KwaZulu-Natal Philharmonic Orchestra
World Symphony Series, Winter Season, Concert 2 (18 June
2026)
The Playhouse Opera
Intuitive spurts and whimsical let-ups set for the orchestra a moving target which, under the baton of Alexandra Arrieche, they skilfully negotiated. (Review by David Smith)
Part of this event fell outside the usual symphony concert
parameters: as happened in past years, the KZN Youth Orchestra under Lyk
Temmingh was accorded the opening slot and brought in a characteristically
young and lively following among the groups of ‘old hands’ in attendance. Their
four-piece curtain-raiser was a bouquet plucked from Mozart, popular Brahms, a
Spanish flavour and a fanfare.
Apart from purely musical achievements – their strong rhythmic sense, clean ensemble, and commendable tuning among heterogeneous groups – the youngsters’ involvement in a project that reaches back over more than 30 years is also premised on social and emotional commitments whose benefits recommend themselves universally. The listeners’ applause was approval of both flowering talent and the continued efforts of instructors and parents in encouraging a crucible of diverse artistic expression.
The well-filled theatre then had the opportunity to hear a brilliant Italian pianist, Federico Colli, take on - and shake down - the Schumann piano concerto. A work of such importance gets many outings, and its interpretation easily becomes smoothed down by convention, to a ‘truthful’ but unremarkable reflection of the printed signs. Colli was having none of that.
He re-wrote the ‘contract’ through his emphasis on rapid, impetuous utterances on one hand, and the most delicate tonal caresses - shy, even - on the other. While this suggests an alignment with the acknowledged facets of Schumann’s persona (given the names of Florestan, the impassioned, and Eusebius, the dreamer), as well as the roots of the first movement (the longest) in an independent Phantasie conception, it yielded an idiosyncratic reading of the music, changeful in its moods and speeds, and elastic even in its small gestures.
Intuitive spurts and whimsical let-ups set for the orchestra a moving target which, under the baton of Alexandra Arrieche, they skilfully negotiated. Colli’s tonal levels and layers were also a product of re-thinking and brought a luminous quality to much of the piano part, which the orchestra sought to emulate. He complimented his enthusiastic audience (“You aren’t cold, like Europeans”) and offered as an encore an explosive jest on bits of the Rondo alla Turca, his blazing virtuosity well to the fore.
The rapport between Arrieche and the orchestra was amply tested when the second half of the concert turned to Mendelssohn’s ‘Scottish’ Symphony (numbered ‘3’ but actually his fifth and last). The score is unusual in various ways, from its extended introduction minus the upper strings at the start, through the sudden evocation of a sea storm, to the hymn-like coda at the very end. These anomalies aside, the work falls into the standard four-movement shape. But its themes migrate and mutate, and the writing is intentionally aimed at progression without pauses between movements.
Perhaps the enforced stops – due to outbreaks of applause – helped to revive the musicians, for they maintained headlong speeds and the rapid circulation of motifs within the orchestra. Besides fine solo work from oboe and clarinet especially, and heart-warming lyrical themes from the cello section, the ‘choirs’ that constitute the orchestra scarcely missed a trick. It was hard work in a noble cause.
It was also to Arrieche’s great credit that a work like this (one far less familiar than the Schumann) could be prepared in the usual limited rehearsal time and presented with both authority and freshness. - David Smith