(Mirijam Contzen)KZNPO scores resounding success with its first concert of 2012. (Review by Michael Green)
Presenting a programme of French music, much of it with a Spanish flavour, the KZN Philharmonic Orchestra scored a resounding success in the Durban City Hall with its first concert of 2012.
Omri Hadari, the Israeli conductor who has appeared here many times, was on the podium again and he extracted some glorious sounds from the 70-member orchestra.
The soloist was the German-Japanese violinist Mirijam Contzen, who had created a great impression when appearing two days earlier at a Friends of Music concert in Durban. With the orchestra, she performed Edouard Lalo’s five-movement Symphonie espagnole, written in 1874, really the only work by which this composer is remembered today.
It is lovely music, with an outstanding part for the solo violin, and the audience gave Mirijam Contzen a prolonged and well-deserved ovation. Her playing was exceptional, especially in the many lyrical passages.
The concert opened with Ravel’s Alborada del gracioso, Morning song of a jester, a brilliant representation of Spanish music, guitars and all.
The main item of the evening was Hector Berlioz’s long and spectacular Symphonie Fantastique, written in 1830. The composer labelled it “Episode in the life of an artist” and said that it told the story of an artist in the depths of despair because of hopeless love.
The music is romantic, noble, pastoral, bizarre and macabre (as I mentioned in a pre-concert lecture, it is the only music I know of that depicts an execution on the guillotine).
The orchestra gave a splendid performance of this massive masterpiece, ending in a blaze of sound that brought the listeners to a pitch of enthusiasm.
There was a large audience, the number swelled, I guess, by a generous allocation of “paper” (complimentary tickets). One hopes that some of the newcomers will return on a permanent basis. - Michael Green
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