KZNPO strikes up for Summer Season
The KZNPO has a four-concert Summer Season that takes in a range of new works and old favourites.
While Beethoven and Brahms loom large, there is also Rodrigo’s Concierto de Aranjuez which was inspired by the gardens at Palacio Real de Aranjuez, the spring resort built by Philip II.
The season also offers opportunities to fresh faces, with appearances by internationally acclaimed classical guitarist Goran Krivokapic and French pianist composer, and electronic whizz-kid, Maxime Zecchini.
“As you have come to expect, the season features accomplished international conductors and soloists, as well as the cream of South African artists,” said Bongani Tembe, chief executive and artistic director of the KZN Philharmonic.
Japanese conductor Yasuo Shinozaki returns to Durban to open the season on February 13 in a concert featuring Brahms and Ravel.
Known for his emotionally direct style of music-making and his musical knowledge, Shinozaki studied in Vienna and the US under Seiji Ozawa and Bernard Haitink, shooting to prominence by winning the Second International Sibelius Conducting Competition in 2000.
Zecchini will perform Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G Major which was heavily influenced by jazz, which Ravel encountered on a concert tour of the US. Brahms’s Tragic Overture and Symphony No 4 complete the programme.
The second concert, on February 20, takes in romantic and dramatic love themes in a Valentine’s Variety Gala. Energetic American conductor William Eddins leads the orchestra in a programme that includes Berlioz’s Un Bal from
Rodrigo’s Mascagni’s from Manon; Khachaturian’s
Adagio from Spartacus; Delibes’s Ou va la jeune Hindoue from Lakmé; Massenet’s; and Tchaikovsky’s Romeo
Top local soprano Zandile Mzazi and Krivokapic are the soloists.
Shinozaki returns to the podium on February 27 for a mostly Beethoven programme that features pianist Jan Jiracek von Arnim. Described by BBC Music Magazine as one of the leading pianists of his generation, Von Arnim was a top prize winner at the Busoni Competition and was one of the winners of the Van Cliburn.
He is professor for piano at the Universität für Musik in Vienna and artistic director of the International Beethoven Piano Competition.
He will perform the composer’s massive Beethoven’s Dvorák’s the evening.
Dutch maestro Arjan Tien conducts the final concert on March5, the highlight being Beethoven’s majestic Triple Concerto featuring American violinist Tai Murray, the KZNPO’s co-principal cellist Aristide du Plessis, and Johannesburg-based Malcolm Nay on piano. Also on the programme is Beethoven’s Leonore Overture No 1 and Bizet’s youthful masterpiece, his
Bizet started work on the symphony in 1855, four days after turning 17, but the symphony was never played in his lifetime, although he used certain material from it in later works. It was buried in the composer’s private papers and first performed in Basel in 1935.
All concerts take place at 7.30pm in the Durban City Hall. To book call 031 369 9438 or email reception@ kznphil.org.za