(Pic: Francois du Toit performed Grieg’s Piano Concerto in A minor)
Highly successful launch of the KZN Philharmonic’s winter season. (Review by Michael Green)
Arjan Tien, who comes from the Netherlands, has been a conductor with the KZN Philharmonic Orchestra for many seasons, presenting a wide range of compositions; one could call him a man for all seasons. He is accomplished and affable, and he has become a favourite with audiences in the Durban City Hall.
He opened the orchestra’s winter season with a programme ranging from the very familiar, Grieg’s Piano Concerto in A minor, to the relatively unfamiliar, Sibelius’s Symphony No. 4 in A minor.
The concert began with a work that is even better known than the concerto, Grieg’s Peer Gynt Suite No. 1. Some people are a trifle patronising about Grieg’s music. I am not one of them. He is an original and authentic type of composer (as was recognised by no less a figure than Brahms), and the two Peer Gynt suites have a tireless charm and beauty that have beguiled audiences for more than a hundred years and which, incidentally, were favourites of the celebrated maestro Sir Thomas Beecham. The music was written in the first place to accompany a stage drama by Grieg’s Norwegian compatriot Henrik Ibsen.
Arjan Tien and the orchestra gave an affectionate and accurate performance of the four-movement first suite, much to the enjoyment of the audience.
The piano concerto, written in 1868, is one of a kind, really; there is nothing else quite like it in the concert repertory. The soloist in this performance was Francois du Toit of Cape Town, standing in at about a week’s notice for a Czech pianist who had cancelled at a late hour. Francois du Toit is one of South Africa’s leading pianists, and he gave a typically accomplished performance, with one or two minor smudges that did not mar the presentation as a whole.
Arjan Tien interprets this concerto as a lyrical work rather than a virtuoso showpiece, and his controlled and deliberate tempi contributed greatly to the success of the performance. A measured tempo enables the listener to hear all the notes.
The programme was completed with Sibelius’s rather forbidding Symphony No. 4 in A minor, a sombre work in which the composer communes with nature and with himself. The orchestra should not be confined to popular favourites, but it does not play much Sibelius and one would have thought that the second or fifth or seventh symphonies would be more accessible to listeners here.
Artistically, this concert was a highly successful launch of the winter season, but the audience was rather sparse, in spite of what appeared to be a certain amount of “paper” (complimentary tickets) in the house. There was a fairly long queue at the box office for economy tickets bought on the night, and I saw there some people who I think were formerly season ticket subscribers and are now taking the less expensive option. I suppose even the KZNO cannot escape entirely the economic hard times. - Michael Green
(See KZNPO website for the story on the orchestra’s major coup in hosting opera superstar Renée Fleming for a gala concert in August – click on the advert on the artSMart main pages or visit www.kznpo.co.za)
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