KZN Philharmonic Orchestra 2024 SUMMER Symphony Season Concert 3

ABOUT

Concert 3: 14 March 2024

CONDUCTOR: Leon Bosch

SOLOIST: Hyeyoon Park, violin

Grieg Holberg Suite, op.40

Schubert Symphony No.5, D.485, B-flat Major

Tchaikovsky Concerto, Violin, op.35, D Major

Grieg’s Holberg Suite, Op. 40, subtitled ;Suite in olden style’,  comprises  five movements based on eighteenth-century dance forms. Written in 1884 to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the birth of Dano-Norwegian humanist playwright Ludvig Holberg (1684–1754), this prototype of nineteenth-century music evokes the preceding century. While it is not as famous as Grieg's incidental music from Peer Gynt, which is itself usually performed as arranged in a pair of suites, many critics regard this work as of equal merit. It was originally composed for the piano, but a year later was adapted by Grieg himself for orchestra. The suite consists of an introduction and a set of dances. It is an early essay in neoclassicism, an attempt to echo as much as was known in Grieg's time of the music of Holberg's era. Schubert's ‘slim-line’ Fifth Symphony is often said to resemble Mozart; Schubert was infatuated with the composer at the time he composed it in 1816. This is reflected particularly in the instrumentation which is similar to that of Mozart's 40th symphony. Tchaikovsky composed his only violin concerto in 1878 in Clarens, a Swiss resort on the shores of Lake Geneva, where he had gone to recover from the depression brought on by his disastrous marriage to Antonina Miliukova. The concerto was influenced by Édouard Lalo's Symphonie espagnole. Tchaikovsky made steady progress on the concerto, as he had regained his inspiration. The work was completed within a month. The first performance was eventually given by Adolph Brodsky in 1881 in Vienna, under the baton of Hans Richter. The violinist Karel Halír was an early champion of the work which has long since been at the apex of popularity among the world’s virtuoso  violin concertos, here showcasing the dazzlingly accomplishments of Hyeyoon Park under the baton of SA born conductor-bassist Leon Bosch.

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