(William
Charlton-Perkins. Pic by Clinton Marius)
William Charlton-Perkins reviews the
opening Spring Season concert of the KwaZulu-Natal Philharmonic Orchestra’s
2018 Word Symphony Series ON November 1, 2018, in the Durban City Hall.
American maestro William Eddins, Music
Director Emeritus of the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, returned to the KZN
Philharmonic podium to launch the season with a programme comprising just two
works. The conductor made his bow alongside the gifted young American violinist
Rachel Lee Priday, with a commanding performance of Brahms’s Violin Concerto
that left the audience in no doubt why this young soloist is famed for her
beauty of tone.
(Rachel
Lee Priday)
Priday demonstrated deep introspection in
the tenderness of her playing, delivering a performance that married meditation
with thrilling bravura, as she engaged hand-in-glove with Eddins and his finely
responsive KZNPO forces. Dispatching the great work’s combative fortissimo
climbs in the outer movements with seeming abandon, she made time stand still
in the rapture of its glorious adagio, joining in on high with that ethereal
chorus of winds which ushers in one of Brahms’s most sublime moments.
(William
Eddins)
The second half of the evening was given
over to Sibelius’s three-movement Fifth Symphony. Sibelius was commissioned to
write this work by the Finnish government in honour of his 50th birthday, which
was declared a national holiday. Originally composed in 1915, it was revised in
1916 and again in 1919. During the composition phase, Sibelius wrote in his
diary: "It is as if God Almighty had thrown down pieces of a mosaic for
heaven’s floor and asked me to find out what was the original pattern”.
After grappling with the work through its
try-out phases, the composer’s final outcome is certainly one of the most
profoundly absorbing works in the repertoire - massively occluded clouds that
overhang the densely tumultuous writing of its opening movement giving way with
intense originality to the magical second movement’s delicate pizzicato
strings, hypnotically engaging with long-held winds and brass; then eerily rushing
strings and abrasive tutti joining forces in a finale of extreme contrast.
The stark soundscape of this score like
none other was superbly executed, from first to last. The evening’s meagre
audience who braved the inclement weather were well rewarded. – William Charlton-Perkins
(The
next concert in the symphony season takes place next Thursday, November 8,
2018, at 19h30 in the Durban City Hall. Booking is at Computicket. To link
direct to the KZN Philharmonic’s website click on the orchestra’s banner advert
on the top of the page or go to kznphil.org.za)
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