Kansas City Symphony music director Matthias Pintscher leads the orchestra for “The Star-Spangled Banner” at the opening Classical Series concert for the 2024-2025 season. Photo: Eric T. Williams, Kansas City Symphony
Much has been made of the Kansas City Symphony’s new music director and the organization’s first European tour, just a few weeks past, but on Friday’s concert of the symphony’s opening weekend, Matthias Pintscher let the music speak for itself.
There was no administrator addressing the audience from the stage of Helzberg Hall, thanking donors and encouraging subscription sign-ups, no public address message to silence phones and pagers, no jokes or insights or stories prefacing the performances during the concert. Other than the pre-concert talk in the hour preceding (which involved principal flutist Michael Gordon, guest soloist Alisa Weilerstein, and Luke Poeppel, one of KCS’ newly appointed assistant conductors), no words were said from the stage at all.
That was just one of the differences among the many changes happening externally and internally, subtle and manifest, with the organization, including a new orchestral layout, new logo, color scheme and marketing plan, some new faces in the ensemble and new performance concepts (including their first “On Stage” chamber music performance with cellist Weilerstein on Thursday night).
In that pre-concert discussion, all this shiny newness, stemming from the fundamental shift of a new music director, was referred to as a milestone moment, and that is without doubt, as the orchestra continues on its trajectory of growth and artistry, now advertised as “one of the top 25 orchestras in the United States.”
Opening weekend kept one constant, though, with the traditional playing of the “Star Spangled Banner,” the hundreds in the audience joining in after the snare drum roll, all together in song.
Other than that, this was a very modern leaning concert. Sure, Igor Stravinksy’s “Firebird” and Antonín Dvořák’s Concerto in B minor for cello and orchestra, opus 104, are both from well over 100 years ago, yet both have a boundary-pushing quality to them, in texture, content, and color.
And boundary pushing certainly seems to be a goal.
Unsuk Chin’s “subito con forza” was written to honor Ludwig van Beethoven (without actually performing Beethoven), and the piece—titled for the score marking “suddenly, with force,”—was a portentous five minute opener, as the piece zig-zags between jangly klaxon, anxious lines in the strings, and brief islands of major sonorities, an arresting, interesting piece from one of the more beguiling and creative minds in classical music today.
The last time cellist Alisa Weilerstein performed with the Kansas City Symphony, they were still in the old Lyric Theater (now a YMCA), so this hall was surely a marked and welcome change for her. She was one of the first artists to sign on to Pintscher’s inaugural season; as long time collaborators (she premiered his second cello concerto “A Desperate” and “Uriel” for cello and piano), she referred to Pintscher as her “dear friend and musical brother.”
Weilerstein’s technical prowess was second only to her remarkably empathetic performance, moving from the serenity of Dvorak’s homespun melodies to the vivacity of his rhythms and harmonies. Her command of the extremes was electrifying, particularly in fragile sustained tones and ascents.
Soloists from the orchestra, particularly clarinet and violin, matched her energy and phrasing, creating a cohesive experience, not just soloist and ensemble. The final moments, the cello spooled out a sensitive line, absolutely captivating, before the orchestra’s last impressive burst.
(Do we mention here Pintscher’s continued attempts to control the endemic “Midwestern nice” between-movement clapping? How despite his clear body language in the seconds following the delicate cadence of the second movement, held ever so long and discretely, there was still an incautious clatter from the audience? I wish him luck.)
But we didn’t have to deal with that in the later half, as “Firebird” was presented without break.
This performance, as heard Friday, was a revelation. They presented the full ballet score, from 1910, and Stravinsky’s color and inventiveness, along with this exceptional performance, made it difficult to imagine the piece in its original presentation, with dancers, costumes and set pieces. Those elements would have seemed superfluous, a distraction from young Stravinsky’s first masterwork.
It’s amazing to think that Stravinsky’s legacy is not such a far reach from these 21st century musicians of the Kansas City Symphony. Gordon, in the pre-concert talk, mentioned that Pintscher shared a story in rehearsal, of studying the score with his mentor Pierre Boulez, who in turn had discussed “Firebird” with the composer himself. (See Stravinsky conduct sections with the New York Philharmonic in 1960.)
There was such color in this performance, nuanced and alert, with many exposed voices, not just the principals, an indication of the depth of skill across the board with the ensemble. You could feel the leaps and twirls in the music, the ominous rumble in basses and contrabassoons, glowing tremolo glissandi, moments of spontaneous clamor and moments of tremendous beauty, like David Sullivan’s solo on horn, heralding a perfect daybreak aurora, before leading into those final last broad strains of the jubilant conclusion.
As far as opening concerts go, this triumphant first sortie, commanded by Pintscher’s assertive leadership, set an expectation of tremendous music making in the months (and years) to come.
Reviewed Friday, September 13, 2024. For more information about the Kansas City Symphony, visit www.kcsymphony.org.
