friday evening. No information is available about the program.



Octarium
Mass-tiche
Saturday, February 20, at 7:30 p.m.
St. Elizabeth's Church
2 East 75^th Street (75^th and Main Streets)
Kansas City, MO
Tickets available at the door or online at www.brownpapertickets.com/event/93654.

The eight-voice a capella group Octarium sets the standard in Kansas City for simply gorgeous small vocal ensemble music. This remarkable group of young musicians, led by director Krista Blackwood, enjoys a level of harmonious blending that rivals that of internationally-famous vocal groups.

For this concert, Blackwood has chosen the interesting phenomenon of pastiche compositions, once popular on concert programs but rarely done today. A pastiche is a patched-together composition made up of pieces from several different composers, sometimes intended for joint performance and sometimes not. Many masses were put together this way back on the Baroque and Classical eras, and this concert will present modern listeners with an opportunity to have this curious experience.

Blackwood says, "Exploring similarities with settings through time -- Byrd paired with Barber, Machaut with MacMillan -- this concert should prove to be an intriguing evening of music and history."

The acoustics at St. Elizabeth's are perfect for this sort of thing, by the way.  It should be a lovely and unconventional evening.

Musica Sacra
Music in Salzburg
Saturday, February 20 at 7 p.m.
St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church
52^nd and Troost, Kansas City, MO
For tickets call  816-235-6222 or online at www.rockhurst.edu/musicasacra

Musical Sacra's first program of 2010 focuses on music by Salzburg masters.  Of course it will feature Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, who will be represented by two settings of the Missa Brevis, works noted for their length rather than their brevity, as the title might have suggested.  They were enormously popular in German churches for centuries afterwards, and may be among his most frequently performed religious works.

Also included, however, is an unusual piece by Michael Haydn, the younger brother of Franz Joseph Haydn and a fine composer in his own right, who wrote, among other pieces, the Laudate Puerii and Ave maria which will be presented on this concert.

As is often the case, director Timothy McDonald deserves a respectful salute for bringing to Kansas City audiences unusual and fascinating repertoire not often heard in local venues. The Michael Haydn in particular should be a treat.



Kansas City Civic Orchestra
Music That Stirs the Soul
Saturday, February 20, 2010, at 7:30 p.m.
Atonement Lutheran Church
9948 Metcalf, Overland Park, KS
Free concert. For more information visit www.lied.ku.edu

Christopher Kelts leads the Kansas City Civic Orchestra in an ambitious program this weekend which includes some of Dvorak's delightful Slavonic Dances as well as Tchaikovsky's popular Symphony No. 5.  The Civic Orchestra never shirks from a challenge, and both of these works represent orchestral showpieces requiring precision playing and great feeling, particularly the Tchaikovsky.

The Civic Orchestra is usually up to the challenge, though, as it has been since its founding in 1959.



Ruel Joyce Concert Series
Brookside String Quartet
Monday, February 22 at 12:00 noon
Recital Hall at Carlsen Center
12345 College Boulevard, Overland Park, Kansas
Free admission. For more information visit www.jccc.edu

The Ruel Joyce Concert Series affords an excellent opportunity to hear fine classical music at a price that can't be beat, in the recital hall across the lobby from Yardley Hall at the Carlsen Center. 

This noontime concert features the Brookside String Quartet in a program that features works of Haydn and Mendelssohn. The Brookside String Quartet is made up of violinist Alex Shum, violinist Francesca Manheim, violist Kent Brauninger and cellist Leslie Mengel, all players from the Kansas City Symphony and/or Kansas City Chamber Orchestra.



Conservatory Wind Symphony
Tuesday, February 23 at 7:30 p.m.
White Recital Hall
4949 Cherry, Kansas City, MO
For tickets call 816-235-6222 or online at www.umkc.edu/conservatory

The Conservatory Wind Symphony concerts are often among the most enjoyable presentations given at the Conservatory. On this evening, conductor Steven D. Davis will lead his forces in Fratres by contemporary composer Arvo Part, along with the Symphony for Band (played by wind instruments?!) by Vincent Persichetti and Selections from the Danserve by Tielman Susato, a Flemish Renaissance composer, as arranged by Patrick Dunnigan.

In addition to this unusual repertoire, the concert will feature the world premiere of the Concerto for Vibraphone by Lee Hartman, featuring James Clanton, vibraphone player.

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.