Austrian group delighted the audience with a programme
ranging from the 18th century to the 20th. (Review by Michael Green)
The Capella Concertante are a wind quintet from Austria,
established 30 years ago. They have played in many parts of the world,
including South Africa, but their recent concert for the Friends of Music, at
the Durban Jewish Centre, was their first appearance in Durban.
They delighted the audience with a programme ranging from
the 18th century to the 20th.
Capella means “in the manner of the chapel” and refers to
unaccompanied vocal music. Presumably the title was adopted here because only
wind instruments are involved. For this concert, however, the quintet were
reinforced by a string player, and more important, a singer.
The players were: Clemens Umbauer, flute; Magdalena Bauer,
oboe; Mathias Kreischer, clarinet; Hubert Ecklbauer, horn; Markus Presenhuber,
bassoon; and Anton Neulinger, double bass.
The singer was Johanna Dumfart, soprano, who was a dominant
figure in the concert. She is a tall, statuesque young woman who comes from
Linz in Austria, and she performed six melodious, dramatic and humorous songs
of Austrian origins, from Mozart to Franz Lehar. She displayed a strong,
accurate voice and a confident, attractive stage manner.
She added an extra dimension to the five wind instruments, as
did, in a more subdued way, the string tones of Anton Neulinger’s double bass.
The wind players were all first-rate, showing their skills
in 16 items that covered a wide range of moods and styles, from sources as
diverse as Johann Strauss, the Argentinian Astor Piazzolla and the modern
Austrian composer Jeno Takacs. The audience gave them a standing ovation at the
end.
The prelude performer of the evening, supported by the
National Lotteries Commission, was Sabastian Marimuthu, a violinist who shows
great promise at the tender age of 11.He was accompanied at the piano by Dana
Hadjiev. - Michael Green
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