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Lawson Taitte: Lawson Taitte is the theater critic for The Dallas Morning News. June 2010
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Ivan Moravec is probably my favorite living pianist. I discovered his now legendary Connoisseur Society recordings while an SMU student a "few" years ago. And during the decade I spend as music critic of The Kansas City Star he played in the city's Friends of Chamber Music series almost every other year. I'll never forget performances so beautiful, so eloquent, that they left me literally in tears. Last Friday, he returned to Kansas City's Folly Theater. Figuring the Czech pianist, now 78, won't be touring many more years, I decided to use a Southwest Airlines coupon for a KC weekend. In a program of Janacek, Debussy and Chopin, the playing was stll amazing. The Folly's Steinway, which I used to like a lot, has gotten hard-toned, and that got in the way. But Moravec's marvelously subtle, imaginative performances still worked magic. The Chopin G minor Ballade alone was worth the trip. It was lovely, too, to get to say "hello" to Ivan and his wife, Zuzana. They're the warmest, sweetest people imaginable, and both speak English very well. Having performed and recorded with the DSO, Ivan immediately asked, "How is the Dallas Symphony doing?" He was glad to hear about the great work Jaap van Zweden (whom he didn't know) is doing here. Once again, I found myself wishing Dallas had a classical presenting series as extensive and sophisticated as Kansas City's Friends of Chamber Music. Cynthia Siebert, who started the series and still runs it, is one of the sharpest impresarios anywhere; I keep wishing she'd start a Dallas spinoff. And would that we had such a great chamber-music hall as the Folly, a turn-of-the-20th-century vaudeville house that's been beautifully restored and modernized. Archived Comments |
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Thanks for this review. Nobody deserves more accolades than Ivan Moravec. I heard a repeat of this program in Vermont last weekend. In my opinion he's playing better than ever.