KZNPO CONCERT: JUNE 11, 2009

Outstanding occasion as Boris Giltburg performs Shostakovich work. (Review by Michael Green)

At the age of 25, the Russian-born pianist Boris Giltburg has built an international reputation with performances of a wide range of music. Last year he played with the KZN Philharmonic Orchestra and gave an impressive interpretation of a Mozart concerto. Now he has appeared in the Durban City Hall to perform a composer of a very different stripe, his compatriot Dmitri Shostakovich. And again it was an outstanding occasion.

Shostakovich’s Piano Concerto No. 2 in F major is far removed from what an English critic has called the interminable tundra of his 15 symphonies. It was written in 1957 for performance by his son Maxim on the latter’s 19th birthday. The composer was 51 at the time but this is an astonishingly youthful and vigorous work. It is not as well known as his first piano concerto, the one with the trumpet solo, written 23 years earlier, but it is readily accessible, with driving rhythms and romantic interludes.

Boris Giltburg and the KZNPO, conducted by the visiting American Leslie B. Dunner, took the first movement at high speed, which the composer himself did when playing the concerto, apparently to demonstrate his dexterity as a pianist. The effect from Boris Giltburg was quite overpowering, with octave passages so rapid that the pianist’s hands became a blur on the keyboard. One of the main tunes of the movement resembles “What shall we do with a drunken sailor?” and this was detectable, taken at a rollicking speed.

In contrast the slow movement is gentle and tender, with echoes of Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninov. Beautiful music, beautifully played.

More pyrotechnics in the final movement brought a memorable performance to a close. The pianist was given a foot-stamping ovation, and in response he played as an encore a quiet and introspective piece by Scriabin.

Haydn’s “Surprise” Symphony, No. 94 in G major, opened the concert. This composer wrote more than a hundred symphonies. I have recordings of about 20 of them, and I find them all brilliant and delectable (and they all have surprises, not only No. 94). Leslie Dunner took the KZNPO through a performance of high distinction, with precise and pointed playing from the strings and lovely dialogue from the woodwind. The tip-toe Andante, with the surprise fortissimo chord, must be one of the most exquisite movements in the entire symphonic repertory.

The Haydn symphony and the Shostakovich concerto are concise works, each lasting only about 20 minutes, so there was room on the programme for another symphony, Dvorak’s wonderfully melodious and good-humoured Symphony No. 8 in G major. - Michael Green