KZNPO 2012 SUMMER SEASON

The KwaZulu-Natal Philharmonic Orchestra is proud to announce details of its forthcoming World Symphony Series Summer Season which will take place in the Durban City Hall every Thursday evening from February 16 until March 22, 2012.

Following the richly rewarding tradition of the Orchestra’s mainstream concert programming, the upcoming season’s guest roster will feature several distinguished frontline artists from the international concert circuit along with a number of leading South African musicians.

Launching the season on February 16, the brilliant Estonian-American maestro Kristjan Järvi, a member of the distinguished conducting dynasty, makes his KZN Philharmonic debut with a programme entitled The French Connection. This offers concertgoers the enjoyment of hearing Ravel’s colourful Alborada del gracioso as the evening’s perky musical curtain raiser, and concludes with Hector Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique, one of the 19th century’s great orchestral showpieces. The ground-breaking work will follow a performance of Lalo’s exotically scored Symphonie espagnole for violin and orchestra, spotlighting the widely acclaimed young virtuoso, Mirijam Contzen.

Kristjan Järvi returns to the podium on February 23 for Soulful Synthesis, an imaginatively conceived musical excursion in which pre-eminent soprano Linda Bukhosini will perform Alban Berg’s Seven Early Songs, following an orchestral Suite of music by JS Bach arranged by Gustav Mahler. Beethoven’s exuberant Symphony No. 8 will round off the evening’s musical fare.

The third concert of the season on March 1 offers an evening of music making loosely styled as Pianistic Poetry, the prize-winning soloist Alexander Lubyantsev, performs Chopin’s much-loved Piano Concerto No. 1. His account of this show-stopping warhorse will be followed after interval by Schumann’s powerful Symphony No. 2. This concert sees Yasuo Shinozaki’s welcome return to the KZN Philharmonic podium.

Winding Paths on March 8 sees the popular Japanese conductor taking his second bow of the season, with Beethoven’s Leonore Overture No. 3 preluding a performance of Richard Strauss’s Oboe Concerto by the orchestra’s principal oboist, Alison Lowell. Mendelssohn’s Scottish Symphony rounds off this engaging programme.

Noted South African pianist, Malcolm Nay, makes his second appearance with the Orchestra for a performance of Mendelssohn’s Piano Concerto No. 2 in the penultimate concert of the season, on March 15. He will perform under the baton of the young American conductor, Daniel Boico, whose short-notice debut here during the Spring of 2011 was accorded wide acclaim.

The evening’s fascinating programme, entitled Classical Spirit, opens with a performance of Mozart’s turbulent Symphony No. 25, one of the great Austrian composer’s most dramatic early works, used to great effect in the film Amadeus, and closes with a rendering of the teen-aged Franz Schubert’s Symphony No. 5.

Written in 1816, Schubert’s supremely beautiful early work, while fully imbued with his own unique creative life-force, movingly suggests the composer’s sense of homage to the profound influence of Mozart and Haydn a generation earlier.
Symphonic Dances on March 22 will celebrate a rigorous resurgence of Russian repertoire to bring the curtain down on a memorable season of music making. Daniel Boico will conduct performances of Rimsky-Korsakov’s Capriccio espagnol, Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 3, and Rachmaninoff’s Symphonic Dances. This final concert of the season will re-introduce the KZN Philharmonic’s audience to the rising young international virtuoso pianist, Pallavi Mahidhara, who comes to Durban fresh from performances at the 2011 Marlboro Music Festival.

Subscriptions to the 2012 Summer Symphony Season are now open and bookings can be made directly with the KZN Philharmonic booking office on 031 369 9404 / 9438 or e-mail bookings@kznpo.co.za

Subscriptions and ticket prices will increase by an inflation-linked 5% on January 1, 2012. As a special concession and benefit to subscribers the orchestra will process all subscription bookings made on or before December 31 2011 at 2011 prices.

Concertgoers are therefore encouraged to book a subscription for the 2012 Summer Season or, indeed, the entire 2012 World Symphony Series (Summer, Winter and Spring seasons) and take advantage of this special price offer.

Further information on the KZN Philharmonic and its activities is available at www.kznpo.co.za or browse from a smart phone http://kznpo.liveapp.mobi For enquiries call 031 369 9438 or e-mail kznpo@kznpo.co.za