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Monday, November 19, 2018

WILLIAM CHARLTON PERKINS CLASSICAL NOTES NOVEMBER 19, 2018


(William Charlton-Perkins. Pic by Clinton Marius)

Going out on a high.

Music lovers in Durban and surrounds can look forward to two not-to-be-missed appearances in the city this week by the acclaimed German-Russian pianist Olga Scheps. Noted for the intensely lyrical quality of her playing, 32-year old Scheps, dubbed ‘The Poet of the Piano’, will give a recital for Friends of Music on Tuesday November 20, and is the KZNPO’s soloist in the final concert of its current symphony season in the Durban City Hall on Thursday November 22. Both events start at 19h30.

(Olga Scheps)
 
Scheps’s FOM programme includes: Mozart’s Piano Sonata in A minor K 310; the Piano Sonata No 7 in D Major Opus 10 No 3 by Beethoven; Three Movements from Petrouchka by Stravinsky; Alexander Scriabin’s Valse Opus 38; and Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker Suite, arranged by Mikhail Pletnev. She will play Rachmaninoff’s hugely popular Piano Concerto No 2 in Thursday’s concert, which sees Daniel Boico, KZNPO Associate guest conductor, on the podium for a programme that also includes Mendelssohn’s Scottish Symphony and Balakirev’s Overture on Three Russian Themes. Booking is through Computicket and tickets are also available at the door.

(Elsabé Richter & Willem Bester)

Baroque 2000’s next concert is a Celebration of St Cecilia, Patroness of Music. The programme, featuring music by George Frideric Handel, includes the Overture to his Venetian opera, Agrippina, and the sublimely beautiful Ode for St Cecilia’s Day. Soloists ElsabĂ© Richter (soprano) and Willem Bester (tenor) from the University of the Free State Opera Department team with the Choir of the Lutheran Church in Wartburg, conducted by Lance Phillip. 

This Baroque 2000 event is on November 25 at 15h00 at the Church of the Mariannhill Monastery. Tickets R150 at the door. - William Charlton-Perkins