I hate titling these posts. Sigh. Sorry.
Anyway, I attended last night's Kansas City Symphony concert.
[Note to self: Never, ever, ever get seats again in the lower balcony. The seats and rows are not constructed for anyone taller than 4' 6" with knees. I am 6' or 6' 1". I'm not sure. But that's another story. Shockingly uncomfortable. Yikes. Seriously, from the front edge of the seat cushion to the hard back of the seat in front of me was no more than six inches. Fortunately my concert-going partner got us aisle seats and that's where I stuck my legs for the entire concert. Lyric Theater – I shall not miss you.]
The concert started off with a piece by the young composer, Adam Schoenberg. Born in 1980. Titled "Translucent Thoughts," it was an interesting piece, about 10 minutes long. Lots of dissonant orchestral sounds. I sat through the whole piece under the mistaken impression the title was "Translucent Night," (excuses: the light was dim, I was trying to speed read the synopsis, my brain is going) and kept thinking to myself, "Yeah, that's a good description. Sound like nighttime in some sort of film noir world." The closing moments were the most lovely I thought. Well the only moments that could be remotely called lovely. But they were -- with atmospheric strings that couldn't help but remind me of the film scores of Thomas Newman. Afterwards, the composer came out on stage for a bow in his corduroy sport coat looking even younger than his program photo.
The concert then shifted into what a good chunk of the audience was there for: Lots of French Horn goodness. There were 150 or so members of the International Horn Society were in Kansas City for the Mid-South Horn Conference. I never knew there was such a thing. And I played french horn from junior high into college. This really skewed the audience age down a couple of decades. But even aside for them, the audience seemed to be the youngest crowd I'd seen at a concert in a long, long time. Anyway, Eric Ruske was the guest soloist for Mozart's Horn Concerto No. 4. Beautiful sound, but I'm afraid it wasn't the most confident performance. He seemed to struggle a bit with his upper register. But still it was an engaging reading and I always enjoy hearing a concerto not built around the usual piano or violin.
I actually enjoyed his "encore" piece more. (Does it count as an encore if you announce it before you play the first piece?) Dukas' Vilanelle for Horn is a truly delightfully rich pastry, and it was a definite treat to hear this in the concert hall.
Finally, the big finale of the evening was Mahler's Fifth Symphony. I find Mahler's symphonies truly exciting in concert. To me, they seem like epic mini-series. With drama, comedy, battles, romantic liaisons, elegies, pageantry -- just everything you'd have in a big sprawling historical novel. And I thought Michael Stern and the Kansas City Symphony handled it all magnificently. It all sounded assured and noble and perverse -- whatever was required of that moment of the piece. I thought the brass sounded particularly fine in their prominent parts. And the audience responded with explosive appreciation. One man, in fact, evidently had a "BRAVO" bottled up inside for quite some time. His outburst come barely a half beat after Stern's final downbeat. I'm sure it made more than a few people jump.
Great concert. Highly entertaining. Aided by a young enthusiastic crowd. One weird moment: Before Ruske played the Mozart, he announced that because of the KU NCAA Basketball tournament game results, he'd play the Dukas piece. "Huh?" was I think everyone's response. Then he and Sterns traded some whispered comments which finally ended with Stern, half-turned to the audience, saying "KC lost." Again, "Huh?" Um, Michael. I know that KU basketball isn't probably on the top of your interest list. But even then, a little gentleness when announcing something that important to so many people in this area, please. And get it right. KC is not KU. And again, the way Ruske announced the piece, seemed more like he was going to announce playing either the KU fight song or a mournful elegy. Awkward.
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