Last night, after a filling dinner at Cinzetti’s Italian Restaurant, the four of us spent an evening in the comfort of the new Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts.  What an absolutely beautiful concert venue.  The above picture is a panorama of the gathering space from within the building.

The Symphony did not disappoint – what an electric choice of music.  Director Michael Stern (son of famous violinist Isaac Stern) started off with Stravinky’s Fireworks.  This was followed by Emanuel Ax playing piano on Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No 5 (Emperor).  Intermission followed and we were treated to the world premiere of Chen Yi’s “Fountains of Kansas City”; this piece was commissioned for the opening of the Kauffman Center.

We were finally treated to the “Pines of Rome” by Respighi.  Wow – what a wonderful piece that sounded absolutely amazing in the new Helzgerg Hall.  Amazing, amazing, amazing.  We can’t wait to go back for the next concert.

Here is the view from the seats we had last night (our normal seats are elsewhere, but we had to trade evenings for this particular concert).  Notice that we are sitting behind the stage; this was such a unique viewpoint and the sound was fantastic.  The acoustics in this hall is such that a person can speak from the stage without using a microphone.