(Pic: Tabla player Haren Tana)
Shirtsleeves KZN Philharmonic perform a programme of strong contrasts. (Review by Michael Green)
It was a shirtsleeves KZN Philharmonic that played at this concert. The Durban City Hall’s air conditioning was not working, or not working properly, and the male players were mercifully allowed to remove their black tail coats (but not their white shirts). As for the ladies in the orchestra, they are a cool crowd, anyway.
The first half of the programme presented strong contrasts, with music from the 18th century and the 21st and culturally from different continents. Haydn’s Farewell Symphony, the 45th of the 104 that he wrote, is justly popular, with robust outer movements and a lengthy, singing Adagio. Under the baton of Naum Rousine (who plays the violin in the orchestra when he is not conducting), the orchestra launched into the familiar strains with precise and vigorous playing from the strings.
The story about Haydn reminding his patron that it was time to leave is well known, and it was enacted in the City Hall with great charm. At the first performance 237 years ago, the number of players was gradually reduced (Haydn made appropriate amendments to the score), each instrumentalist snuffing out his candle as he left. In this Durban performance each player on the City Hall stage had a lighted candle, and these were blown out as the players left (at the end only two violinists remain). A great success, and much enjoyed by the audience.
This was followed by an intriguing and impressive novelty, Vevek Ram’s Concerto for Sitar, Tabla and String Orchestra, with the composer himself playing the sitar. The composition is based on traditional Indian raga music and it is distinctly eastern but quite accessible to western ears.
There were three soloists, Vevek Ram, Haren Tana on tabla, two small drums played by hand, and Stella Martin on the oboe (it was an important part, and she was inexplicably not named in the programme). The piece has a solemn opening, followed by livelier sections characterised by short, strongly rhythmical themes repeated many times.
The sitar bears little resemblance to the guitar. It is a long, rather unwieldy instrument played by plucking the strings and it produces a most distinctive sound. Vevek Ram is obviously a highly skilled performer and I was also much impressed by Haren Tana’s virtuosity on the drums and Stella Martin’s contribution on the oboe. It can’t be easy, playing the oboe while kneeling on the low platform which accommodated all three soloists. Microphones and amplifiers were used, and they were obviously necessary.
After the interval, the Cape Town guitarist James Grace joined the orchestra in Joaquin Rodrigo’s Concierto de Aranjuez and showed that he is a top-class player with a total command of his instrument. The slow movement has made the name and fortune of this concerto, and the haunting main theme was played most expressively. Again, microphone and amplifier were used for the guitar; without them its sound would have been drowned by the orchestra.
Rodrigo was Spanish and the title of the work refers to some famous gardens near Madrid. Rodrigo lived for almost the entire twentieth century (1901 to 1999) and was almost totally blind (a result of illness) from the age of three.
The orchestra stayed in Spanish mood for the final item of the evening, Bizet’s Carmen Suite No. 1, much enjoyed by a large audience. - Michael Green
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