KZN Philharmonic Orchestra 2024 WINTER Symphony Season Concert 3
Thu Jun 20, 19:00 - Thu Jun 20, 21:00
Playhouse Opera Theatre
ABOUT
Concert 3: 20 June 2024
Playhouse Opera Theatre
Conductor: Daniel Boico
Soloist: James Austin Smith (Oboe)
Elgar: Serenade Opus 20 in E minor
Strauss: Oboe Concerto in D Major
Mozart: Symphony No 41 K551 ‘Jupiter’
SA based Israeli-American conductor Daniel Boico appears for the third concert of the season, with a programme featuring popular repertoire by Elgar, Richard Strauss and Mozart. Elgar’s Serenade for String Orchestra in E minor is an early piece in three short movements, written in March 1892 and first performed privately in that year; its public premiere was in 1896. The critic Ernest Newman wrote in a 1906 study of Elgar that the Serenade was one the only two works of importance among the composer's output before the mid-1890s. It became one of Elgar's most popular compositions, and has been recorded many times.
Praised for his “virtuosic,” “dazzling,” and “brilliant” performances (New York Times) and his ‘bold, keen sound’ (The New Yorker), the celebrated American oboist James Austin Smith performs Richard Strauss’s joyful, singing Oboe Concerto as the centre piece of the evening’s programme. Written in 1945, the mercurial piece was one of the last works he composed near the end of his life, during what is often described as his Indian summer. It premiered late in February 1946 in Zürich, featuring Marcel Saillet as soloist with the Tonhalle Orchester conducted by Volkmar Andreae. The British premiere was at the BBC Proms on 17 September 1946 with the oboist Léon Goossens performing under the baton of Sir Adrian Boult.
Mozart’s miraculous Jupiter Symphony marks the sublime culmination of the genius Austrian composer’s symphonic oeuvre. Completed on 10 August 1788. It is the longest and last symphony that he composed, and is regarded by many critics as among the greatest symphonies in classical music. Brahms remarked in 1896: ‘Beethoven's first symphony impressed people colossally. But Mozart’s last three symphonies are much more important’. A telling comment from one of music’s greats, in homage to his sublime predecessor.