(Reuben
Mbonambi; Joshua Louis; Cameron Williams; Stephanie Lawrenson; Clara Lubbe and
Daniel Brodie. Front row: Naledi Dweba; Molly Dzangare; Lykele Temmingh –
Resident Conductor KZNPO, Bongani Tembe – CEO & Artistic Director KZNPO,
and Chris Njapha)
Lubbe
played with great freedom, shaping the phrases at her whim, almost toying with
them. (Review by Dr Martin Goldstein)
The final concert of the KZNPO’s early
spring season on September 12, 2019, showcased an astounding range of
high-quality music jam-packed into a single evening. The concert consisted of
the National Youth Concerto Festival and demonstrated the calibre of young
musicians in South Africa.
The programme included the Concerto for 2
Violoncellos, RV 531 in g minor (1720) by Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741); Dove sone from Le nozze di Figaro, K. 492 (1786) by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
(1756-1791); Tableaux de Provence, Mvt. 4 & 5 (1948-1955) by Paule Maurice
(1910-1967); Sholem-alekhem, Rov Friedman! (2004) Arranged by: Matthais
Ambrosius by Béla Kovács (1937-); Sinfonia Concertante, K. 364 (320d) in E-flat
Major (1779) by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791); A te l’estremo addio…Il lacerato spirito from Simon Boccanegra (1857) by Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901); the Clarinet
Concerto No. 2, J. 118, Op. 74 in E-flat Major: Mvt. 3 (1811) by Carl Maria Von
Weber (1786-1826) and the Piano Concerto No. 1, Op. 10 in D-flat Major (1912)
by Sergey Prokofiev (1891-1953).
The Vivaldi showcased the remarkable talent
of two young, up and coming cellists, Sicelo Christopher Njapha and Sunday
Kelechi Nwuko. The KZNPO’s acclaimed resident conductor, Lykele Temmingh, set a
good pulse for the performance from the outset and the orchestra grasped the
“darkness” of the genre. There was a notable freshness to the cello pair and a
perfectly coordinated interplay between the two with well-timed entrances and
endings and sympathetic cooperation with the harpsichord. The performance
conveyed a sense of drama and excitement with well-executed tremolos in the
cellos. They conveyed a good sense of style bringing out the quasi-Romantic
sentiment of the lyrical passages in Vivaldi’s music.
Mozart’s Dove sono was performed gracefully and with a purposeful pace. The
accomplished soprano, Molly Dzangare, did not force herself over the orchestra
and there was a perfect sense of co-operation between the woodwind and the
soloist. Temmingh was not overbearing in his conducting style.
The Maurice conjured up the sense of a
movie set in the opening and the overall feel was dreamlike and fantastical
with an enticing sense of the unknown. The highly talented alto saxophonist,
Clara Lubbe, produced a magnificent tone and shaped the phrases masterfully.
The work itself conveyed a sense of latent sadness. Lubbe played with great
freedom, shaping the phrases at her whim, almost toying with them. This was
certainly the highlight of the concert.
The Kovács was performed by the highly
confident and polished clarinettist, Cameron Williams. The mood of the work was
pensive and prayer-like. Cameron conveyed this with his purposeful phrases,
creating a wonderful sense of suspense. He elicited a huge palette of sound
effects, alternating between pensiveness and jovial ebullience.
Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante conveyed, in
the beginning, the bustling sounds of the city. The sentiment of the work was
one of a subdued sense of happiness coupled with the sense of nobility
attributed to Mozart’s compositional style. The violist, Stéphanie Nathalie
Lawrenson, produced a lovely round sound and the violinist, Joshua Louis,
conveyed a tasteful sense of Romanticism. In the cadenza, the viola and violin
became one.
The mood of the Verdi was ominous and
foreboding. Temmingh displayed masterful coordination of the overall sound. The
brass produced lovely, rich diminished chords which created a dramatic sense of
suspense and an almost funeral-like ambience. The work, overall, conveyed an
inner sadness and plaintiveness or longing.
In the Von Weber, the clarinettist, Antonia
Naledi Dweba, played with jovial confidence. His playing was very stable and he
seemed completely at ease, calmly shaping each phrase stylistically with
effortlessly flowing scales.
The Prokoviev was wonderfully grandiose and
the highly accomplished pianist, Daniel Brodie, displayed an impressive
facility in his wrists and agility in his fingers, producing a bell-like
resonance and reverberation in the piano. His playing can be described as
glinting with masterful reconciliation of the underlying layers and a marked
degree of dynamism. – Dr Martin Goldstein
(To link direct to the KZN Philharmonic’s
website click on the orchestra’s banner advert on the top of the page or visit
kznphil.org.za)
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