(Osmo
Vänskä conducting the Minnesota Orchestra. Pic by Greg Helgeson)
Sonic diplomacy. (Review by William
Charlton-Perkins)
Sunday’s second leg of the Minnesota
Orchestra’s South African concert tour in the Durban City Hall on August 12,
2018, proved something of a triumph. On several levels. As an exercise in
international cultural diplomacy, it went off without a hitch, fulfilling its
mission as a flag-carrying element of the Mandela Centenary celebrations,
emblematic programming a key factor in the operation.
With the Finnish conductor Osmo Vänskä at
the helm, his compatriot Jean Sibelius’ mesmerising, evocatively elemental
symphonic poem En Saga proved an apt
curtain-raiser to showcase the 100-strong body of crack American musicians as
they handsomely filled the stage of the country’s largest acoustic venue - both
physically and sonically - with their well-drilled presence. Silken strings en
mass, offsetting the delicate interplay of pristine winds and sonorous swells
of timpani and brass, culminating in the work’s famously haunting clarinet
solo. Quite lovely.
Harmonia
Ubuntu, Bongani Ndodana-Breen’s specially
commissioned Mandela tribute piece, melded textual elements drawn from the
great man’s words with colourfully orchestrated writing which offered
Goitsemang Lehobye’s lyric soprano voice an effective platform to communicate a
finely accessible listening experience.
Reservations crept in during the second
half. Here the choice of repertoire suggested an embarrass de richesses. The
programme opened with another timeous centennial salute – to the great Leonard
Bernstein. Seldom can the quick-sliver ebullience of the Overture to the American
composer’s deliciously sophisticated, hybrid theatre piece, Candide (written for a Broadway theatre
pit) been given such a plush outing as was meted out by the Minnesota players
in full force.
As for the Beethoven Fifth, there must have
been at least twice as many people on stage, immaculately dispatching its
celebrated score in all its glory, than is appropriate to this post classical
work, composed in the first decade of the 19th century. Mahler, yes. Beethoven?
No. Not for this writer at any rate.
Still, hats off to all concerned, not least
the tour’s indefatigable organisers, Classical Movements. - William
Charlton-Perkins
NB: The
Minnesota Orchestra will reprise this programme in the Aula Theatre, Pretoria,
on August 16 at 19h30.
Posts
