(Janine
Jansen.Photograph by Sara
Wilson and Decca )
Rich and rare musical experience from the
RCO. (Review by Michael Green)
One of the world’s leading orchestras, the
Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam, provided a rich and rare musical
experience when it performed in the Durban City Hall as part of a short visit to
South Africa.
A large audience listened with rapt
attention to music by Tchaikovsky, Brahms and the Dutch composer Johan
Wagenaar, and at the end the listeners gave the orchestra prolonged applause.
Founded in 1888, the orchestra is
celebrating its 125th anniversary with a world tour that includes
concerts in Durban, Cape Town, Pretoria and Soweto. Booking of seats in Durban
was less than satisfactory, no doubt because of the ticket prices, but a
generous allocation of complimentary tickets ensured that the City Hall was
reasonably full.
This had an amusing aspect. I noted many
faces that I had not seen before at a symphony concert, and a young woman
sitting near me read a paperback book throughout the concert; one can assume
that she would not have done so if she had paid R650 for her ticket.
Never mind, the sense of occasion was
pervasive, with a band playing outside the hall and a lovely bank of leafy greenery
at the foot of the stage; and the music was magnificent and must have made an
impact on everyone in the audience, the veterans and the newcomers.
The Concertgebouw Orchestra is famous for
its velvety tone and the secret of this lies, I think, in its string sections,
about 50 players of obviously high quality. The total complement of the
orchestra is 110 players, most of them from the Netherlands, judging by their
names, but for this concert there were about 75 on the stage; not all compositions
require huge orchestras.
More impressive than sheer numbers was the
tonal balance of the orchestra, with no discernible weaknesses anywhere.
The conductor was Charles Dutoit, a Swiss
with an international reputation (he has residences in Switzerland, Paris,
Montreal, Buenos Aires and Tokyo!). He has a controlled but expressive style on
the podium and he certainly achieved the desired results, starting with the Cyrano de Bergerac overture by Johan
Wagenaar (1862-1941). This is Wagenaar’s best-known work – it was played by the
KZNPO not long ago – and it is vivid and enjoyable.
Then came Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto in
D major, a work so difficult that it was deemed unplayable when it was composed
in 1878. The soloist here in Durban was Janine Jansen, a 35-year-old Dutch
violinist who has remarkable technical skill and sensitive musical judgment,
and who is very good-looking. Playing a 1727 Stradivarius violin she delivered
an exceptional performance of this exciting and beautiful music, and at the end
the audience gave her a standing ovation.
Finally, the orchestra gave a totally
compelling performance of Brahms’s Symphony No. 1 in C minor, a work that the
composer worked on intermittently for 21 years. It is a splendid composition,
ending with a noble C major melody that resembles the last movement of
Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony.
This grand performance of a grand work made
a fitting end to a memorable programme. There was, unconventionally, an
orchestral encore, a Brahms Hungarian Dance. - Michael Green
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