Genius Sibelius.
(William
Charlton-Perkins reviews the third Winter Season concert of the KwaZulu-Natal
Philharmonic Orchestra’s 2018 World Symphony Series which took place on June 21
in the Playhouse Opera)
(Conductor: Conrad van Alphen - pic Rogier Bos)
Sibelius’s Violin Concerto in D minor must
surely count as one of the most daunting works a virtuoso violinist could wish
to master. This has not stopped generations of frontline fiddlers pitting
themselves against its formidable challenges ever since the great Czech
violinist Karel Halir played it at the official 1905 Berlin premiere, under the
baton of no less a luminary than Richard Strauss. Today’s recording catalogues,
not to mention YouTube, boast countless renderings of the work, suggesting its
magnetic pull has much in common with that of Everest for mountaineers.
Thursday’s penultimate KZN Philharmonic
Winter Season concert afforded the audience an up-close encounter with the work
in all its visceral glory, as Russia’s man-of-the-moment, violinist Nikita
Boriso-Glebsky, dished out its wow factor in dollops.
(Nikita
Boriso-Glebsky. Pic Evgeny Evtyukhov)
The piece is symphonic in scope, the solo
violin and orchestra allotted equal voices. Adroitly partnered by Conrad van
Alphen on the podium, Boriso-Glebsky’s supreme command of the score was
paramount, holding one spellbound as he unleashed its extended first movement
cadenza with palpable relish.
Much of the orchestral writing is subtly
dark-hued, with idiosyncratic elements such as the ominously muted ‘pagan’ drum
beats that punctuate its pages (finely realised here by the orchestra’s
timpanist, Stephane Pechoux). Torrents of fireworks dispatched by the soloist
were juxtaposed with writing of untold tenderness. The latter characteristic
was given full voice in the sublimely beautiful second movement,
Boriso-Glebsky’s celebrated velvet tone in shimmering evidence, before
Sibelius’s ingenious linking passage plunged one into the ferocious extremes of
the third movement, the soloist and his orchestral colleagues bringing the
house to its feet in a torrent of applause as the work’s cataclysmic finale ended.
Superbly framing this singular concert
show-stopper were two staple works that are clearly signature pieces in Maestro
van Alphen’s repertoire - Mendelssohn’s enchanting A Midsummer Night’s Dream Overture, and Dvorák’s richly pastoral
Symphony No 5 in F Major. As ever, both well-loved works offered wonderful
opportunities for the KZN Philharmonic players to show their paces to dazzling
effect.
The memory of this concert may well be one
to cherish in these uncertain times faced by our performing arts fraternity. In
no uncertain terms, the event underlined yet again what a priceless resource
the KwaZulu-Natal Philharmonic Orchestra is to the people of South Africa. - William
Charlton-Perkins
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