(Daniel Gortler)
Beethoven concerto played with an interesting and impressive
combination of strength and delicacy. (Review by Michael Green)
Three composers, a long programme and a big audience were
the components of the last concert of the summer season of the KZN Philharmonic
Orchestra, in the Playhouse, Durban.
The conductor and the solo pianist were both born in Israel
and are now international figures. Daniel Boico, the man on the podium, is well
known and much admired here in Durban. Daniel Gortler, the man at the keyboard,
was making his first appearance with the KZNPO.
The concert opened with Modest Mussorgsky’s vivid, noisy,
demonic 1867 tone poem Night on Bald
Mountain, arranged by his Russian compatriot Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. The
orchestra players were in good form here, as indeed they were throughout the
evening.
Beethoven’s piano concerto No. 1 in C major (dating from
1797, it is actually the second of his five piano concertos) was played by
Daniel Gortler with an interesting and impressive combination of strength and
delicacy.
This was no doubt the main attraction for the audience - Beethoven’s
music has unmatched drawing power - and the prolonged applause at the end
indicated that they thoroughly enjoyed the performance of a pianist of calm
demeanour and high skills.
He acknowledged the ovation with an encore, a lovely account
of one of Mendelssohn’s 48 Songs Without
Words (in 1997 he made a highly regarded CD recording of this complete
collection of piano pieces).
Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Symphony No 2, written in 1908, runs
for an hour and it started late, thanks to some administrative problems at the
box office and in getting the audience back into their seats after the
interval.
The result was that the concert ended about 40 minutes after
the usual time, but nobody seemed to mind. The orchestra were given a
tremendous and well-deserved ovation at the end.
Boico’s expressive and vigorous conducting style is well
suited to Rachmaninoff’s music. This symphony is rather diffuse, rather long
and rather repetitive, but its sweeping melodies and rich harmonies were much
enjoyed by the listeners.
The six-concert winter season of the KZNPO runs from May 19 to
June 23, all Thursday nights, in the Durban City Hall. - Michael Green
(To link direct to the
KZN Philharmonic’s website, click on the orchestra’s banner advert on the top
right hand of the page above the National Arts Festival banner)