Johannesburg Philharmonic Orchestra’s season of springtime classics on
By CityLife Arts Writer
After a highly successful Winter Season, the Johannesburg Philharmonic Orchestra (JPO) returns with a spring in its step for an Early Spring Season of classical music gems – this time at full capacity seating!
The JPO’s World Symphony Series continues from 25 August to 8 September 2022, on Thursday nights at 7.30pm at the Linder Auditorium at Wits University, Parktown.
As a special treat, the popular annual joint concert with the KwaZulu-Natal Philharmonic (KZNPO), which has not been possible for the past two years due to Covid-19 restrictions, is also back to delight lovers of fine music.
As has become tradition, the JPO has a stellar array of accomplished international conductors and soloists lined up for this season, as well as the cream of South African artistic talent. This includes conductors Daniel Boico and Rebecca Tong, with Yi-Jia Susanne Hou on violin, Nina Schumann on piano and Magdalena de Vries on marimba.
“The success of our Winter Season showed that Gauteng residents still have a healthy appetite for classical music – and, in fact, that the hunger for great music has grown more robust during the pandemic,” says JPO CE and artistic director Bongani Tembe. “We look forward to bringing audiences another season of beautiful music.”
The JPO’s Early Spring Season kicks off on Thursday 25 August 2022 with dynamic Israeli American maestro Boico, artistic director of the Free State Symphony Orchestra, leading the JPO. The soloist for this concert is acclaimed Canadian Chinese violinist Hou, three-time winner of International Violin Competitions.
On the programme for the evening are Jean Sibelius’s Concerto for violin in D minor, and Antonin Dvořák’s Symphony No. 9 in E minor, (From the New World). Adding a dash of local flavour will be a performance of Don Laka’s enchanting Like the moon (We shall rise again).
The first day of (meteorological) spring, Thursday 1 September 2022, sees multi-award-winning South African pianist Schumann and the massed KZNPO and JPO musicians coming together to weave their magic under the baton of gifted young Indonesian conductor Tong, the resident conductor of the Jakarta Simfonia Orchestra.
The programme of popular favourites selected for this concert includes Sergei Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet Suite, from the ballet based on Shakespeare’s tragic masterpiece; as well as George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue and Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Symphonic Dances,.
Marimba sounds for Heritage Month! De Vries, South Africa’s foremost classical marimbaist, joins the JPO and conductor Boico for a five-fold bonanza of musical highlights: Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s Capriccio Espagnol, Alan Hovhaness’s Fantasy on Japanese Woodprints, Claude Debussy’s Petite Suite; Modest Mussorgsky’s Night on Bald Mountain; ending off with Franz Liszt’s Les Préludes, (Symphonic Poem No. 3) – an exhilarating challenge for the JPO players, and one that they are sure to rise to meet!
Patrons can enjoy discounted rates for season tickets, which are only available through the JPO Office by emailing info@jpo.co.za or phoning 011 484 0446. Tickets for single concerts are available through Quicket. But hurry – tickets for this sumptuous Early Spring Season are sure to be snapped up quickly!
Visit www.jpo.co.za for more information.