(American pianist Brian Wallick opens the season))The KZN Philharmonic Orchestra also celebrates the second leg of its 2012 World Symphony Series (WSS) with its six-concert Winter Season, which runs each Thursday evening in the Durban City Hall from May 17 until June 21. The season has an exciting roster of guest artists who, true to long-running WSS tradition, are drawn from the front ranks of international classical stars, as well as representatives from the cream of South African musicians. They include five distinguished conductors, two front-line pianists, three gifted violinists and a widely admired South African born soprano, based in London.
American pianist Bryan Wallick, Gold Medallist of the 1997 Vladimir Horowitz International Piano Competition in Kiev, makes a welcome return to the Durban concert platform, to open the season playing Brahms’ hugely challenging Piano Concerto No 2 in B-flat major. In this towering four-movement work, the composer at times integrates the role of the soloist into his orchestral writing, in other instances memorably pitting the two titanic forces against each other to thrilling effect.
This masterwork promises a stirring collaboration between Wallick and Josep Vicent, Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of the World Orchestra. The dynamic young Spanish maestro then offers a complete musical turn-about in his eclectic programming, offering local concert-goers the novel experience of hearing an admired contemporary work, Joan Valent’s quasi minimalist Pangaea Overture.
This refreshing addition to our musical landscape of mainstream concert classics will be followed by exotically-tinged performances of La Oración del Torero by Joaquín Turina (who, with his contemporary, Manuel de Falla, was one of early 20th Century Spain’s most influential composers); Argentinian ‘Tango King’ Ástor Piazzolla’s Tres Movimientos Tanguísticos Porteños; and the sultry Spanish Dance No 1 from Falla’s own opera, La vida breve.
For the second concert of the season, on May 24, the KZN Philharmonic welcomes back the exciting husband-and-wife partnership of the versatile British conductor, Jeremy Silver, and the South African-born singer, Sally Silver.
Following the Prelude to Act 1 of Wagner’s Lohengrin, Richard Strauss’s celebrated Four Last Songs from the centre-piece of the evening’s programme. Often called the composer’s swansong to his lifelong love-affair with the soprano voice, this sublime quartet of songs with orchestral accompaniment rank amongst the most haunting music ever composed. Jeremy Silver concludes the programme with Rachmaninoff’s early magnum opus, the Symphony No 2 in E minor which premiered in St Petersburg in 1908.
May 31 sees a return to the KZN Philharmonic podium by the highly distinguished German conductor, Thomas Sanderling, a member of one of Europe’s most celebrated musical dynasties, with a popular mostly-Brahms repertoire. He opens the concert with the turbulent Tragic Overture, composed in 1880, and concluding with Symphony No. 1 in C minor. The evening’s soloist is the fine French violinist, Philippe Graffin, who takes the spotlight in performance of Samuel Barber’s Violin Concerto, one of the more frequently performed of 20th century concertos.
A regular orchestra guest artist for more than a decade, the Netherlands born conductor Arjan Tien makes a welcome return for the next two concerts of the season. His concert on June 7 opens with Anton Webern’s Passacaglia (the ground-breaking young Austrian composer’s 1908 graduation piece), to be followed by Alban Berg’s Violin Concerto. This 1935 masterwork will be played by the noted young American soloist, Joanna Frankel, hailed by The Washington Post as “an uncommonly fine young violinist”. Franz Schreker’s Intermezzo for Strings, another early 20th century musical beacon, follows, and Richard Strauss’ mesmerizing Tod und Verklärung (Death and Transfiguration) rounds off the programme.
The all-Mozart programme on June 14 opens with the Overture to the great composer’s penultimate opera, La Clemenza di Tito. The evening’s soloist in the youthful Violin Concerto No 4 is Avigail Bushakevitz, first prize winner in the 2009 UNISA National Strings Competition, who is currently completing her graduate studies at the Juilliard School of Music in New York.
This concert concludes with Mozart’s Requiem – a masterpiece from his final year. The orchestra will be joined by three choirs and four soloists for this performance. The Clermont Community and Durban Symphonic choirs, who are no strangers to the Durban City Hall stage, will be joined for the first time by the Sounds of Joy choir. Performing the soloist parts will be soprano Kelebogile Boikanyo – the 2012 Standard Bank young artist for music, who is a full-time Associate Artist with Opera Africa; alto Veramarie Meyer; tenor Lionel Mkhwanazi, and baritone Melusi Kubheka.
Consolidating his popular standing with KZN Philharmonic audiences in recent seasons, American conductor Daniel Boico brings with Winter Season to a close on June 21 with a crowd-pleasing programme of French classics. He opens proceedings with Saint-Saëns’ virtuosic 1874 tone poem, Danse macabre. Boico then partners South Africa’s premiere keyboard virtuoso, Francois du Toit, in the same composer’s show-stopping warhorse, the Piano Concerto No. 2 in G minor. Paul Dukas’ Symphony in C major, from the latter 19th Century’s Gallic repertoire, brings the season to a rousing close.
Concert-goers can avail themselves of the KZN Philharmonic’s subscription discounts, which offer significant savings on individual concert ticket prices. Call 031-369 9404 or 369 9438, email bookings@kznpo.co.za or visit www.kznpo.co.za. Booking for individual concerts is through Computicket on 0861 915 8000 or online at www.computicket.com
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