There Stands the Glass

The aspiring conductor seated next to me at Helzberg Hall on Sunday, September 15, assessed Matthias Pintscher’s approach during intermission by suggesting “he lets the orchestra play”. The absence of self-aggrandizing posturing was a refreshing change for The Kansas City Symphony.

I invested $37 to join an attentive audience of about 1,000 in the last of three concerts of Pintscher’s first weekend as the ensemble’s conductor and musical director. Pintscher’s humble demeanor aside, it’s too soon to assess if or how the quality of the Symphony has changed.

I consider the opening selection a promising signal. The mild dissonance of Unsuk Chin’s “subito con forza” is not dissimilar to Pintscher’s exciting original compositions. Here’s hoping for more like this.

There’s no getting around the fact that the featured piece, Antonín Dvořák’s “Concerto in B Minor,” is a drag. Not even the presence of star cellist Alisa Weilerstein could make the composition interesting.

A reading of Igor Stravinsky’s stupendous “The Firebird” more than compensated for the dullness of Dvořák. Like the characters in the corresponding ballet, I was entirely enchanted. As for Pintscher, the verdict is still out.

Brentano Quartet wasn’t my first choice on Friday night in Portland on December 4. I’d been looking forward to finally catching Thievery Corporation. My hopes were dashed when the band’s concert at Roseland Theater sold out. I made new plans when I learned that the program for Brentano Quartet’s recital at Lincoln Hall would begin with "Quietly Flowing Along" from John Cage’s Quartet in Four Parts. The weirder the better for me.

Sure enough, a distinguished matron near the front row seat I claimed amid an audience of about 125 responded in horror to an interpretation of Igor Stravinsky’s discordant Concertino for String Quartet that followed the opening salvo of Cage. I almost fell out of my chair laughing to Dmitri Shostakovich’s devious "Polka". And Barbara Sukowa’s recorded recitations of Amy Lowell’s Stravinsky-inspired poems were enlightening.

I felt as if a light had been turned on in an unevolved chamber of my brain. Experiencing the cheeky noise being created just eight feet away seemed to transport me into the consciousnesses of the late composers. Unfortunately, the Carlo Gesualdo and Ludwig van Beethoven pieces that followed an intermission extinguished my metaphysical reveries. I started thinking about Thievery Corporation just five minutes into an uninspiring version of Beethoven’s String Quartet No. 16.

Concert Review: Alisa Weilerstein with the Kansas City Symphony at Helzberg Hall

Concert Review: Brentano Quartet at Lincoln Recital Hall