Kansas City chamber concert will deliver ‘the most delightful, unexpected’ music
The Friends of Chamber music scored when they named cellist Dmitri Atapine and pianist Hyeyeon Park as co-music directors. These two are not only outstanding musicians, but also superb programmers with connections to some of this country’s finest musicians.
Kansas City can hear Atapine and Park and five of their musician friends in “Festive Hungarica” Jan. 21 at the Folly Theater.
“As we were taking over the reins of Friends of Chamber Music, we thought ‘Festive Hungarica’ would be a calling card for Hyeyeon and myself,” Atapine said. “This is the music we wanted to share the most with the Kansas City audience. We started actually with Dohnányi’s Sextet, and the rest of the program grew out of that.”
The Sextet was written by the Hungarian composer Dohnányi in 1935. It is scored for piano, violin, viola, cello, clarinet and horn, not your typical chamber music combo.
“This masterpiece reflects both the roots of Brahms and Dohnányi’s great Hungarian predecessors, as well as this buoyancy, this excitement, the extreme liveliness of the 1930s,” Atapine said. “The finale is the most delightful, unexpected, tongue-in-cheek, winky composition that you don’t expect from someone with a last name like Ernst von Dohnányi.”
The Sextet is the last work on the program. The work preceding it is Bartók’s “Contrasts” for Violin, Clarinet and Piano.
“It was written for Benny Goodman, the great American jazz icon,” Atapine said. “The idea was that Bartók would combine his developed, advanced musical language with jazz elements. There’s a lot of improvisational crossover at work.”
The antepenultimate work on the program is the Serenade for Two Violins and Viola by Zoltan Kodály. Like Bartók, Kodály was a profound student of Hungarian folk music. In 1905, Kodály went on an extensive tour of Hungary, making field recordings on wax phonograph cylinders.
“Kodály’s Serenade is a magical work, Atapine said “He recorded peasants singing and fiddlers fiddling, then stewing his creative juices on this kind of material, he produced some of the most glorious ethnomusicological informed music that has ever been written.”
And to end at the beginning, the concert will open with the Hungarian Rhapsody for Cello and Piano by David Popper.
“That was really a no-brainer,” Atapine said. “It’s a work by David Popper, a name that no one knows, but is very dear to cellists because he wrote the cellist’s grammar book, which is the ’40 Etudes.’ They’re the cornerstone of cello technique.”
Atapine says Popper’s Hungarian Rhapsody is “a virtuoso work that is full of brilliance and fast notes and sudden improvisational changes.”
Atapine and Park handpicked the musicians for the concert, and they are as good as they get: Jose Franch-Ballester, clarinet; David Byrd-Marrow, horn; Chad Hoopes and Erin Keefe, violin; and Paul Neubauer, viola.
“It is not a pre-formed ensemble that is going to perform, but an ensemble assembled on Kansas City turf exclusively for Kansas City,” Atapine said. “These are exciting and accomplished, superb performers. It was a challenge to find a time when we all could assemble to put a program together.”
Atapine and Park are halfway through their first season as co-artistic directors of the Friends of Chamber Music, and Atapine says they are loving it. He says he especially enjoys bringing musical discoveries to audiences.
“Some of the composers on ‘Festive Hungarica’ might not be familiar to many of our listeners,” Atapine said. “We could just do the standards so people will definitely buy tickets. Well, I think people are very intelligent and curious, and we want our audience to come to every concert and experience something new.”
7:30 p.m. Jan. 21. Folly Theater, 300 W. 12th. $30-$40. 816-561-9999 or chambermusic.org.
Mother Noah
If you’re craving opera, here’s an interesting offering. “Mother Noah” is the untold story of Noah’s wife, who only gets a brief mention in the Bible. The music is by distinguished area composer Dale Ramsey, and the libretto is by Ralph Stone, who has had his plays performed around the country. Ben Spalding will conduct a cast that includes Stacey Stofferahn in the title role and Ron Witzke as her husband.
7:30 p.m. Jan. 20 and 21. MTH Theater at Crown Center, 2450 Grand Blvd., Suite 301. $29-$39. 816-221-6987 or mothernoah.com.
You can reach Patrick Neas at patrickneas@kcartsbeat.com and follow his Facebook page, KC Arts Beat, at www.facebook.com/kcartsbeat.
