(Conductor Daniel
Boico)
Outstanding performance of Stravinsky’s Violin Concerto by soloist and
orchestra. (Review by Michael Green)
An interesting programme of Russian music opened the
eight-concert spring season of the KZN Philharmonic Orchestra, in the Durban
City Hall.
The Israeli-American conductor Daniel Boico, an old
favourite with audiences here, was on the podium. “He’s so full of life”, somebody
sitting near me remarked. Yes, and that’s why he consistently draws fine
performances from the 70 players under his direction.
The soloist of the evening was Joanna Frankel, the
orchestra’s concert master, an accomplished young American violinist who has
been a member of the orchestra for some years.
She played Igor Stravinsky’s Violin Concerto in D major, a
physically and mentally challenging work, vigorous but delicate, quite brief
and in four contrasting movements. This is 20th century music, but
accessible and compelling. The performance by soloist and orchestra was
outstanding.
The concert opened with a rousing account of Nikolai
Rimsky-Korsakov’s brilliantly scored Capriccio
Espagnol. And after the interval we were given Sergei Rachmaninoff’s
emotional, resonant Symphony No. 3 in A minor.
This was written in the 1930’s, about the same time as the
Stravinsky concerto but the two works are poles apart in style, Stravinsky the
modern, Rachmaninoff the late romantic .
The symphony brought forth more splendid playing from the
orchestra.
The concert was labelled “Russian Jewels”. Most of the
programme was probably unknown territory to Durban concert-goers, and this no
doubt accounted for the rather large number of empty seats in the hall. If the
programme had included Tchaikovsky, the greatest of all Russian composers, his
name would probably have attracted many more people to the concert. - Michael
Green
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