Pic: Marlene HemmerConductor, soloist and orchestra players all in top form for final concert of winter season. (Review by Michael Green)
This final concert of the KZN Philharmonic Orchestra’s winter season, in the Durban City Hall, was a splendid occasion in many ways. The programme included a novelty; then another work that was something of a revelation; and a classic from the symphonic repertory. And the performers --- conductor, soloist and orchestra players --- were all in top form.
The conductor was Arjan Tien, who comes from Holland. His tall, lean figure is familiar to City Hall audiences; he has been a regular guest conductor with the KZNPO for the past twelve years.
The soloist was another Hollander, the young violinist Marlene Hemmer, playing in Max Bruch’s Scottish Fantasy. Not yet 30 years old, she is already an experienced player of very high quality. She was a most attractive figure on stage: calm, undemonstrative, slender, pretty, and wearing a red evening gown that was both decorative and decorous. And she is a top-class player, as she showed from the outset in Bruch’s four-movement Scottish Fantasy, producing a consistently sweet and accurate tone and handling the many technical difficulties with aplomb.
This composition is not played very often, and it must have been an eye-opener (ear-opener?) to many members of the audience. Bruch, who was German, wrote it in 1880 and based it on four Scottish folk songs. In the twentieth century the work was often played by Jascha Heifetz.
It is melodious, expertly scored, and often poignant. The third movement is, as I said in a pre-concert lecture, really heart-clutching music, and so it should be. The words of the folk song are: “I’m a doun, doun, doun, I’m a doun for lack of Johnnie. If Johnnie knew I was not well I’m sure he would come to me, but oh, he has forsaken me”. A sad little tale, and Bruch’s beautiful music matches the mood exactly.
Marlene Hemmer was given a prolonged ovation at the end, and she deserved it. Among those applauding enthusiastically were the members of the orchestra, which is, I suppose, the ultimate accolade.
The concert opened with a rarity, the overture Cyrano de Bergerac by the Dutch composer Johan Wagenaar (1862-1941). This music is not forbiddingly modern and abrasive. It is late romantic, pleasant, easy on the ear, and it was given a convincing performance.
Arjan Tien and the orchestra really excelled in the main work of the evening, Brahms’s Symphony No. 1 in C minor. He is an energetic, vigorous type of conductor, with a firm, decisive beat, and he seems to have a very good rapport with the orchestra.
The symphony was played with power and conviction. Brahms’s music is often dense and complex. It requires good instrumental balance, and this was successfully achieved throughout the performance. And there was some particularly good playing from horns, flutes and trombones, especially in their important parts in the fourth movement.
The symphony ended in a blaze of sound, providing proof once again that recorded music, no matter how good the quality, is not the same as a live performance such as this one. - Michael Green
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