Kansas City Symphony premieres revelatory composition that vividly evokes World War I

The Kansas City Symphony prides itself on commissioning and presenting significant new additions to the orchestral repertoire. American composer Jonathan Leshnoff’s Symphony No. 3 is a revelatory contribution.

The orchestra, conducted by Michael Stern, gave the world premiere performance on Friday night in Helzberg Hall.

The Symphony commissioned Leshnoff’s piece to commemorate the United States’ entry into World War I. Using letters from the archives of the National World War I Museum and Memorial, he excerpted text to serve as inspiration. Baritone Stephen Powell performed the vocal role in the third movement with poignant clarity and smooth control, the lines presented in straightforward and heartfelt fashion.

The work pulled the listener in with a force similar to what those young Americans of the 1910s may have felt as the United States entered the war, a lulling, quiet, distant beginning, then a sudden, clamorous, inexorable event and its inevitable upheaval.

The first movement began with this striving ascending line in the strings. A jarring transition to the winds indicated all was not well. The striving line turned strained amid an elongated and sustained crescendo of expanding dissonance. It culminated in an ensemble fortissimo and offstage clanging, abruptly cut off to reveal strings alone. Delicious.

The second movement (named “Gevurah,” meaning, loosely, “strength”) was immediately more vicious, the violins in continuous onslaught of the jerky line with interjections from emphatic brass and low voices. The colliding tones and increasing chaos were delivered fantastically.

The final movement, with voice, gave pause for reflection, the orchestra integrated with the text via subtle doublings and harmonic support. A prayerful cello solo alternated with the pleading lines of a soldier’s loving letter.

The concert also included two works never before played by the ensemble: Albéric Magnard’s “Hymne à la Justice” and Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 3.

They opened the concert with Magnard’s brilliant 1902 work, defending justice. (Magnard himself would die in 1914 defending his home from the invading Germans.) It is saturated in heroism, encompassing struggle, victory and relief, with intensity in the ascending clarinet line, hefty brass and tremolo undercurrent. The interplay of elements amassed force as the strings took on the role of carillon against a brass chorale, and the work ended with a conciliatory “amen.”

The Tchaikovsky, on the other hand, was decidedly fun, delights and surprises erupting from the performance with exquisite Romanticism, ending the concert with ebullient vigor.

This story was originally published May 21, 2016 at 8:01 AM with the headline "Kansas City Symphony premieres revelatory composition that vividly evokes World War I."