WILLIAM
CHARLTON-PERKINS reviews the final Late Spring Season concert of the
KwaZulu-Natal’s 2017 Word Symphony Series
Thursday’s
final concert of the KwaZulu-Natal Philharmonic Orchestra’s 2017 Late Spring
Season in the Durban City Hall was a red letter event. Taking place on November
16, 2017, it marked 25 years of collaboration between the Orchestra and
Durban’s leading choral group, the multi-award winning Clermont Community
Choir. To celebrate the occasion, associate guest conductor Daniel Boico
conducted a mixed bag programme of music by Rossini, Saint-Saëns and Haydn.
The
evening opened with the Overture to Rossini’s Italian operatic magnum opus, Semiramide. Boico’s beautifully judged
reading of the piece did full justice to this grand-scale prototype of the
classic Rossini overture - from its imposing
opening, its mournful horn passages presaging the opera’s doom-laden scene which
evokes of the long-dead king being recalled from the afterlife, to
full-throttle abandon in the Italian composer’s celebrated crescendos.
All eyes
were on Aristide du Plessis as the KZNPO’s Co-Principal Cellist stepped into
the solo spot to perform Saint-Saëns’ Cello Concerto No I in A minor. His
performance exuded a relaxed confidence that made light of the work’s
formidable bravura challenges in the first movement, and an innate feeling of
repose that enhanced the magical second movement, in which the soloist was delicately
framed by the stealthily tip-toeing pizzicato strings of his colleagues.
Enchanting
music, superbly played, as was the work’s dazzlingly virtuosic third movement.
Du Plessis brought off this off to the manner born. It is a testament of the
KZNPO’s international level of accomplishment that it embraces musicians of
this calibre in its ranks. More please.
Highlights
from Joseph Haydn’s magnificent oratorio, The
Creation, followed in the second half of the evening with Maestro Boico as
ever exercising a galvanizing presence on the podium. The extremely accomplished
performance from soloists, choir and orchestra alike begs the question: why was
the work given in extracts, and not complete?
The KZNPO
players clearly relished Haydn’s wonderfully evocative writing, with Junan
Sun’s luminous clarinet yet again proving a standout, and the Clermont
choristers gave a thrilling demonstration of the full-bodied sound that has
brought them fame. Joined by the fine quartet of soloists, their renderings of The heavens are telling, The Lord is great
and Sing the Lord were as exhilarating
as they possibly can be.
Hearing
debut performances such as we did from soprano S’bonigile Mntambo and tenor
Thando Mjandana made one long to hear them singing the work’s glorious arias written
for Gabriel and Uriel, which were cut. Both singers - clearly the beneficiaries
of excellent tuition, with distinctive vocal timbres, sophisticated musicality
and good projection - have the capacity to do these roles proud. The bass, Thunzi Nokubeka, and second
soprano, Siphokazi Maphumulo, likewise acquitted themselves with distinction. –
William Charlton-Perkins
( 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)
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