KZN Philharmonic Orchestra 2024 WINTER Symphony Season Concert 2

ABOUT

Concert 2: 13 June 2024

Playhouse Opera Theatre

Conductor: Yasuo Shinozaki

Soloist: Bronwyn Forbay (Soprano)

Bizet: Carmen Prelude

Bizet: Aria ‘Je dis que rien m’epouvertre’ (Michaela’s aria from Carmen)

Faure: Pavane

Cilea: Aria ‘Eco: repiro appena’ from Adriana Lecouvreur

Gounod: Romeo et Juliette Overture

Gounod: Aria ‘Je veux vivre dans ce reve’ (Valse) from Romeo et Juliette

Encore: Johann Strauss: ‘Mein Herr Marquis’ from Die Fledermaus

Tchaikovsky: Symphony No 3 ‘Polish’

Japanese maestro Yasuo Shinozaki, a longstanding favourite with KZN Philharmonic audiences, takes the podium for the second concert of the season. In the first half of his programme, he shares the spotlight with Durban born, US based lyric soprano Bronwyn Forbay in a compendium of operatic favourites. Ms Forbay’s legions of fans will be delighted to welcome her ‘back home’ – especially as she will be deploying her art in a selection of arias superbly suited to her lovely voice. The programme opens with two famous extracts from Bizet’s Carmen – often cited as ‘The World’s most popular Opera’ – it’s atmospheric Prelude, and the innocent Micaela’s tender Act 1 aria, in which she enters, determined to rescue Don José from Carmen’s seductive wiles. Fauré’s Pavane in F-sharp minor serves as an exquisite orchestral interlude before Ms Forbay returns to cast her spell over the audience with one of the early 20th century’s best-loved arias from Cilea’s Adriana Lecouvreur.

Two show-stoppers from Gounod’s lyric tragedy Romeo et Juliette – its famous Overture and Juliette’s celebrated ‘Waltz Song’ – bring the first half the evening to an exultant close. Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No 3 ‘Polish’, written in 1875, holds a unique place in the composer's symphonic oeuvre, in two ways: it is the only one of his seven Symphonies in a major key; and it is the only one to contain five movements. The Symphony premiered in Moscow on 19 November 1875, under the baton of Nikolai Rubinstein. It had it’s St. Petersburg premiere on 24 January 1876, under Eduard Nápravník, and its first performance outside Russia was in New York City on 8 February 1879.It’s United Kingdom premiere was at the Crystal Palace in 1899, conducted by Sir August Manns, who seems to have been the first to refer to it as the ‘Polish Symphony’.

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