Delightful early spring four-concert feast in store
BOOKING has opened at Computicket for the KZN Philharmonic’s four-concert early spring season, which runs in the Durban City Hall on Thursday evenings, from August 24 to September 14, starting at 7.30pm.
German maestro Wolfram Christ makes a welcome return to the KZNPO podium for the first two concerts of the season. His programme on August 24 features three of the symphonic repertoires’ best-loved composers, Mendelssohn, Tchaikovsky and Dvorak
Mendelssohn’s brilliant Ruy Blas Overture is the season’s first highly-charged curtain opener, setting the mood for the evening’s centrepiece, Tchaikovsky’s popular Violin Concerto in D Major, a work whose formidable challenges have attracted generations of virtuosi. while thrilling audiences with its sensuous and visceral appeal.
It will be played on this occasion by the acclaimed Japanese-born violinist Kyoko Takezawa. Dvorak’s Symphony No 6, another crowd-pleasing masterpiece whose predominant key is also D major, rounds off the programme in grand style.
Opening his second concert on August 31, Maestro Christ offers his audience a rare encounter with Carl Maria von Weber’s Turandot Overture and March, composed as incidental music to the 1809 premier of Schiller’s German translation of Gozzi’s text, derived from a Central Asian legend which later served as the libretto for Puccini’s final opera of the same title which premiered posthumously at La Scala in 1926.
The prize-winning South African pianist Ben Schoeman will be the soloist in a performance of Mozart’s tempestuous D minor Piano Concerto K466, and the evening climaxes with a performance of Schumann’s Rhenish Symphony, written in the autumn of 1850.
The music of Ludwig van Beethoven has always been a drawcard with Durban audiences, who will be delighted to welcome back the KZNPO’s associate guest conductor, Daniel Boico, on September 7 for a programme devoted to three of the great German master’s best-loved compositions.
Ever since its Viennese premiere in 1807, Beethoven’s Coriolan Overture has been a favourite with podium giants, such as Furtwängler, Toscanini, Karajan, Reiner, Böhm and Carlos Kleiber.Another favourite, the Triple Concerto, written for piano, violin and cello, is the only concerto the composer completed for more than one solo instrument. It will be performed by Ireland’s Fidelio Trio, two of whose members, pianist Mary Dullea and violinist Darragh Morgan, are no strangers.
The evening ends with a performance of Beethoven’s Symphony No 2.
In the face of the deafness that was already beginning to cloud his life, it is remarkable that Beethoven was able to produce this joyous work which was first performed at a marathon concert in the Theater an der Wien in April 1803.
The KZNPO’s early spring season ends with the National Youth Concerto Festival on September 14 with Lykele Temmingh on the podium.
Showcasing the cream of the country’s upcoming soloists, this features a selection of movements drawn from well-known concert repertoire.
For full programme details about the season, call 031 369 9436 or e-mail bookings@kznphil.org.za