(Above: Soloist Maja Bogdanovic & conductor Noam Aviel)
KZNPO's Spring Season
at the Playhouse Opera Theatre comes to an end. (Review by Barbara Trofimczyk)
Throughout the concert season, the KZN Philharmonic Orchestra excelled consistently under the direction of conductors of international standing, while both local and international soloists that we enjoyed were of the best one would hear anywhere in the world. It was a veritable musical feast!
The pleasing turnout and the enthusiastic response of the audiences at each concert is ample proof that Durban's music-loving citizens greatly value this important cultural asset.
Thursday's concert featured the internationally-acclaimed Serbian cellist, Maja Bogdanovic, along with the dynamic Israeli conductor Noam Aviel, Durban's rare experience of a woman conductor on the podium!
The programme was an unusual sequence of musical styles whereby the first half of the concert featured mature works by late-romantic French composers, Gabriel Faure and Camile Saint-Saens, expressive and rich in orchestral textures, sometimes sombre in mood, while the second half, in a radical change, featured the exuberant and very lively Symphony No 1 in C minor, the product of the 15 year-old child prodigy Felix Mendelssohn!
The highlight of the evening was undoubtedly Maja Bogdanovic's wonderful performances of Saint Saens' popular Cello concerto, as well as the deeply expressive "Elegie" by Faure.
Conductor Noam Aviel, demonstrated her keen sense of musical style in its many variations, directing the KZNPO to another successful evening of beautiful music. - Barbara Trofimczyk
Posts
