KwaZulu-Natal Philharmonic Orchestra
World Symphony Series, Early Spring Season, Concert 3 (September
3, 2026)
The Playhouse Opera
Review by David Smith
With conductor Leon Bosch and pianists Xin Wang and Florian
Koltun as guests, the last concert of the current season came with a ‘mostly
Mozart’ bill of fare.
We were welcomed with Rossini’s Overture to The Barber of Seville, a perfect reminder of Bosch’s efficient and unaffected approach to his conducting. The familiarity of the ideas cannot impair the singular brilliance of Rossini’s overtures, which, while redolent of opera, are also superb concert works. Bosch succeeded in achieving tightness of ensemble and a buoyant atmosphere.
For two-piano compositions with orchestra - not that numerous - partnerships are frequently family affairs: spouses, sisters, fathers and sons, etc. (Our soloists Wang and Koltun are a married couple.) Such was the origin of Mozart’s double piano concerto K.365, which he wrote for himself and his sister to perform. That in itself sets a high bar, since both were child prodigies and then distinguished adult performers. Moreover, the score demands not only seamless precision between the two players (a sibling connection!) but contains stylistic features that give the work its identity, both as ‘Mozartean’ in a broad sense and as an especially fine example of the genre.
Unfortunately, the event came in below expectation. Matching two grand pianos is perhaps not the easiest task: it was obvious that one was rich and deep-toned, the other bright and crystalline. Yet the players’ approach did little to mitigate the imbalance, Koltun lunging into weighty bass passages with scant discretion. Notes were not always reliable. But it was the dutiful, rather inelegant effect of the playing that deprived the work of its joyous athleticism and created a less than beguiling slow movement. Nonetheless, the endeavours of the pianists and the orchestra together were pleasing enough to occasion an encore, a four-hand arrangement of J S Bach’s Sheep may safely graze. This was touchingly delivered and suggested that Wang and Koltun are happier playing at one piano in duet formation.
The final work, Mozart’s Symphony 39 (K.543), was destined to right matters. It really is ‘in another league’, and the response of the ensemble was in general very satisfying. The unusually mellow wind scoring (with clarinets and without the usual oboes) seemed to move players to a special conviction. Only in the Allegro first movement did First Violins quaver a little in some exposed passages. The winds, brass included, had much to contribute – ceremonial, melodic – but it was the tutti cohesion throughout the lyrical slow movement, the trenchant Minuet, and the driving finale, down to its last fading scale, that carried the day.
On November 12, 2026, the orchestra resumes its world symphony series with another truncated season of two concerts. - David Smith