CLASSICAL NOTES

A pianist in good company. (Column by William Charlton-Perkins, courtesy of The Mercury)

A pianist’s life is a lonely one. If often so, this aphorism hardly applied to Christopher Duigan last week when he shared the Howard College Theatre stage with his colleagues oboist Magrit Deppe, violist David Snaith and fellow-pianist Andrew Warburton in an evening of music-making that will live in the collective memory of their audience for years.

The first half of the programme comprised a satisfying selection of chamber works by Schumann, his wife Clara Wieck, and two composers previously unknown to me, Charles Leoffler, and August Klughardt. The latter’s Schilflieder for Oboe, Viola and Piano Opus 28, in particular, proved a notable discovery that sent me scuttling home to seek it out online.

The big guns were brought out in the second half. Seated at a pair of Steinway concert grands, the two pianists set the place alight (after engaging in an equitable bout of verbal jousting to set the tone for their ‘encounter’) with a dazzling performance of Mozart’s Sonata for Two Pianos in D Major K448 that obliterated any potential pitfalls of sounding overly busy or ‘dainty’. They brought to the piece a sense of gathering momentum that was both controlled and breath-taking, each off-setting the other with complementary touches of individuality which belong only to artists in full technical and interpretive command.

They then took on the heights and depths of Rachmaninoff, alternating sonorous bells with filigree flights in three contrasting movements from the composer’s Fantasie-Tableaux Suite for Two Pianos No 1, topping off the evening with Gershwin’s cheeky rag, Sweet and Low Down.

If you missed them, you can catch them reprising this wonderful fare and more in the opening concert of the Music Revival Series at the Hilton Festival on September 17.

Other concerts in the series include 1000 Baroque Music for Two Violins; Duigan’s two Celebrating Chopin programmes; a special bicentennial Schumann programme entitled A Poet’s Song, featuring the UK based SA baritone, Njabulo Madlala (winner of the 2010 Kathleen Ferrier Award); Last Night of the Hilton Proms; another Schumann programme on Sunday, and much more. Visit www.hiltonfestival.co.za for full programme details.

Meanwhile back home, note that Friends of Music’s next recital at the Jewish Centre is on Tuesday September 14. The young Russian virtuoso Vassily Primakov, hailed in the American press as ‘A Pianists’ Pianist’, will play music by Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann and Shostakovich. Call 031-202 7822.

And as it’s Celebrate Durban time, a note that a musical highlight in this busy programme is the opening concert of the KZNPO’s Spring Season. Entitled For the Love of Tchaikovsky, this is themed around the composer’s much-loved Violin Concerto in D Major. In keeping with the evening’s Russian character, the concerto will be complemented by a performance of Shostakovich’s Symphony No 5 in D Minor. Victor Yampolsky will be on the podium partnering the evening’s soloist, the prizewinning young Swiss violinist, Sibylle Tschopp.

The following evening, Friday September 17, the KZNPO performs at another Celebrate Durban event, the opening concert of the Glenwood Community Festival. Tickets cost R60. For more information about this family musical outing, call Jolene Kruger on 031 201 5165. To subscribe to the KZNPO’s Spring Season, call 031-3699404 or email bookings@kznpo.co.za.

Finally a note that we have a vibrant new source of creative energy on Durban’s classical music circuit, one that seeks to spread the love of the genre to new enthusiasts. The initiative of enterprising and gifted violinist Ralitza Cherneva, this performs under the banner of its newly launched title, Ancore. For information about the group’s wide ranging programmes, including a variety of fun theme concerts, log onto www.ancore.co.za or call 082 495 4236. - William Charlton-Perkins