(Pic: Polina Burdokova and Kerryn Wisniewski)Polina Burdokova and Kerryn Wisniewski (piano) present programme well off the beaten track. (Review by Michael Green)
Polina Burdokova (cello) and Kerryn Wisniewski (piano), South African musicians notwithstanding their exotic names, played Beethoven, Grieg and Chopin in their last appearance for the Friends of Music, two years ago. This time they performed, in the Durban Jewish Centre, a programme that was, to put it mildly, well off the beaten track.
I have been listening to music for a long time, but there was only one item on the programme with which I was familiar: Schumann’s Fantasiestucke, Op. 73 (I have occasionally played the piano part, in my amateur way, for a friend who is a cellist). The rest was terra incognita for me and, I suspect, for most of the audience, but interesting territory nonetheless. And the music was delivered with considerable skill and conviction by two gifted instrumentalists.
They opened with five pieces by the early 18th century French composer, Francois Couperin, Couperin le Grand, so called to distinguish him from the lesser musicians in his family. These were a delight: elegant, stately, melodious. The finest, I thought, was a simple, beautiful and melancholy composition called Plainte, Complaint. And the final Air de Diable (Song of the Devil) seemed to be more good-humoured than diabolical. What a splendid philosophy of life.
Then came the most advanced composition of the evening, a work called 4 Minim by Jeanne Zaidel-Rudolph, who lives in Johannesburg and is generally regarded, at the age of 62, as South Africa’s foremost woman composer.
This consists of four pieces called Esrog, Lulav, Hadassim and Arovos. The cellist, Russian-born Polina Burdokova, gave some kind of explanation of the music before it was played, but it was inaudible to most of the audience, who no doubt were left wondering what it was all about. The explanation should have been given in the programme note, which was hopelessly inadequate. Perhaps the Jewish members of the audience, or some of them, knew the answers. These four words refer to plants, including citron, palm leaves and myrtle branches, which are used for ceremonies in Sukkot, the Jewish harvesting holiday which follows Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement (Jeanne Zaidel-Rudolph has been closely involved with Jewish music in Johannesburg).
The music seemed to me to be rather cryptic, strongly rhythmical and dissonant, in the modern idiom. For audiences, all part of the learning curve, I suppose, but the brief applause at the end suggested that these listeners were not very enthusiastic about it.
In very different mood was a Tarantella by the 19th century Bohemian cellist and composer David Popper, rapid, pleasant and lightweight.
After the interval came the three Schumann Fantasiestucke, fantasy pieces, written fairly late in the composer’s life and typical of his warm, romantic style. They were originally written for clarinet and piano, but they go very well for the cello and are most often played in this form. The performance was excellent.
Virtuoso playing was provided in Rossini’s Une Larme Variations. These variations are on a quiet, mournful tune called Une Larme, The Tear but, as usual, Rossini’s high spirits take over and the work develops into something resembling an exuberant Rossini opera. All very enjoyable.
Finally we were given another South African composition, a “Concert Piece” by 61-year-old Allan Stephenson, who was born in England but has lived in Cape Town for nearly 40 years. He is a cellist and a prolific composer, ninety compositions, including three operas and concertos for various instruments. His music is in a quite traditional style, and his concert piece turned out be jaunty, rhythmical and pleasant.
The Prelude Performer of the evening, funded by the National Lottery Distribution Trust Fund, was 16-year-old Keziah Peel, a pupil at Durban Girls’ College. An unusual first name; Keziah was one of the daughters of the suffering and patient Job of the Old Testament. This Keziah is a versatile musician; she is a cellist, a saxophonist and a percussionist. With Jacques Heyns at the piano she played the saxophone concerto by the Russian composer Alexander Glazunov, written in 1934, two years before his death. It is terse (15 minutes, with no breaks), lively, quite tuneful and, I imagine, difficult to play. Keziah gave a very good performance. The piano arrangement is effective, but it is not really a substitute for Glazunov’s orchestration. Perhaps one of these days Keziah will be given the opportunity of playing the concerto with the KZN Philharmonic Orchestra. - Michael Green
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