The final concert in the KZN Philharmonic
Orchestra’s Spring Season will take place on November 9, 2023, at 19h00 in the Playhouse
Opera Theatre.
Robert Moody, conductor
Bryan Cheng, cello
Dvořák: Mein Heim, Op. 62
Elgar: Cello Concerto, Op. 85 in e minor
Sibelius: Symphony No. 5, Op. 82 in E-flat
Major
The American conductor Robert Moody closes
the season with a nostalgic travelogue – spanning the closing and opening
decades of the 19th and 20th centuries – with Bohemia and Finland framing the
rolling hills of England. Dvořák wrote his symphonic poem, My Home,
between December 1881 and January of the next year. One of nine numbers
comprising incidental music for the play Josef Kajetán Tyl by František
Ferdinand Šamberk, it is usually performed as a concert work that develops two
song-themes associated with the drama’s titular protagonist.
Sir Edward Elgar conceived his Cello Concerto in the aftermath of the First World War, when the composer’s music was in temporary decline with the public. For the most part contemplative and elegiac, the great work, now a cornerstone of the international cello repertoire, stands in stark contrast with the English composer’s earlier Violin Concerto, which is lyrical and passionate. The Cello Concerto’s first performance, conducted by the composer and featuring the English virtuoso Beatrice Harrison, failed to please due to inadequate rehearsal time. Although the great Pablo Casals espoused it, the work only achieved widespread popularity in the 1960s, when a recording by Jacqueline du Pré became a classical hit. In recent seasons the gifted young Canadian-born, Berlin-based cellist Bryan Cheng has earned international acclaim performing it.
The Finnish government commissioned Sibelius’ epic Fifth Symphony in honour of his 50th birthday on December 8, 1915, which had been declared a national holiday. The final version’s première by the Helsinki Philharmonic, conducted by the composer himself, took place on November 24, 1919. The performance of the grandly-affirmative work, which has been referenced by luminaries ranging from Leonard Bernstein to film-makers John Coltrane and Steven Rae, rounds off the KZNPO’s 40th Anniversary season on an exultant high note.
The KZN Philharmonic Orchestra is a not-for-profit company and a public benefit organisation with a committed board of directors consisting of prominent business people and community leaders.
The Orchestra is chaired by business luminary, Mr Saki Macozoma, and ably led for the past 25 years by Mr Bongani Tembe, an accomplished Juilliard School trained singer and distinguished arts manager. Mr Tembe’s strong vision fosters high artistic values and a commitment to engaging with the diverse communities of South Africa.
A comprehensive education, development and community engagement programme exposes more than 30,000 urban and township learners per year to music educational concerts, whilst the Orchestra also spends part of the year in the rural areas working with local schools and communities. In addition, the Orchestra presents its flagship World Symphony Series (WSS), which features four seasons of symphony concerts at the Durban City Hall and the Playhouse Opera Theatre.
For more information, click on the orchestra’s advert in the top right-hand corner of this page or visit www.kznphil.org.za
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