Power bass: Edgar Meyer, coming to Kansas City, gets the most out of this instrument

Although the double bass has an imposing physical presence, its sound often fades into the background. It can hold its own in bluegrass and sometimes jazz, but in classical, the double bass is most often relegated to providing humble background support.

Edgar Meyer changed all that. The brilliant bass player has shown that in his capable hands, the double bass can match any instrument of the orchestra.

The Harriman-Jewell Series will present Meyer in a solo recital of Bach and new compositions, including one of his own, at 7 p.m. May 22 at the 1900 Building. Although the limited number of in-person tickets have already sold, the concert will also be livestreamed at hjseries.org.

“Of all the strings, the bass has the softest and darkest sound, no matter how proficient a person is,” Meyer said.

Although it’s a soft-spoken instrument, when Meyer gives a solo recital, the warm, burnished sound of the double bass can be fully appreciated, like a snifter of fine cognac.

The first half of his Harriman-Jewell program will be devoted to Bach’s Cello Suite No. 1. When Meyer’s landmark recording of the complete unaccompanied Bach cello suites was released in 2000, the classical world woke up to the expressive power of the double bass.

The five-time Grammy-winning Meyer would go on to collaborate with some of the greatest names in classical music, like Yo-Yo Ma and Emanuel Ax. But Meyer has also made a name for himself in other genres, including jazz and bluegrass. Meyer regularly performs with bluegrass greats like mandolinist Bela Fleck and violinist Mark O’Connor.

Even though Meyer grew up in Tennessee and can play bluegrass with the best of them, he was a latecomer to this unique American genre.

“My significant professional activities were classical at the very beginning,” Meyer said. “I grew up in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, which is a community of scientists. It was the home of the Manhattan Project that was in charge of making the atomic bomb.”

Meyer says he began his college career as a physics and math major, spending part of his time working at one of the town’s energy research laboratories and the rest of his time at school.

“Scientists have great values as a class,” Meyer said. “They value the arts and education incredibly. Oak Ridge had the highest Ph.D.s per capita in the country, and it was very international. My best friend’s father was from Japan and his mother was from India. My father’s loves were classical and jazz. So those were what I loved.”

It wasn’t until his teens that Meyer became attracted to bluegrass.

“Some of it was just the sheer love of the bluegrass sound and another part of it was just practical,” Meyer said. “I found that when I got in a room with fiddle, violin, banjo and mandolin, everyone could play in the middle of their comfort zone and everybody was heard equally well, including the bass. It was way closer to something that could be a natural dialogue.”

Meyer’s program in Kansas City will nicely contrast the baroque music of Bach, which so often features dance forms like the gigue, with equally jiggy bluegrass. Meyer says he appreciates how younger early music ensembles bring out the populist side of baroque music rather than take a staid, musicological approach.

“The current generation of people playing baroque music has gotten a lot more lively and a lot more rhythmic,” he said. “I never really bought into people knowing how they played it back then, anyway. My philosophy pretty much is I play it the way I like it. And I figure if I like it, someone else might like it, too.”

Livestream at 7 p.m. May 22. Pay what you wish. hjseries.org.

Kansas City Symphony

The Kansas City Symphony has announced that for the second year in a row, the Bank of America Celebration at the Station has been canceled. The annual Memorial Day weekend extravaganza is Kansas City’s big kickoff to summer and has always drawn huge crowds. One hopes that next year these unfortunate cancellations will be just a bitter memory.

However, the symphony is taking steps toward post-pandemic normalcy with three in-person concerts in May and June. Working with the University of Kansas Health System and the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts, the symphony has decided the time is right for limited, in-person concerts in the orchestra’s home, Helzberg Hall.

There are three different programs, which will be open to subscribers. Pandemic protocols will still be in place: That means masks will be required and social distancing observed. The Kansas City i Health Department has given the symphony approval to seat 20% of Helzberg Hall.

Social distancing will be in effect on stage as well. That means the symphony will be performing with reduced forces. But the symphony’s music director Michael Stern has chosen works that will provide maximum oomph even without a full orchestra.

▪ 1:30 and 7:30 p.m. May 26 and 1:30 and 8 p.m. May 28. Copland’s “Fanfare for the Common Man,” Hailstork’s “Amazing Grace,” Richard Strauss’ Wind Serenade, Carlos Simon’s “The Warmth From Other Suns” and Stravinsky’s Suite from “Pulcinella”

▪ 1:30 p.m. and 8 p.m. June 4 and 5 and 2 and 7 p.m. June 6. Mozart’s Serenade for Winds in E-flat, Dukas’ Fanfare from “La Peri,” Tim Higgins’ Sinfonietta and Grainger’s Lincolnshire Posy

▪ 1:30 and 7:30 p.m. June 17, 11 a.m. June 18, 1:30 p.m. and 8 p.m. June 19 and 2 p.m. June 20. Debussy’s Prélude à l’aprés-midi d’un faune, Barber’s Medea, Haydn’s Symphony No. 64, “Tempo mutantur”

All performances at Helzberg Hall, Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts. For more information, 816-471-0400 or www.kcsymphony.org.

You can reach Patrick Neas at patrickneas@kcartsbeat.com and follow his Facebook page, KC Arts Beat, at www.facebook.com/kcartsbeat.