Enjoyable concert proves that classical music is thriving
among young South Africans. (Review by Michael Green)
The annual National Youth Concerto Festival, presented by
the KZN Philharmonic Orchestra in the Durban City Hall, opened in remarkable
fashion with a very small pianist playing a very big work.
I have never, in many decades of concert-going, seen a
smaller pianist than 1l-year-old Leo Gevisser of Cape Town, small in physique
(at this stage of his life), big in ability.
Showing high skills and total aplomb, he played the first
movement of the Piano Concerto No. 3 by the 20th century Russian composer
Dmitri Kabalevsky. The rapid and intricate piano part seemed to pose no
problems for him, he handled a brilliant cadenza without blinking, and he
produced a good legato tone in the lyrical passages.
This youth concert is the work of the orchestra’s resident
conductor Lykele Temmingh, who searches the country for young talent. The
results do him great credit, and he himself conducted this concert, the
culmination of his efforts.
Seven of the 10 performers were in their early 20’s, two
were 19 and one (as discussed above) was 11. The playing and singing were
generally of good professional standard.
High points were the third movement of the Saint-Saens Piano
Concerto No. 5, delivered with virtuoso polish by Willem de Beer from the Free
State; violinist Jonathan Mayer’s account of the Lalo Symphonie Espagnole; and
a performance by two more Free Staters, Alyssa Bouwer and Kgaugelo Mpyane, of
Max Bruch’s little-known Concerto for Clarinet and Viola, an attractive work
with some echoes of the composer’s famous violin concerto.
The other performers were Samantha van Gysen (Mendelssohn’s
celebrated Violin Concerto): Richard Rheeder, pianist (Chopin’s Grande
Polonaise, Op. 22); Axolile Hoza (Mozart’s Flute Concerto No. 2); Johannes
Slabbert (a baritone aria from Gounod’s Faust);
and Visser Liebenberg (Weber’s Clarinet Concerto No. 2).
It was a most enjoyable concert, and it provided evidence
that, in spite of all the counter-attractions, classical music is thriving
among young South Africans. - Michael Green
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