Piano will star at these two Folly shows; plus Lyric Opera’s ‘Così fan tutte’
It’s a great week for lovers of piano music.
On March 10 at the Folly Theater, the Friends of Chamber Music presents Alexander Melnikov, who will perform one of the great monuments of the keyboard, the complete Preludes and Fugues by Dmitri Shostakovich.
On March 16 at the Folly, Emanuel Ax, one of Kansas City’s favorite musical icons, returns to the Harriman-Jewell Series to give a recital of Brahms, Ravel, Schumann and Chopin.
Prelude and Fugues
Although his music fell in and out of favor with the authorities, the Soviets still took advantage of Shostakovich’s immense international prestige and sent the composer around the world as a cultural representative of the Soviet Union.
In 1950, Shostakovich was sent to Leipzig, Germany, to serve as a judge for a competition to celebrate the bicentennial of Johann Sebastian Bach. Russian pianist Tatiana Nikolayeva won the gold medal for her performance of Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier, and Shostakovich was so inspired by her performance that he decided to write his own set of preludes and fugues.
Shostakovich dedicated his Preludes and Fugues to Nikolayeva, who first performed the work in Leningrad in 1952. The cultural commissars gave Shostakovich a hard time for the “dissonances” of some of the fugues and were generally disapproving. Although Shostakovich recorded the piece and there were several public performances, like his string quartets, the Preludes and Fugues are intensely personal works not meant for mass consumption.
Being able to hear all of the preludes and fugues performed live in one sitting is a special experience.
2:30 p.m. March 10. Folly Theater, 300 W. 12th St. $25-$35. 816-561-9999 or www.chambermusic.org.
Emanuel Ax
Emanuel Ax and Richard Harriman, founder of the Harriman-Jewell Series, had enormous respect and admiration for one another.
After Harriman died in the summer of 2010, Ax came to Kansas City that fall and gave a recital with all proceeds benefiting a scholarship fund in Harriman’s name. Ax has been a fixture on the Harriman-Jewell Series over the years, and he’s returning to give one of his much-anticipated recitals.
The program features popular works by favorite composers, like the Brahms’ Rhapsodies, Ravel’s Valses Nobles et Sentimentale and the Andante spianato et grande polonaise brillante by Chopin.
One piece on the program is of more recent vintage, Piano Figures, composed by George Benjamin in 2004. Benjamin wrote that he wanted to “state ideas and capture moods in the most direct and economic way possible.”
Benjamin’s bracing 21st-century music will provide a nice contrast to the others on the program.
7:30 p.m. March 16. Folly Theater. $31-$81.50. 816-415-5025 or www.hjseries.org.
Lyric Opera
The Lyric Opera of Kansas City will present one of Mozart’s most popular operas, “Così fan tutte,” for four performances beginning March 16 at the Muriel Kauffman Theatre. The Lyric is setting Mozart’s rom-com in Monte Carlo to make the opera even more glamorous.
Lorenzo Da Ponte’s cynical but charming libretto provides a piquant counterpoint to the music, which is one gorgeous melody after another. Dorabella and Fiordiligi’s romantic brinkmanship nearly destroys their impending marriages, but, spoiler alert, it works out well in the end.
Yes, an opera with a happy ending. It’s by Mozart, after all.
7:30 p.m. March 16, 20 and 22 and 2 p.m. March 24. Muriel Kauffman Theatre, Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts. $35.50-$194.50. 816-471-7344 or www.kcopera.org.
You can reach Patrick Neas at patrickneas@kcartsbeat.com and follow his Facebook page, KC Arts Beat, at www.facebook.com/kcartsbeat.