Extreme contrasts from refined chamber
music to full on brass sound. (Review by Michael Green)
When the composer Gustav Mahler visited the
Niagara Falls a century ago he said “At last, a real fortissimo”. Well, he hadn’t heard the KZN Youth Wind
Band, which gave a remarkable performance when playing for the Friends of Music
at the Durban Jewish Centre.
This was a concert of extreme contrasts. Musically,
the major part was played by the Trio CompaTRIOts, who performed delicate and
refined chamber music from the early eighteenth century. The trio consists of
David Smith (harpsichord); Margrit Deppe (oboe); and Marguerite Spies (cello),
the latter two being members of the KZN Philharmonic Orchestra. All are
experienced and accomplished players.
They opened with a sonata by Antonio
Vivaldi (1678-1741), best known as the composer of The Four Seasons. The oboe dominates the sonata, and Margrit Deppe
excelled in this elegant and concise music.
In much the same vein was the Trio Sonata
by Johann Quantz (1697-1773), the son of a village blacksmith in Hanover,
Germany, who rose to become music tutor and court composer of the king of
Prussia. Again, a stylish performance by the trio of a seldom-played
composition.
Marin Marais (1656-1728) was French, son of
a cobbler in Paris; they seem to have
been upwardly mobile in those days. The trio played his attractive Variations on La Folia, one of the
oldest tunes in European music; it has
been used by dozens of composers, from Bach to Rachmaninov.
Marguerite Spies played an unusual piece
for solo cello by the Cape Town composer Hendrik Hofmeyr (born 1957). It is
called Cadenza, and it is intended to
show the wide variety of effects that can be achieved from a cello.
Interesting, with, inevitably I suppose, some strange noises.
The Youth Wind Band, which contributed
about half of the total programme, is based at the Durban Music School and is
made up of 50 talented musicians aged between 14 and 27, all brass, woodwind
and percussion players.
Energetically conducted by Russell Scott,
who teaches music at Northwood High School, the band started with a tremendous blast
in the Armenian Dances by the
twentieth century American composer Alfred Reed, and continued with great power
in music by Gustav Holst and Thiemo Kras, plus, in somewhat quieter mood, film
music and a selection from the celebrated musical Les Misérables.
There was no doubting the skill and
enthusiasm of these young players as they produced a formidable volume of
sound, and they were given warm applause by an appreciative audience. - Michael
Green
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