Piano powerhouse to perform Rachmaninoff at Kansas City Symphony’s season finale
The Kansas City Symphony will present a festive season finale June 23 to 25 at Helzberg Hall. Guest conductor Valentina Pellegi will lead the orchestra in music by Puccini and Tchaikovsky, and piano powerhouse Kenny Broberg will be the soloist for Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2.
Broberg, a former student of Stanislav Ioudentich at Park University’s International Center for Music, has been making big waves in the world of classical music. A silver medalist at the 15th Annual Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, Broberg also won the bronze medal at the International Tchaikovsky Piano Competition.
He will perform one of the most beloved piano concertos in the repertoire, Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2, a work written after the composer’s mental health crisis.
Triggered by the unsuccessful premiere of his first symphony, Rachmaninoff suffered crippling depression for three years before being successfully treated by the neurologist Nikolai Dahl.
Dahl implanted subliminal messages into Rachmaninoff’s mind just as he was about to fall asleep: “You will begin to write your concerto ... You will work with great facility ... The concerto will be of an excellent quality.”
The Piano Concerto No. 2 is excellent, indeed. With its swoony slow movement, the concerto has proven to be one of Rachmaninoff’s most popular works.
Peleggi, who is music director of the Richmond Symphony, has been declared a “rising star” by BBC Music Magazine. She is an opera specialist who has conducted some of the world’s greatest opera companies, including the Florentine Opera, Opéra de Lyon and the English National Opera. Her sense of drama and lyricism will serve her well in Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4.
Dedicated to Tchaikovsky’s patron, Nadezhda von Meck, the Symphony No. 4 is known in certain parts of Europe as the “Fate” Symphony. Like Rachmaninoff’s First Symphony, Tchaikovsky’s Fourth was not well received at its premiere. When it was first performed in New York in 1890, a music critic for the New York Post wrote:
“The Fourth Tchaikovsky Symphony proved to be one of the most thoroughly Russian, i.e. semi-barbaric, compositions ever heard in the city. ... If Tchaikovsky had called his symphony ‘A Sleigh Ride Through Siberia’ no one would have found this title inappropriate.”
Actually, that sounds like a pretty good description to me. It’s a powerful, Russian-sounding work that concludes with a rousing finale. It’s definitely one heck of a sleigh ride.
8 p.m. June 23 and 24 and 2 p.m. June 25. Helzberg Hall, Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts. $29-$99. 816-471-0400 or kcsymphony.org.
Destiny Mermagen — Violin Favorites
Violinist Destiny Mermagen’s “Side by Side” concerts at Village Presbyterian Church have been a wonderful opportunity for young musicians to perform with professionals. Her next program, “Violin Favorites,” on June 24 will feature some of the most popular works of the violin repertoire, performed by Mermagen and pianist Hyunsoon Whang. Students will perform the Intermezzo from Mendelssohn’s Quartet No. 2 A Minor, Op. 13.
“As a concert violinist, I love performing and connecting with audiences of all kinds,” Mermagen said. “I love discovering what my audiences want to hear, so I’ve included many of those requests in this concert, plus some of my own personal favorites.”
The program will include a sonata by Brahms and Viennese bon bons by Fritz Kreisler. There will also be selections from Mermagen’s album “Bach to Barn Burners.”
Mermagen has a great sensitivity and care for young people who have been brought up in less than ideal circumstances.
“I grew up in an abusive environment, and having these opportunities to share my music while receiving positive reinforcement saved me,” Mermagen said. “But even students who grow up in a perfectly normal environment have emotional struggles. Music provides a unique outlet for expression and can soothe these strifes.”
When not concertizing, Mermagen is announcer-producer of “Evening Classical,” which can be heard from 7 to 9 p.m. Monday through Thursday on Kansas Public Radio, 91.5 FM.
7:30 p.m. June 24. Village Presbyterian Church, 6641 Mission Road. Free. villagepres.org.
You can reach Patrick Neas at patrickneas@kcartsbeat.com and follow his Facebook page, KC Arts Beat, at www.facebook.com/kcartsbeat.
