In Thursday’s (5/19) Kansas City Star, Steve Paul writes, “If you’re going to have a new beginning, you might as well do it with Beethoven. And more specifically, Beethoven’s First Symphony. That fundamental and playful romp, ranging from light, dancelike parts to booming crescendos, gave members of the Kansas City Symphony on Wednesday their first chance to hear themselves in the orchestra’s soon-to-be new home, Helzberg Hall. And hear themselves they did. ‘It’s spectacular,’ said violinist Kristin Velicer during a break in the Symphony’s first rehearsal in the concert hall of the $413 million Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts. ‘It takes your breath away. It is a dream come true.’ The completion of all but the smallest details in the concert hall—though a void remains where a huge pipe organ will come later—gave music director Michael Stern and the Symphony musicians the opportunity to begin to tune themselves to their future surroundings. … The hall’s esteemed acoustician, Yasu Toyota, had also told Stern that, rather than start with something dark and stormy, such as the Prokofiev they would get to soon enough, the musicians should ease into the new space with a work more gentle and familiar.”
Posted May 19, 2011
