Exuberant Jun Märkl leads KC Symphony in dazzling program

Color, contrast and buoyant energy marked Jun Märkl’s return to the Kansas City Symphony as guest conductor. He and cellist Narek Hakhnazaryan dazzled the audience at the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts on Saturday with an expansive, multifaceted program of nationalistic flavor.

Märkl excels in German and French repertoire, and the program of Anton Webern, Claude Debussy, Camille Saint-Saëns and Felix Mendelssohn was a mix of 20th century invention and 19th century Romanticism.

Music is used both deliberately and subtly to influence an audience’s emotional state, often evoking nationalistic styles defined through distinctive timbres, modes and rhythms to provoke or to cheer. In this concert, both Debussy and Mendelssohn quoted the Lutheran chorale “Ein Feste Burg” (“A Mighty Fortress Is Our God”) but with the intent to convey very different connotations to their contemporary audiences.

Märkl was eager, nearly leaping onto the podium to lead Webern’s Passacaglia Op. 1. The subtleties of the pizzicato opening statement were lost in the shuffling of latecomers, unfortunately, though the spare grounding of the piece set up a surge of prismatic timbres from the winds and muted brass. The primary motif was thrown round somewhat chaotically between principal voices, underscored by tremolo and colliding sforzandi.

Debussy’s “En blanc et noir,” originally written for two pianos, was orchestrated by Robin Holloway. His treatment drew out the distinct attitudes of the three movements, as well as echoing the tone colors of Debussy’s impressionist palette: shimmering, shifting, exotic. Written during World War I, this was one of his last works and indicates a stoic rage against Germany’s infringement on France.

The dancing cascades of the first movement opened with ringing exuberance. The solemn start of the second movement, Lent et somber (dedicated to Lt. Jacques Charlot, who died in action), was harshly interrupted, continuing with lonesome solo voices. The horns perpetrated a threatening statement from “Ein Feste Burg” against a clamorous fabric of martial snippets. Märkl pushed the ensemble all the way through the vivacious Scherzando for a rousing performance.

Hakhnazaryan was impassioned in the Gallic lyricism of Saint-Saëns’ Cello Concerto No.1, and he seemed to smile slightly during the rapid virtuosic moments. His tone was rich, his control immaculate and his performance stunning. Märkl kept the reduced orchestra in check, leaning to indicate attention, often animated but never with affected gesture.

Hakhnazaryan’s encore, on Giovanni Sollima’s “Lamentatio,” was an absolutely captivating five minutes, with wordless singing over modal droning chords that led into a feverish display of technique as punk as anything, dissolving into harmonic smears.

Mendelssohn’s compelling Symphony No. 5 savored the expressive tendencies of the era. A sense of majesty and vast, yet subtle, gradations in dynamics marked this performance, as the strings achieved an incredibly full and lovely quiet. At turns terrifying, lighthearted or pensive, it was the finale that triumphed, from the flute’s introduction of the chorale theme and the imaginative iterations, through to the ensemble’s massive statement.

Enthusiastic applause and whistling met the concert’s conclusion, the audience and orchestra expressing appreciation for Märkl’s leadership. Saturday was, incidentally, his birthday. Alles Gute zum Geburtstag, Maestro.

This story was originally published February 12, 2017 at 5:07 PM with the headline "Exuberant Jun Märkl leads KC Symphony in dazzling program."