(Pic: Conductor Giorgio Croci)Excellent performance from Suzanne Martens and David Snaith. (Review by Michael Green)
Beethoven, Mozart and Tchaikovsky --- “Just my kind of programme”, a member of the audience said to me --- brought a good-sized crowd into the Durban City Hall for this concert by the KZN Philharmonic Orchestra.
The conductor was a visitor from Italy, Giorgio Croci, and there were two soloists in the Mozart work: Suzanne Martens (violin) and David Snaith (viola). This composition was the Sinfonia Concertante K.364 in E flat major - not very often played, but a masterpiece, written in 1778 when the master was only 22 years old. It is scored for strings, two horns and two oboes, plus the two soloists, and Mozart extracts an extraordinary sonority from this combination. And the three movements are replete with lovely tunes, a melodic feast even by Mozart’s standards.
The performance was excellent. The solo violinist has the dominant role but the viola is obviously also important, and the lengthy dialogues involving the two instruments were a delight to the ear, often presented in an echo or imitation style. Both players are seasoned performers. Suzanne Martens comes from Stellenbosch, where she teaches at the university, and she has appeared with all the major South African orchestras. In this Mozart Sinfonia she demonstrated high skills, an immaculate technique and a sweet, true tone.
David Snaith is originally from England and has played in various orchestras there and in South Africa. He is now principal violist in the KZNPO. He fulfilled his role splendidly in this Mozart work.
Giorgio Croci is a tall elegant figure and he conducts with restrained gestures, rather unexpected from one who has been occupied for much of his career in conducting Italian opera. He drew all the right sounds from the fairly small orchestra Mozart employs in this work (a bigger noise would damage its viability, especially the parts of the soloists).
The concert opened with an accurate and precise performance of Beethoven’s Coriolan overture, a dramatic and vivid piece that captures the admirably the spirit of the story about a banished Roman general who leads his army against Rome. And it ended with a rousing account of Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4 in F minor, the one with the famous “Fate” motive. - Michael Green
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