(Miriam
Kramer)
Recitalists Kramer and Durcan on top form.
(Review by William Charlton-Perkins)
Friends of Music launched its 2018 series
at the Durban Jewish Centre on Tuesday (January 16) with a recital by the
American violinist Miriam Kramer and her regular partner, British pianist
Nicholas Durcan.
Engaging these distinguished artists, who
delivered an evening of superb music making, proved a major coup. They opened
their finely curated programme with Bartok’s six contrasting Romanian Dances,
written for piano between 1915 and 1917, here arranged for violin and piano by
Zoltan Szekely. These were followed by the sublime Adagio from JS Bach’s Sonata
No 3 in E Major BWV 1016 for Violin and Keyboard, music straight from heaven if
ever there was.
The centre piece of the evening’s
programme, Sir Edward Elgar’s highly charged but rarely heard Sonata for Violin
and Piano Opus 82 was performed with both intensity and tenderness, evoking the
sense of nostalgia that is a hallmark of Elgar's oeuvre, particularly his late
compositions. Composed in 1918, while staying at Brinkwells Cottage in the
idyllic woods of West Sussex in England, the Sonata was among the last works he
wrote.
As a timely nod to the current upsurge of
global women’s solidarity, Kramer and Durcan opened the second half of their
programme with an impromptu inclusion of the charming Romance Opus 23 by the
American composer, Amy Beach (1867 – 1944).
The varied pace and tone of the programme
continued with idiomatic performances of Robert Schumann’s Fantasiestucke Opus
73; two tangos by Astor Piazzolla, Oblivion
and Libertango; and Swiss Jewish
composer Ernest Bloch’s passionate Nigun
(from Baal Shem). The evening ended
with Kramer’s bravura account of Pablo de Sarasate’s flamboyantly virtuosic
Zigeunerweisen Opus 20, which brought the audience to its feet.
FOM presented Rachel Wedderburn-Maxwell in
its opening Prelude Performer slot. The 15-year-old Durban Girls College
learner played Kreisler’s taxing Praeludium and Adagio for Violin with
confidence, accompanied at the piano by Molly Chen. Then, switching
instruments, she followed this feat with even more aplomb, despatching
Mendelssohn’s Rondo and Capriccioso Opus 14 for Piano with an astonishing
degree of accomplishment. - William Charlton-Perkins
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