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Wednesday, February 19, 2020

KZNPO SUMMER SEASON CONCERT #2


Love is in the air and the spirit of post-Valentine’s romance lingers as William Eddins takes the podium for the KZN Philharmonic’s season’s second programme. The concert takes place tomorrow (Thursday, February 2020) in the Durban City Hall at 19h30.

The American maestro opens with Schubert’s touchingly beautiful Rosamunde Overture. Rodrigo’s delicately scored Concierto de Aranjuez then introduces Montenegrin guitarist Goran Krivokapic as the first of the evening’s two soloists.

This paves the way for the achingly lovely Intermezzo from Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana, which in turn serves to offset the dazzling impact of coloratura soprano Zandile Mzazi, one of South Africa’s leading new-generation stars, who steps onto the spotlight singing the celebrated Gavotte from Massenet’s Manon.

After intermission the programme turns to another operatic love story, with two famous extracts from Verdi’s La Traviata, the opera’s hauntingly evocative Prelude, and Violetta’s exhilarating grande scena, “È strano! … Sempre libera”, with Ms Mzazi again commanding centre-stage.

Sir Edward Elgar’s delightfully sentimental Salut d’amour, written as an engagement gift for his fiancée, Caroline Roberts, serves as the perfect foil for the final work of the evening to make its full impact: Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliet overture-fantasy - one of the late Romantic Russian composer’s most inspired tributes to his adored idol, William Shakespeare - crowns the evening with a salute to the world’s most famous lovers.

The concert takes place tomorrow (Thursday, February 2020) in the Durban City Hall at 19h30. 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 visit kznphil.org.za

The next two concerts of the season take place as follows:

February 27 at 19h30 in the Durban City Hall:
Conductor: Yasuo Shinozaki 
Soloist: Jan Jiracek von Arnim, piano
Beethoven: Coriolan: Overture, Op. 62
Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 5, Op. 73 in E-flat Major, “Emperor”
Dvořák: Symphony No. 7, Op. 70 in d minor

March 5 at 19h30 in the Durban City Hall
Conductor: Arjan Tien
Violin: Tai Murray
Cello: Aristide du Plessis
Piano: Malcolm Nay
Beethoven: Leonore: Overture No. 1, Op. 138
Beethoven: Triple Concerto, Op. 56 in C Major
Bizet: Symphony No. 1 in C Major