CLASSICAL:Coenraad Visser
WHILE the first season of the National Symphony Orchestra of the SABC was marked by some outstanding conductors, the second belonged to some magnificent soloists. Two of the world’s leading string players dazzled Johannesburg audiences.
Cellist Torleif Thedeen, on his third visit to this country, gave a passionate account of Dvork’s masterly cello concerto. As always with Thedeen, it was not only his bold technical assurance that held one spellbound.
Instead, the quieter, more introspective, moments were pure magic. A similarly exquisitely proportioned Bach Sarabande showed why Thedeen has few peers on the world’s concert stages today.
The young Russian violinist Vadim Repin was similarly impressive in Glazunov’s violin concerto. Repin’s secure intonation must be heard to be believed.
But, again, it was the warmth and emotional variety of his playing that turned this showpiece concerto into a work of moving passion.
In the final concert, our own Sibongile Khumalo (right) was in ravishing voice. Her considered but deeply felt reading of Mahler’s Kinderttenlieder was easily one of the most accomplished vocal performances in Johannesburg for a long time.
Lesser-known soloists also showed great promise. In Tricia Park’s hands Paganini’s first violin concerto sounded better than it looks on paper, while Dmitri Makhtine was unfailingly lyrical in Mendelssohn’s violin concerto.
Capetonian tenor Andy Cloete (currently in Don Pasquale in Roodepoort) was a true vocal find in the Berlioz Messe Solennelle.
Only Francois du Toit slightly disappointed. He is not up to the Herculean technical demands of Brahms’ first piano concerto. In Beethoven’s Emperor, though, he showed a sense of style.
The conductors were a mixed bag. Gerard Korsten, as always, inspired the orchestra to give more than its best in Beethoven and Schubert. Former principal conductor Othmar Maga conducted a stirring account of Brahms’ second symphony, but his successor Louis Lane was characteristically four-square and unyielding in Berlioz.