KZN Philharmonic Orchestra Summer Symphony Season Concert 1

ABOUT

Concert 1 - 2 March 2023, 19h00. 

Playhouse Opera Theatre

Conductor: Hossein Pishkar

Soloist: Danae Dörken, piano

Sibelius: Pelleas and Melisande, Op. 46

Mendelssohn: Concerto for Piano No. 1 in g minor

Beethoven: Symphony No. 1, Op. 21 in C Major

Sibelius’ Pelléas et Mélisande began life as incidental music for Maurice Maeterlinck's 1892 play of the same title. First performed in Helsinki 1905 to a translation by Bertel Gripenberg, Sibelius later rearranged the music into a nine movement suite, published as Op. 46, which became one of his most popular concert works. This evening’s audience will surely thrill to the graphic appeal of this celebrated work, which offers a superb window into the composer’s gift for painting with music.

Mendelssohn wrote his G minor Piano Concerto around the same time as his Italian Symphony. The concerto was composed in 1830-31, while holidaying in Rome after the composer had met the pianist Delphine von Schauroth in Munich. The three-movement work was dedicated to her, although Mendelssohn himself performed it at its premiere in Munich of 1831. The highly melodic piece, with its sparkling orchestration, contains many sections of bravura solo improvisation, one of Mendelssohn's specialties, and saw a rapid rise in popularity which has continued ever since.

The young Beethoven was an artist who straddled the Classical and Romantic eras. Following the enormous prestige accorded his former teacher, Joseph Haydn, on completion of the latter’s 12 London Symphonies, Beethoven was inspired to have a go at writing his own first Symphony. This was composed in 1800, at which time he had already completed two of his piano concertos, as well as ten piano sonatas, including the ‘Pathétique’, his octet and septet, as well as some of his early string quartets. While clearly influenced by the Classical style - it was famously dubbed by the great scholar Donald Tovey as Beethoven’s ‘farewell to the 18th century’ - the composer’s first foray into the symphonic genre already bore rugged imprints of his later signature characteristics, setting him apart from Haydn and Mozart. 

The Summer Season opens on Thursday 2 March and runs until 23 March, with concerts taking place every Thursday evening, at 19h00 at the Playhouse Opera Theatre.  

Off Street parking is available at the Royal Hotel.

The Royal Hotel Coffee Shop is open for light snacks and dinner from 17h00.

Regrettably, no under-3's.

DIRECTIONS