CLASSICAL MUSIC: Coenraad Visser
TWO violin soloists in one week, one accomplished, one dismal. The dismal one remains in Johannesburg in a prominent position.
With the Transvaal Philharmonic Orchestra, Yuri Braginsky’s account of Beethoven’s violin concerto was polished, most convincing in the refined but heartfelt Larghetto and buoyant rondo. The first movement was occasionally marred by shaky intonation and laboured bowing, and his decision to play Joachim’s mismatched cadenza raised a few eyebrows.
Earlier, with the National Symphony Orchestra, new concert master Richard Stamper stood in at short notice for the injured Vovka Ashkenazy. If his performance of Mendelssohn’s E-minor violin concerto is anything to go by, Stamper should be sent back post haste to the Bath Symphony Orchestra from which he hails.
Although concert masters do not have to be expert soloists (some are), they should be able to play in tune and have some idea of musical style. With his thin sound, nervous vibrato and poorly conceived reading, Stamper was simply awful.
How does he plan to unite the NSO’s wayward first violins — by setting an example for all of them not to follow? Many young South Africans could have filled Stamper’s position with distinction — Gina Beukes, Jurgen Schwietering, Piet Koornhof, Zanta Hofmeyr, to name but an obvious few. So why Stamper?
Choice playing came from the alert TPO strings, truly a joy in Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro overture and Symphony No 35 (Haffner) under Christopher Dowdeswell, easily the best Mozart we have heard in years.
Braginsky plays Mozart’s Violin Concerto No 5 with the NSO at 8 pm on February 8 and 9 in the Linder