FOM: PIANO PASSION

Thoroughly enjoyable and successful concert. (Review by Michael Green)

The piano still has a drawing power unequalled by any other instrument in classical music. On a wet night about 250 people, turned up at the Durban Jewish Centre for this concert presented by the Friends of Music. It was one of the largest audiences ever to attend a Friends of Music event.

The concert was labelled Piano Passion, and this was no more than the truth. Six pianists gave a programme of music written for two, three and even four simultaneous piano parts, the composers ranging from Mozart to Astor Piazzolla.

All the pianists are connected with the University of KwaZulu-Natal, and I suspect that a large part of the audience consisted of students who came to hear their colleagues or mentors.

The pianists were: Andrew Warburton, who lectures in music and is well known as a performer; Liezl-Maret Jacobs, likewise; Christopher Cockburn, a lecturer who regularly performs as an organist and an accompanist; Jacques Heyns, employed at UKZN as an accompanist; and Lloyd Blackbeard and Brady Wen, both third-year electronic engineering students who are, in addition, working toward a performer’s licentiate in piano. Busy people.

The programme note did not say who was playing what. Between items, various members of the piano team gave brief introductions to the music, but did not say who was playing it. I don’t suppose it matters much. Liezl-Maret Jacobs played in everything, and the others had plenty of opportunity to display their skills.

The programme opened with Mozart’s Sonata in D major, K. 123a, one of several duet sonatas which Mozart wrote for performance by his sister Nannerl and himself. It is a lovely work, brilliant outer movements and a rich, romantic Andante. Then came Gabriel Faure’s six-movement Dolly Suite, a duet written in the 1890’s for the daughter of the composer’s mistress. These ardent Frenchmen. The music is delightful, subtle and unusual.

In strong contrast was the Grand Galop de Concert by Wilhelm Ganz, a 19th century German composer who spent most of his life in England. This was vintage Victoriana, a catchy showpiece. Astor Piazzolla’s Libertango was a typically fascinating work from this Argentine king of the tango, and it provided one of the high points of the evening. And there was a vivid Sonata in One Movement by the Czech composer Biedrich Smetana.

After the interval we were given Schubert’s great Fantasy in F minor, played powerfully and expressively by the two senior pianists of the group, Andrew Warburton and Liezl-Maret Jacobs. Grieg was represented by a typically lyrical Adagio from his Symphonic Pieces and Rachmaninov by Polichinelle (Punch in English) written for solo piano and transcribed for two. An arrangement of Rossini’s well-known Tarantella Napolitana evoked much enthusiasm from the audience, and the concert ended with some amiable clowning as four pianists tried to share one keyboard in the Galop-Marche by Albert Lavignac, a minor French composer of the 19th century.

It was a thoroughly enjoyable and successful concert.

The prelude performer of the evening, funded by the national Lottery, was Janice Atkinson, a flautist who is a pupil at Westville Girls’ High School. Accompanied by Bobby Mills she played pieces by Mozart and Faure with a poise and skill which showed that she is already an accomplished performer. - Michael Green