Khatia Buniatishvili (photo by Gavin Evans – Sony Classical)
Anniversary Season Starts with a Bang
The Harriman-Jewell Series is celebrating its 60th anniversary season, and it’s pulling out all the stops.
Three of classical music’s biggest stars kick off the season, beginning with piano virtuoso Khatia Buniatishvili Sept. 17 at Helzberg Hall. Hailing from Georgia (the country, not the state), she rarely performs in North America, which is why her last appearance on the series was such a hot ticket.
“We were kind of blown away when we presented her previous recital,” said Clark Morris, artistic director of the Harriman-Jewell Series. “I think we had people from 20 states. We had a couple from Mexico City that flew up just for her recital.”
Buniatishvili is noted for her fiery, impassioned performances. Gramophone magazine says, “She has fantastic fingers, a charismatic stage presence, a warm, glowing tone and strongly expressed ideas.”
“There’s an electricity in the hall,” Morris said. “She’s magnetic. We’re fortunate to have her opening our season. It’s our 60th season, so we wanted to start off with a bang, and we’re very excited about it.”
She’ll perform a varied program of composers, including Satie, Chopin and Bach. The music will range from the delicate Les Barricades mystérieuses by Couperin to Liszt’s delightfully bombastic Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2.
Violinist Itzhak Perlman has been a beloved series regular for decades, and Sept. 29 he’s bringing an extraordinary group of musicians with him to Helzberg Hall. The Klezmer Conservatory Band led by saxophonist and pianist Hankus Netsky and clarinetist Andy Statman will join Perlman for In the Fiddler’s House.
“It’s a big production and not a small feat to pull off,” Morris said. “Klezmer is a folk music rooted in Jewish culture. I find it to be very happy and engaging music. I’ve seen videos when he did Fiddler’s House in Carnegie Hall, and people are dancing in the aisles, just loving it so much. They can’t even stay in their seats.
I think it’s going to be a tremendous amount of fun.”
Perlman contracted polio when he was four years old, and has had to walk using leg braces and crutches ever since. His triumph over adversity is one of the most inspiring stories in classical music.
“When you see him, it’s almost unbelievable that he can produce the kind of music that he does,” Morris said. “He’s a marvelous person with an incredible intellect and a great sense of humor. He’s always cracking jokes and has a great rapport with the audience. He’s so much fun backstage. He’s very, very charming.”
Like Perlman, violinist Joshua Bell is another performer who has appeared many times on the series. And for good reason. Audiences adore him.
“Both Itzhak and Joshua have magnetism just because of the sheer musicality and virtuosity that they have, but there’s also something else that comes across,” Morris said. “Joshua isn’t that young anymore, but we always think of him as a youthful personality. Maybe it’s the fact that he’s grown up around us.
We saw him when he was very young and have experienced him over the years.”
Morris says that the theme for this anniversary season is collaboration, for example, Perlman and the Klezmer band. Bell will be collaborating with none other than his wife, the soprano Larisa Martínez.
“The recital is really about them making music together,” Morris said. “For people who are fans of Joshua Bell — and he has droves of fans — I think it’s going to be fun to see him making music with his wife. We haven’t presented her in Kansas City before, so he gets to introduce us to her. Larisa is a major artist, as well, and they’re a beautiful couple. I think it’s going to be just terrific.”
Khatia Buniatishvili. 7 p.m. Sept. 17. Helzberg Hall, Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts.
Itzhak Perlman – In the Fiddler’s House. 5 p.m. Sept. 29. Helzberg Hall, Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts.
Joshua Bell, violin, and Larisa Martínez, soprano. 7 p.m. Oct. 8. Folly Theater, 300 W. 12th St.
For more information, hjseries.org.
–Patrick Neas
