KZNPO gears up for exciting summer season
Canadian prodigy Bryan Cheng will perform not one, but two of Camille Saint-Saëns’s cello concerto’s.
Image: Supplied
The KZN Philharmonic Orchestra’s two-concert Summer Season runs in The Playhouse Opera next month.
Japanese conductor, Yasuo Shinozaki, a longstanding favourite with KZN Philharmonic audiences, takes the podium for the first concert on March 12 with a bill of French, English and Austrian crowd-pleasers.
Canadian prodigy Bryan Cheng, joins the maestro onstage to perform not one, but two of Camille Saint-Saëns’s cello concerto’s. He starts with the virtuosic Cello Concerto No 2, one of the composer’s most demanding and structurally innovative works for the instrument. The 20-year-old Benjamin Britten’s Simple Symphony, completed in 1934, brings an interlude of calm to the evening’s proceedings, before Cheng sets pulses racing with Saint-Saëns' visceral Cello Concerto No 1. After the intermission, Schubert’s ‘Unfinished’ Symphony rounds off the programme.
Japanese conductor, Yasuo Shinozaki, is a longstanding favourite with KZN Philharmonic audiences.
Image: Supplied
Widely acclaimed conductor Conrad van Alphen takes the podium on March 19, in a programme that starts with Fauré's enchanting Masques et bergamasques, a work that blends sprightly dance forms with a touch of wistful nostalgia. Then Bulgarian pianist Ludmil Angelov, renowned as a Chopin specialist, performs two of the Polish master’s early works, Variations on La ci darem la mano and the Grande polonaise brillante, each demanding ‘high-wire’ keyboard pyrotechnics. The youthful energy, humour and optimism of Beethoven’s Symphony No 2, completed in 1802, wrap up the night.
Bongani Tembe, KZN Philharmonic’s Chief Executive and Artistic Director. ‘We welcome the season’s guest artists, who join our resident musicians in performing a roster of masterworks that will engage and enchant our dedicated KZNPO audience.’
Both concerts are at 7pm and tickets are available at Quicket. To purchase a discounted subscription ticket, call 031-369 9438, email bookings@kznphil.org.za or visit www.kznphil.org.za.
There are also park and ride options for patrons who would prefer not to drive to town, from Upper Highway, Westville, North Coast and Berea. Book bus tickets on 031 359 9438 / info@kznphil.org.za.