KZN Philharmonic Orchestra Summer Symphony Season Concert 2

CONCERT 2 - 9 March 2023, 19h00 

Playhouse Opera Theatre

Conductor: Daniel Boico

Soloist: Rachel Lee Priday, violin

Wagner: Siegfried Idyll, WWV 108

White: Concerto for Violin in f-sharp

Schumann: Symphony No. 3, E-flat Major, “Rhenish"

Wagner composed the Siegfried Idyll as a birthday present to his second wife, Cosima, after the birth of their son Siegfried in 1869. It was first performed on Christmas morning, 1870, by a small ensemble of the Tonhalle Orchester Zürich on the stairs of their villa at Tribschen. Cosima awoke to its opening melody. Wagner's opera Siegfried, which was premiered in 1876, incorporates music from the Idyll.

José Silvestre White Lafitte (1836 – 1918) was a Cuban French violinist and composer. After receiving early musical training from his father, an amateur violinist, José gave his first concert in Matanzas in 1854. He was accompanied by the visiting American pianist-composer Louis Moreau Gottschalk, who encouraged him to pursue further violin studies in Paris and raised money for him to travel there. José White studied at the Paris Conservatory, winning the 1856 First Grand Prize. He became a French citizen in 1870 and was highly praised by Rossini. White's output comprised some 30 works, including his virtuosic Violin Concerto in F# Minor.

Schumann’s ‘Rhenish’ Symphony No. 3 is the last symphony he composed, although not the last published. Composed from 2 November to 9 December 1850 , it premiered on 6 February 1851 in Düsseldorf, conducted by Schumann himself, to mixed reviews, but enthusiastic public applause, between every movement, and especially at the end of the work when the orchestra joined them in congratulating Schumann by shouting "hurrah!".

The composer was inspired to write the symphony after a trip to the Rhineland with his wife Clara. This journey was a happy and peaceful trip, which felt to them as if they were on a pilgrimage. He also incorporated elements of the journey and portrayed other experiences from his life in this joyous music.

 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.