Matthias Pintscher, conductor
Sophia Burgos, soprano
Kansas City Symphony Chorus, Charles Bruffy, chorus director
Duda Paiva Company, dance and puppets
Duda Paiva Company, dance and puppets
GABRIEL FAURÉ Masques et bergamasques
FRANCIS POULENC Gloria
BÉLA BARTÓK The Miraculous Mandarin
FRANCIS POULENC Gloria
BÉLA BARTÓK The Miraculous Mandarin
Matthias Pintscher leads your Kansas City Symphony in Gabriel Fauré’s Masques et bergamasques, a thoroughly enchanting suite drawn from incidental music for a divertissement staged in Monte Carlo. Fauré’s music readily captures the essence of the masked balls and rustic dances alluded to in the title, offering refined accompaniment to the glamourous mystique of the event.
Soprano Sophia Burgos is featured in Francis Poulenc’s Gloria, one of his signature works. The Symphony Chorus shines in this music, filled with rhythmic verve and suave syncopations. Lush and inviting dissonances paired with sensuous chord progressions are part of his glittering harmonic palette. Lyrical phrases encounter angular counterpoint, much like Poulenc’s paradoxical personality. This radiant and often playful music is a perfect juxtaposition of sacred and secular.
A work considered so scandalous that it was banned after its premiere, Bartok’s The Miraculous Mandarin tells an eerie tale with music that is equal parts weird, wonderful and astonishing. This is a unique opportunity to hear the entire ballet, brought to life through dance and puppetry by the Duda Paiva Company, an ensemble from the Netherlands that transcends disciplines, and is not bound by borders or constrained by convention. Go ahead and explore outside the box — you’ll be glad you did!