Playhouse Opera:
Concert Six: Thursday 16 March
DURBAN: The glorious KZN Philharmonic Orchestra wraps up its six-concert Summer Symphony Season this Thursday, which has been taking place every Thursday in the Playhouse Opera.
The soloists selected for this season represent some of the most exciting vibrant talent of the new generation of global music makers – marrying rock-star appeal and accessibility with heavy weight music credentials, applauded virtuosity. All have recently won major international music competitions.
The final concert for the season on 16 March opens with Hector Berlioz’s overture to Béatrice et Bénédict; followed by a technically exacting violin concerto in A minor by Aleksandr Glazunov, a Russian composer, music teacher and conductor of the late Russian romantic period, performed by St Petersburg-born Andrey Baranov.
Born in St Petersburg in 1986 into a family of musicians, Baranov began playing the violin at the age of five. He attended the Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatory in St Petersburg and Consevatoire de Lausanne. Andrey Baranov is a winner of the Queen Elizabeth International Violin Competition. He is also a winner of Benjaman Britten and Henri Marteau International competitions and a prize winner of more than 20 other International Competitions. He is also the first violinst of David Oistrakh’s Quartet. Since making his major debut in 2005 at St Petersburg Philharmonic under V Petrenko, he has performed on renowned stages throughout the world. Many of his concerts have been broadcast worldwide.
For the final concert of the Summer Season the baton is once again in the hands of Japanese conductor Yasuo Shinozaki one of the leading Japanese conductors. He made his mark at the Second International Sibelius Conducting Competition in Helsinki in 2000. As Assistant Conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Shinozaki conducted the inaugural season of Walt Disney Concert Hall, led regional performances, concerts with the Los Angeles Philharmonic New Music Group, and education and community concerts, and two programs at the Hollywood Bowl during the 2004 summer season. He made his German conducting debut with the Nuremberg Symphony and returned to Japan to lead performances of the Tokyo Philharmonic and the Osaka Symphony Orchestra. In recent seasons Shinozaki has made his conducting debuts with the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Frankfurt Radio Symphony, and the Tapiola Sinfonietta and has subsequently conducted at several opera houses in Japan, including the Tokyo Nikikai Opera and the Japan National Opera Theater.
The Summer Season’s closing work is Tchaikovsky’s Little Russian Symphony No.2
Booking is through www.computicket.com / 0861 915 8000 / Shoprite Checkers Money Market Counters. It is cheaper to subscribe: for subscriptions contact 031 3699438.
Morning tea and symphony: Catch the final rehearsal on the morning of the scheduled concerts every Thursday during season at 10am for a nominal charge. Contact KZN Philharmonic offices for bookings and for more info: bookings@kznphil.org.za / 031 369 9438.
To better appreciate the music ahead of the concert: pre-concert lectures take place in the Alhambra Room at the Playhouse from 6 until 6.40pm prior to the concert every Thursday.
KZN Phil Listings:
Concert SIX
Date: 16 Mar
Time 7.30pm
Conductor: Yasuo Shinozaki
Soloist: Andrey Baranov
Featured instrument: violin
Programme: Hector Berlioz’s overture to Béatrice et Bénédict; violin concerto in A minor by Aleksandr Glazunov; Tchaikovsky’s Little Russian Symphony No.2
Programme: Pre-concert Lecture by Dr David Smith
• Andrey Baranov shares the stage with his sister, Maria Baranov, at a Friends of Music recital which is taking place on Wednesday 15 March at 07:30pm at the Durban Jewish Centre, 44 K.E. Masinga (Old Fort) Road, Durban. Please note it is taking place on a Wednesday instead of the usual Tuesday due to artist availability.
