There was a great deal to celebrate on Saturday night at the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts. The Friends of Chamber Music Kansas City honored its 50-year legacy and looked forward to the future at its Golden Jubilee concert by showcasing brilliant young artists alongside well-established veterans. Moreover, the evening featured a knockout program, with two iconic chamber works and a wonderful string quartet.
Artistic Directors Dmitri Atapine and Hyeyeon Park opened the evening by welcoming the audience and acknowledging the contributions of founding Artistic Director Cynthia Siebert.
The program began with the Kansas City premiere of the Viano String Quartet playing Franz Joseph Haydn’s String Quartet in D Major, Op. 50, No. 6, nicknamed “The Frog.” Atapine, in his introduction, cited a numerical connection between the fiftieth anniversary and Haydn’s opus 50. The performers, recipients of a prestigious 2025 Avery Fisher Career Grant, displayed a warm, beautifully blended sound from the outset. The joyful opening theme was followed by a central section with an effective variety of dynamics. The somber second movement was filled with pathos and expression.
It was in the third movement, however, that the quartet really captured the composer’s wit, with playful and effective silences among the jaunty themes. The nickname “The Frog” derives from the work’s final movement, where a rapid repetition of a pitch on alternate strings is said to resemble the croaking of a frog. This finale, although with an occasional slip in intonation on the highest notes, featured virtuosic rapidity and youthful vigor. This is an excellent quartet and hopefully they will return to Kansas City soon.
The marvelous Quintet for Piano and Strings in E-flat Major, Op. 44 of Robert Schumann followed, performed by pianist Hyeyeon Park, violinists Maria Ioudenitch and Benjamin Beilman, violist Lawrence Dutton and cellist Dmitri Atapine. Schumann’s work is one of the earliest piano quintets composed and influenced later works by Brahms, Dvorak and others.
Ioudenitch is well-known in Kansas City as a violinist, having grown up here after emigrating from Russia at the age of two. She has built an international career and reputation. In addition to winning several important violin competitions, she has a recording contract with Warner Classics and performed with the Kansas City Symphony and many other orchestras. Like Ioudenitch, Beilman has played as a soloist with a variety of well-known orchestras in the United States and abroad, including the Chicago Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra and London Philharmonic.
The instrumentalists performed the glorious opening bars convincingly and with passion. Pianist Park displayed special lyricism and sensitivity. Violist Dutton is a longtime member of the Emerson String Quartet and frequent visitor of the Friends of Chamber Music. His first-movement duets with Atapine were both warm and lovely. My only wish from the entire Schumann work was that there had been greater volume from the violins, particularly in the softer sections.
The second movement opened as a slow march but displayed a variety of tempos and moods that were deftly navigated by the ensemble. The fiery and dancelike scherzo in the third movement was so satisfying that a number of audience members applauded after the end. The performers playfully advanced to the brilliant finale.
Felix Mendelssohn’s Octet for Strings in E-flat Major, Op. 20 was written in the composer’s teenage years, yet is such a well written and popular work that it is hard to believe it was a product of his youth. The members of the Viano String Quartet were joined by Beilman, Ioudenitch, Dutton and Atapine for this concluding piece.
The performers saved the best for last, as this work was clearly on fire from beginning to end. As a matter of fact, it was hard to believe that this ensemble of extraordinary performers did not play all the time together as a single group. The sound was beautifully blended and intimately nuanced.
Benjamin Beilman, who served as the first violinist of the performance, deserves particular mention due to his shimmering tone and virtuosic passages that were exceptionally delivered. But throughout the work, the entire ensemble played with remarkable passion and energy. The fine acoustics of the Kauffman Center worked to their advantage, and the appreciative audience members leapt to their feet upon the conclusion for a well-deserved standing ovation.
To find out more about the upcoming season of the Friends of Chamber Music Kansas City, visit their website at chambermusic.org.
