One of the year’s highlights
THIS evening marks a red-letter event on our music calendar – the annual Symphony in The City classical music bonanza, relished by concert-goers in the superb acoustics of the Pietermaritzburg City Hall, one of South Africa’s finest concert venues.
Presented by the KZN Philharmonic, in association with Music Revival and Parklane SuperSpar, this glitzy event, which starts at 7.30pm, will feature a bumper programme of concert favourites, with solo performances by three of the orchestra’s most outstanding young musicians: Aristide du Plessis (cello), Junnan Sun (clarinet) and Fifi Olifant (violin).
The orchestra will be conducted for the first time by the rising star of the local music world, young South African Brandon Phillips, director of orchestral activities at the Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra.
“It’s a really beautiful programme we have chosen this year,” said Music Revival’s Christopher Duigan, “one that not only features several soloists in exhilarating performances that stretch their capabilities to the extreme, but a programme that also showcases the orchestra itself and its incomparable way of creating a lush, rich and luxurious tapestry of sound.
“Hearing a symphony orchestra of 60 professional, highly skilled musicians in full flight, making music together in a beautiful acoustic venue such as we have in our city hall, is surely one of the most awe-inspiring experiences possible.
“There is nothing ordinary about it!”
The concert will feature the KZN Philharmonic Orchestra playing the much-loved Karelia Suite by Finnish composer Jean Sibelius, Rossini’s ebullient overture The Silken Ladder and the haunting Pavane by French Romantic, Gabriel Fauré.
Cellist Aristide du Plessis plays one of the most inspired and passionate of cello solos, the first movement from the Cello Concerto by the great Czech composer Antonin Dvo ák.
Fifi Olifant can be heard in the haunting Adagio from Max Bruch’s Scottish Fantasy, a broad symphonic collection based on traditional Scottish folk melodies.
Duigan, a Steinway artist who is widely admired as South Africa’s leading concert pianist, will be featured in the opening movement of Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No 3, one of the composer’s most mysterious, dramatic and dazzling piano compositions.
The principal clarinet of the orchestra, Junnan Sun, will play two movements from the dazzling Clarinet Concerto No 1 in F minor by Carl Maria von Weber, an exciting and gracefully energetic work, contrasting floating lyrical melodies with brilliant fingertwisting passages.
As with all Parklane/ Music Revival concerts in the City Hall, every guest receives a complimentary souvenir programme; the hall is beautifully presented with lighting by Big Beat; and complimentary drinks and eats are served at the interval. So, make sure you book your tickets for Symphony in the City, which is also supported by the Msunduzi Municipality, CPW Printers and ABI.
Tickets cost R190 (R170 pensioners, R120 pupils) and R250 for premier seats. To book, go to www.ticketpro. co.za. Tickets are also available via Ticketpro representatives at Edgars Direct at the Liberty Midlands Mall, and CNA at the Hilton Quarry. There is secure, patrolled parking in the City Hall, Bessie Head Library and Tatham Art Gallery precincts.