Durban - The KZN Philharmonic Orchestra is hosting a three-concert Winter Season at the Playhouse Opera starting this week.
The concerts run on Thursday evenings between June 2 and 16 and start at 7pm.
This Thursday, KZNPO associate conductor Daniel Boico opens with Beethoven’s Prometheus Overture. Acclaimed Venezuelan flautist Joidy Blanco takes centre stage in two highly contrasting works for flute and orchestra, with the beguiling innocence of Mozart’s Flute Concerto No 2, offset by the full-blooded swagger and bravado of Sarasate’s Zigeunerweisen. The evening concludes with Mendelssohn’s Italian Symphony No 4.
On June 9, Boico returns with the quicksilver wit and dazzle of Berlioz’s brilliant Béatrice and Bénédict Overture, before South African pianist Leo Gevisser tackles Saint-Saëns’s exotic Piano Concerto No 5. Dubbed “The Egyptian” Concerto as the composer penned it while on vacation in the ancient city of Luxor, the colourful work conjures up the sounds of night life on the banks of the Nile. The programme concludes with Brahms’s richly textured Symphony No 3.
Young American maestro Robert Moody takes the podium for the third concert on the June 16 public holiday, opening with Mozart’s mercurial Overture to Così fan tutte. Then American piano virtuoso Bryan Wallick will scale the heights of Prokofiev’s Hurricane Piano Concerto No 3 before the evening rounds off with Beethoven’s magnificent Symphony No 7.
There will be free Tea and Symphony concerts for the final rehearsal every Thursday morning at 10am in the Playhouse Opera.
The bars are no longer open at the Playhouse. However complimentary tea and coffee will be served prior to concerts and during the interval.
Season tickets are available through Quicket. For more information visit http://kznphil.org.za/, email [email protected] or call 031 369 9438 (office hours).
The Independent on Saturday