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Monday, September 22, 2014

KZNPO CONCERT: SEPTEMBER 18, 2014



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