Superlative Symphony Concert in Grahamstown. (Review by Keith Millar)
The majestic KZN Philharmonic Orchestra, which is celebrating its 30th
Anniversary this year, was the resident orchestra for the 2013 National Arts
Festival in Grahamstown. Amongst the variety of performances they presented at
the festival was a superlative Symphony Concert.
Living in Durban with easy access to KZNPO, it is easy to become
complacent and forget the quality of which they are capable. But when you hear
them performing elsewhere in the country and see the excitement they engender,
you are quickly reminded of how highly they are rated and just how good they
are. This certainly was the case with the Concert performed at the Guy Butler
Theatre at the 1820 Settlers Monument where the orchestra’s excellent
performance was greeted with considerable excitement and appreciation by the
full house audience.
The Guy Butler Theatre has a lively acoustic which is suitable for
classical music as well as steeply racked seating which provides excellent
sightlines to the stage, which enhanced the enjoyment of the concert.
The concert was conducted by American maestro Theodore Kuchar and
featured as soloist Joanna Frankel on the violin. Kuchar is a very supportive
conductor who coaxes rather than commands a performance from the musicians. The
orchestra seems to respond well to his style and looked comfortable with their
presentation.
The concert started with Wagner’s Rienzi
Overture. While it may lack the musical innovation of some of his latter
works it remains unmistakably Wagnerian in nature. The orchestra’s delivery of
this work was impressive and set the tone for what was to follow.
Joanna Frankel provided a virtuoso performance with the Violin Concerto in D Minor, Op 47 by
Jean Sibelius. She lives every note of the music she is playing and showed
considerable skill and imagination in her delivery. This was particularly so in
the third movement which is technically very difficult and is regarded as one
of the greatest concerto movements ever written for violin.
Frankel, who is the Concert Master for the KZNPO, plays on a 1846 Jean
Baptist Vuillaume violin which has a rich and warm timbre.
The second half of the programme consisted of Modest Mussorgsky’s
magnificent composition, Pictures at an
Exhibition. Written for piano in 1874 it is based on ten drawings and
watercolours by a recently deceased friend. The work was orchestrated by
Maurice Ravel in the 1920’s. This work has great variety in intensity and moods
as the various pieces of art are musically described. Also notable is the
recurring ‘promenade’ theme which links the work together into a unified whole.
Pictures at an
Exhibition brought satisfactory conclusion to a Symphony Concert which will be
remembered as one of the highlights of the 2013 National Arts Festival. – Keith
Millar
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