For the last concert of the winter symphony season the KZN Philharmonic Orchestra offered, in the Durban City Hall, a distinct novelty: saxophone music played by a visitor from the US.
There is, of course, nothing novel about the saxophone itself. It was invented in about 1840 by a Belgian named Adolphe Saxe and it has played a dominant part in American jazz for the past century. But its appearance on the classical stage is still unusual, although composers including Debussy, Bizet, Glazunov, Richard Strauss and Mahler, have used it in the orchestra and as a solo instrument.
In the City Hall a 26-year-old first generation Indian American saxophonist named Ashu proved a great success when he played two pieces with the orchestra.
Ashu performed two not very long pieces by Astor Piazzolla, the Argentine master of the tango. The first was called Tanti Anni Prima, apparently an Ave Maria. It had a lovely long melodic line and was more solemn than most of Piazzolla’s music.
The second piece, Libertango, really gripped the soloist, the orchestra and the audience. Ashu plays with great technical skill and verve. He has a delightfully flamboyant and uninhibited stage presence. At times in the tango he looked as if he might break into a dance. At the end there were whoops of joy from the delighted audience.
The orchestra, under the baton of its resident conductor Lyk Temmingh, was augmented for part of the programme by nearly 20 players of the Bochabela Strings from Bloemfontein, and the volume and depth of sound were impressive.
Leonard Bernstein’s noisy and vivid Candide Overture opened the concert, giving emphasis once again to the truth that recordings are really no substitute for live performances.
Then came two well known and very different works: Samuel Barber’s Adagio for Strings and Paul Dukas’s The Sorcerer’s Apprentice.
The orchestra players were in splendid form throughout and they brought the concert and the winter season to a close with a performance of Gustav’s Holst’s The Planets, a suite that interprets brilliantly the mythological influences of the planetary system. – Artsmart.co.za