Symphony success continues with 'Temptest'

These are exhilarating days for the Kansas City Symphony. Their music making has never been better, subscription sales are up, and now for the second time in as many years, the orchestra has released a commercially produced CD.

The disc, released July 8 on the Reference Recordings label, is titled "Shakespeare’s Tempest" and features incidental music by Sir Arthur Sullivan and Jean Sibelius.

Under the baton of Music Director Michael Stern, the orchestra recorded the disc Feb. 1-2 at the Community of Christ Auditorium in Independence, Mo.

Reference Recordings is a very selective commercial recording company with a well-deserved reputation for brilliant sonic display. Over the past 20 years the company has produced only 100 discs, but three have received Grammy awards and eight others garnered Grammy nominations.

Michael Stern

Symphony timpanist Timothy Jepson once proudly said, "If you think it sounds good in the concert hall, you should hear what we hear on the stage."

The disc opens with Sullivan’s "Incidental Music for ‘The Tempest.’" Sullivan is best known today for the series of light operas written with librettist William Schwenck Gilbert, including "The Mikado," "The Pirates of Penzance" and "H.M.S. Pinafore."

Sullivan composed a variety of other works, including oratorios, cantatas, shorter vocal works and orchestral compositions.

Born in London in 1842, Sullivan was the son of a bandmaster and learned how to play an assortment of instruments as a child. He was a chorister in the Chapel Royal and studied at the Royal Academy of Music in London.

The "Incidental Music for ‘The Tempest" was Sullivan’s examination piece for graduation at the conservatory. The composer conducted the work’s premiere in April 1861 in Leipzig. After his return to London the piece was performed in two concerts at the Crystal Palace in April 1862. It was an enormous success and Sullivan drew considerable attention.

While Sullivan was a young man when he wrote his music for "The Tempest," Finnish composer Jean Sibelius was a mature composer in his 60s. His Danish publisher suggested the work in 1925, for a Copenhagen performance of the Shakespeare play. The work premiered in March 1926.

Sibelius subsequently made two concert suites from the 35 or so original movements, and both of these appear on the new recording. The prelude, one of the most descriptive musical invocations of a storm I have ever heard, is included as well.

The orchestra sounds wonderful throughout the recording, with marvelous blend and balance. String mistunings are infrequent, even when the strings are required to perform remarkably fast and technically difficult passages.

Most noteworthy is the sense of excitement and drama in the recording, with beautifully managed crescendos and marvelous shaping of large sections and movements.

A Kansas City Symphony communication about the disc noted it is the first modern recording of the Sullivan suite. Well, not quite so – there is a 1994 recording by the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and a 2001 Chandos disc featuring the BBC Philharmonic under Richard Hickox.

Nevertheless, this is a remarkable recording of repertory not commonly heard. It is well worth purchasing, not only as a display of civic artistic pride, but because of the fine musicianship.