"Musical Hemispheres"

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Musical HemispheresMusical Hemispheres

Inaugurated in 2006 to commemorate the 250th anniversary of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s birth, the Mozart Festival has grown into an international event under the auspices of Florian Uhlig and Richard Cock. CLASSICFEEL’s Natalie Watermeyer spoke to Artistic Director Florian Uhlig about Musical Hemispheres – his ambitious programme for the 2010 festival – and took a glance at the impressive list of international artists participating in this celebration of classical music.

Natalie Watermeyer: What is the idea behind the theme Musical Hemispheres, and how does the programme reflect this?

Florian Uhlig: About a year ago I received a phone call from Maestro Thomas Sanderling. He spoke to me about a certain composer named Friedrich Helmut Hartmann, who was married to a Jewish wife and thus was forced to leave Austria after the Anschluß to Nazi Germany. He emigrated to South Africa, continued composing and became a professor at Rhodes University where he taught some of South Africa’s leading composers, for example, Michael Moerane and Hubert Du Plessis. Hartmann’s main work is his Song of the Four Winds, a dramatic large-scale composition for Romantic orchestra with two vocal soloists, inspired by Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde.

Together with Sanderling I went through the conducting score and was immediately attracted to Hartmann’s music. I started thinking about Hartmann’s biography and the way his life embraced two important cultural ‘spheres’: South Africa and Austria. Hence, I devised the idea of building a whole festival around spheres or hemispheres. In the Festival programme, Musical Hemispheres will be presented in a number of ways: North meets South, East meets West, New World meets Old World, Baroque meets Tango, Classical music meets Hard Rock, Russian Romanticism meets English Romanticism – and there are many more exciting aspects!

NW: So the Festival focus is no longer Mozart alone?

FU: Mozart is and will always remain a motif going through the majority of concert programmes. However, as of 2010 we will depart from a pure Mozart focus... Mozart’s multi-faceted persona will act as a blueprint against which I want to unfold a discourse of music. And this discourse will not only include works by Mozart and his contemporaries but… will enhance the light the Festival can cast on Mozart as a composer and a man. For example, we have already started exploring and translating Mozart’s role as an educator. The Johannesburg International Mozart Festival will continue to expand its work in the area of outreach, education and development activities. In the forthcoming edition this will happen on a number of levels. Imperial College Symphony Orchestra from London will perform a concert for a disadvantaged community, Richard Cock will gather an amassed orchestra of amateur players, and, in association with CHORISA, Mike Brewer will host an all-day course for school choir trainers.

Like in 2009, the Melodi Music Ensemble, a training scheme for young schoolchildren and musicians supported through many years by the Apollo Music Trust and Richard Cock, will perform an evening concert as part of the main Festival. And there is another novelty: at the end of January, the Festival will host ‘Music and Exile’, a symposium led and attended by leading South African and international music researchers on the question of exiled musicians in South Africa and elsewhere. I hope that this kind of symposium will form an integral part of the Festival in years to come.

NW: What is the repertoire?

FU: Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, Piazzolla’s Estaciones Portenas, Hartmann’s Song of the Four Winds. Also, Dvorak’s Symphony No. 9 (‘From the New World’), a number of Fantasy Pieces by Robert Schumann, Rachmaninov’s epic Symphony No. 2, Elgar’s popular Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1, to name just some of the highlights. And of course, there is plenty of Mozart, too: Eine Kleine Nachtmusik, his Violin Concerto No. 4, his Piano Concerto in D minor K 466, Symphonies Nos. 5 and 37, the overture from his opera The Abduction from the Seraglio and much more.

NW: Who are the musicians taking part in 2010?

FU: Maestro Thomas Sanderling will conduct the Johannesburg Festival Orchestra in a special Mozart Anniversary Concert on 27 January 2010. He will be joined by mezzo-soprano Elizabeth Frandsen and the internationally renowned German baritone Dietrich Henschel. Other soloists include Russian/Austrian violinist Lidia Baich, Danish clarinettist Lone Madsen and the outstanding South African pianists Malcolm Nay and duo Nina Schumann and Luis Magalh?s. Of course, Richard Cock will be taking care of a number of concerts, including performances with the Johannesburg Festival Orchestra and the Chanticleer Singers. 2010 will see a tremendous addition to the Festival spectrum with performances given by two international ensembles who are visiting South Africa for the first time: Imperial College Symphony Orchestra from London is one of the finest student orchestras in Great Britain and will give two concerts under its charismatic music director, Richard Dickins.

NW: Where will the Festival be taking place?

FU: All orchestral concerts take place at the Linder Auditorium in Johannesburg, the chamber events will be hosted by Northwards House and there are also two concerts at St Mary's School, Waverley.

Interview: Natalie Watermeyer
CLASSICFEEL, December 2009/January 2010

 
Florian Uhlig Interview

Florian Uhlig: Duitse pianis wat as artistieke direkteur van die musiekfees ook bydraes lewer as solis en begeleier.

Top-musici na Goudstad vir musiekfees

Die jaarlikse Johannesburgse internasionale Mozartfees is in Januarie 2006 begin deur Richard Cock, dirigent en direkteur van Apollo Music in die Goudstad.

Die fees het sedertdien bestendig gegroei.

Intussen is die Duitse pianis Florian Uhlig, wat Suid-Mrika die laaste jare gereeld besoek het, as antistieke direkteur aangestel. Hy en Cock is van die musici wat tydens die fees volgende jaar van 23 Januarie tot 9 Februarie - in drie lokale in Johannesburg sal optree onder die oorkoepelende titel Musical Hemispheres.

Vier volskaalse simfoniekonserte word tydens die fees in the Linder in Parktown aangebied. die aanvangskonsert met Cock voor die Johannesburg-feesorkes en die klarinetspeler Lone Madsen; die Mozart-gedenkkonsert op 27 Januarie met die mezzo-sopraan Elizabeth Frandsen en die befaamde Duitse bariton Dietrich Henschel as soliste, Uhlig met 'n Mozart-concerto en Thomas Sanderling voor die feesorkes; en op 30 Januarie is Malcolm Nay aan die beurt met Gerald Finzi se Eclogue (vir klavier en strykers) saam met die Imperial College Symphony Orchestra, gedirigeer deur Richard Dickens.

Die laaste simfoniekonsert van die fees is op 1 Februarie en is iets buitengewoons.

In die eerste heifte word twee simfonieë van Mozart gehoor met Dickens voor die Imperialorkes. Na pouse is Lidia Baich, die opspraakwekkende Oostenrykse violls gebore in St. Petersburg, aan die beurt. Sy begin met Mozart se Vioolkonsert no. 4 en daarna speel sy die viool in twee van haar eie verwerkings van bekende werke saam met 'n rock-groep en kinwerbord - the Meditation ult Massenet se Thaïs en die Rondo cappriccioso van Saint-Saëns.

Kamermusiekkonserte vind ook tydens die fees plaas.

In die Northwards-herehuis is Madsen en Uhlig op 28 Januarie aan die beurt; Baich en die pianis Matthias Fletzberger voig op 29 Januarie; en die wenners in die tjelloen en viool-aldelings van Unisa se Internasionak Strykerskompetisiei n Pretoria rnaak hul buigings tydens die fees - op 6 Februarie.

Die laaste kamerkonsert is in die Linder op 7 Februarie, met Marcelo Nisinman (bandoneon) en Uhlig voor the klavier en klavesimbel.

'n Solo-uitvoering waarna baie uitgesien word, is die van Henschel. Hy sing op 24 Januarie Duitse kunsliedere in Northwards met Fletzberger voor die klavier.

Die fees word op 9 Februarie afgesluit met 'n koorkonsert in die St Mary's School, Waverley, waarin die Chanticleer Singers om die beurt deur Cock en Mike Brewer gedirigeer sal word.

Vir die simfoniekonserte moet besprekings by Computicket gedoen word.

Besprekings vir die Northwards-konserte en algemene navrae oor die fees moet by Caroline van Apollo Music gedoen word by Tel. 011 447 9264.

Thys Odendaal
BEELD, Plus, 09 December 2009

 

Florian Uhlig InterviewFlorian Uhlig

Concert pianist, teacher and composer, Florian Uhlig seemingly eats, breathes and sleeps music. CLASSICFEEL’s Natalie Watermeyer spoke to the passionate and flamboyant German maestro about his many projects, and his close association with the South African music industry.

Award-winning pianist Florian Uhlig traces his introduction to the piano to an unfortunate incident with a guitar, which his grandmother gave him for Christmas. ‘I must have been about five or six years old’, he recalls. ‘On the same night, full of Christmassy excitement, I leaned the poor contraption against the sofa and tried to climb on top. The result defies description. Eventually, my father suggested I should try the piano, assuming that the instrument would be sturdier and more difficult to wreck. He was right. I have been trying very hard up to the present day and haven’t managed yet!’

Uhlig may not have succeeded in wrecking the piano, but his attempts have earned him a sparkling reputation as an exciting, imaginative and intelligent concert pianist. His latest releases – Beethoven’s Variations for Piano and Hartmann’s Concerto for Viola and Piano have received high praise, with his performance of Beethoven’s variations described as ‘distinct, racy, brilliant… Simply wonderful,’ by the Viennese press and ‘Staggeringly original… an event’ by the Süddeutsche Zeitung. ‘The Hartmann disc was recorded with the SWR Rundfunkorchester in Kaiserslautern, Germany. I joined forces with an orchestra I had already enjoyed working with enormously for my CD of Shostakovich’s complete works for piano and orchestra on Hänssler Classic, a few years ago,’ says Uhlig.

‘It is coincidental to some degree that my new Beethoven disc, again on Hänssler Classic, was released at around the same time. But the direct juxtaposition of an orchestra CD with Hartmann’s rhythmically driven, hugely complex twentiethcentury idiom and Beethoven’s playfully innovative piano variations is typical of my work. I love thought-provoking programmes and juxtapositions. And I like surprises! In Beethoven’s Variations on God Save the King, for example, I am including my own cadenza with quotations of Elgar’s ‘Land of Hope and Glory’ and the London Big Ben chimes’.

Despite giving his first full solo recital aged twelve, Uhlig recalls his development as a young pianist as occurring ‘slowly and naturally’. ‘I had a great time at school and enjoyed many subjects and interests’ he says. ‘Perhaps that kind of attitude has helped me become a musician in a wider sense, not only focusing on black and white keys… Music is and has always been a huge passion in my life. But this passion has many different facets to it!’ Uhlig’s passion for music is indeed multi-faceted. Although first and foremost a concert pianist, he also – when time permits – composes, an experience that he says has fed into his role as a performer. ‘Composers are sitting at the opposite side of the table. Having gone through the experience of writing and notating a piece of music as a performer gives you a new perception when deciphering a composition by someone else!’

He also professes to a love of teaching, despite a lack of time in which to pursue this. ‘I do have one or two “students” in London who come and see me every now and then, having to endure my tedious divagations on baroque fingering and syncopated pedalling. Other than that, I have a nice schedule of masterclasses that often fit in with concert tours and I have always enjoyed my visits to the university music departments in Cape Town, Durban, Johannesburg and Stellenbosch, in particular’, he says. The lack of time bemoaned by Uhlig is unsurprising. In addition to a busy schedule as a concert pianist, he is completing his Ph.D on the role of performance in perceptions of musical genre. He is also the musical director of the Johannesburg International Mozart Festival, which he co-founded with Richard Cock. ‘I have been very privileged to travel to South Africa many times over the past nine years, collaborating with the major orchestras and performing in the majority of concert series and venues... During my first visit I struck up a close friendship with Richard Cock. We have worked together quite a lot now and about a year ago we founded the Johannesburg International Mozart Festival’.

Uhlig describes the work entailed in organising the festival, building a programme and bringing together the artists as ‘another dimension of my passion in music’. ‘It’s been a lot of work since the first edition of the Festival earlier this year’ he says, ‘but next year’s edition, starting on 23 January 2010 (until 7 February), presents a quantum leap with just under 20 inspiring concerts and fantastic international and South African artists under the theme of “Musical Hemispheres.”’

Uhlig’s schedule is unlikely to relax any time soon. In celebration of Schumann’s 200th anniversary, next year will see the release of two Schumann discs on the Hänssler Classic label. ‘This will mark the beginning of a series of recordings of the complete works by Schumann for solo piano and for piano and orchestra,’ he says. ‘The whole project will take at least twelve years to complete. I’ll be an old man by the time the box set comes out!’

Interview: Natalie Watermeyer
CLASSICFEEL, November 2009
Image: Friedrun Reinhold

 

On the stage

I love the thought that 2010 promises, and will indeed deliver, a complete dramatic brainwash. Hopefully, wherever you choose to go for entertainment, you will be sandwiched elbow-to-elbow with others from across the globe, in full houses, to watch, listen to, and absorb the extraordinary creations and creativity of our local performing artists. In a countrywide festival obsessed with “Gesamtkunstwerk” – Wagner’s word for the totality of the arts, the union of music, poetry and stagecraft, each of the elements subservient to the drama - audiences will be treated to harmonic intensities, emotional forcefulness, traditional styles of recitative and aria, homegrown myths and legends, in numbers and variety that offer the greatest contrasts possible.

In short, those passionate people who care deeply about culture and excellence in the arts are going to see productions that provide stimulating intellectual fodder, exciting stuff to argue about and delight in.

Let’s start with Richard Cock. Here, I must declare an interest. Every time my husband wears tails, his white cotton poplin waistcoast is Richard’s, on indefinite loan from the maestro. Conductors seldom, if ever, wear evening dress these days; and indeed, Cock’s mission has been to introduce listeners to fantastic music, to the rhythm and the subtlety of unbeatable sounds, without having to dress it, or himself, up to do it.

What Cock has achieved is to take the embarrassment out of not knowing. With him in charge of a recital, an orchestra, even a Gilbert and Sullivan singalong, there is no need to struggle to keep up. He will rock you through the Mull of Kintyre in a popular Proms concert, waltz you through Strauss, or challenge you with the symphonies and lieder of yesteryear. Where our ears have been blasted and our aural sensitivities have been blighted by muzak and noise disturbance, he illustrates the unusual and haunting plangent sound; and, in his sympathetic explanations and quietly-spoken intimacy, he gives back to South African audiences 400 years of musical wisdom.

When Cock, together with Florian Uhlig, first masterminded THE JOHANNESBURG INTERNATIONAL MOZART FESTIVAL, they surely envisioned its growth to the splendid series of symphonies, chamber concerts, and song recitals that will take place in the city between 23 January and 9 February. Look out for the inventive programmes featuring, amongst others, the Johannesburg Festival Orchestra and the visiting Imperial College Symphony Orchestra, taking place at the Linder Auditorium, Northwards House and St Mary's School, Waverley. Yet Cock and Uhlig have done more than venture into traditional and familiar territory. Their development initiatives also see the school children of Dobsonville and Alexandra introduced to orchestral sounds and instruments with a contagious enthusiasm and energy which will have them hooked on classics for life.

...

Mary Jordan
Business Day, 24 November 2009

 

Richard Cock, ConductorThe Man behind the Music

As preparations for the 2010 Johannesburg International Mozart Festival kick into gear, the man behind the music is readying himself for a momentous start to an exciting year.

Originally organized in 2006 in commemoration of the great Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s 250th birthday anniversary, the Johannesburg International Mozart Festival has developed into a highly successful and well-loved classical music event, with conductor Richard Cock at the helm as Music Director, together with internationally renowned concert pianist Florian Uhlig as Artistic Director.

Cock, one of SA’s best known conductors, was born in Port Elizabeth. He says that his love for classical music was stirred when he first started to sing in the choir at Woodridge Preparatory School and the Diocesan College, Cape Town.

He pursued his musical studies at the Cape Town College of Music, from which he graduated in 1971. In 1972, he won a scholarship to the Royal School of Church Music, where he was awarded several prizes and diplomas. In 1978 he became Director of Music at the Cathedral Choir School and assistant organist at Chichester Cathedral. During his years in England he became a Fellow of the Royal College of Organists.

After his return to South Africa in 1980, he breathed new life into the National Symphony Orchestra, as Music Director from 1991. His innovative spirit saw the orchestra expand its horizons with open-air events, such as the successful Emmarentia Gardens Winter series, Musical Fireworks and Pops concerts, Music in the Zoo and tours from Cape Town to Cairo.

It is as a choral trainer and conductor that Richard Cock is best known. He was organist and director of music at St Mary’s Cathedral for 12 years, and was elected a Fellow of the Royal School of Church Music for his services to Church Music in South Africa. He founded the Symphony Choir of Johannesburg and the internationally recognized Chanticleer Singers 28 years ago.

As conductor, he is in much demand countrywide for the popular Last Night of the Proms concerts and Songs of Praise. New milestones in recent years were conducting his first full-length opera, Mozart’s Don Giovanni, for PACOFS in Bloemfontein, and conducting the Julian Lloyd-Webber South Africa tour. In 2001, he conducted the Joshua Bell tour of South Africa and that of Lynn Harrell, and he regularly conducts the popular Starlight Classics for Rand Merchant Bank.

“Interaction with the audience and getting people to share my own love of music,” is Cock’s favorite part of being a conductor. His dream for classical music in South Africa is for it to become part of everyone’s life. “It has so much to offer,” says Cock.

He has definitely done his part to make sure that this wish goes over into action. Many people feel he has done more than anyone in South Africa to popularize classical music, and he is always looking for new and innovative ways to bring music to new audiences.

Cock is also chairman of the Apollo Music Trust, and until recently he was one of the Musical Directors of the Nation-Building Massed Choirs Festival. He is on the Board of Trustees of Business Arts South Africa, and on the committee of the National Arts Festival, Grahamstown.

Through the Apollo Music Trust, the National Lottery Distribution Trust Fund, the National Arts Council and the RMB Fund, Cock and his team regularly present educational concerts in centers as far afield as Grahamstown, Kimberley, Soweto, Alexandra, Eldorado Park, Brits, Polokwane, and more. These concerts are educational and aimed at enhancing young people’s knowledge of the orchestra and its various components. This is done through an interactive process with learners and over the past many years, hundreds of thousands of children from disadvantaged communities have enjoyed and gained from the experience which these concerts provide.

Children’s Concerts are given each year in Johannesburg and Eldorado Park and reach about 8 000 learners between the age of 6 and 13 from nearly 80 schools throughout the Gauteng area. The idea is to introduce the children to music, the orchestra families and the individual instruments. In addition to the Children’s concert, the Apollo Music Trust, supported by RMB, funds a Community Concert in Eldorado Park annually, featuring both children and adults and a wide range of music. Members of the community perform with the orchestra, and over the years these concerts have included the Choir from St Vincent’s School for the Deaf and students from the National School of the Arts.

With the 20 Tenors, a concept that was formed after a chance conversation between GIBS Professor Jonathan Cook and himself, Cock and vocal coach Nicholas Nicholaidis visited several centers, auditioning tenors and put together a team representative of almost every province in South Africa. With choreographer and Strictly Come Dancing host Ian von Memerty as the director and choreographer, and with the backing of the Cape Philharmonic and Johannesburg Festival Orchestras for appearances at Starlight Classics, the 20 Tenors have been an immediate hit, setting the stage for unifying the nation through a collaboration between arts and sport, using the 2010 Soccer World Cup as platform.

Cock feels that there is a growing level of support for classical music from the South African public, but that the whole structure is fragile and needs more support from Government.

Bracing himself for an exceptionally busy year ahead, Richard Cock says that he is particularly looking forward to a bigger and better Johannesburg International Mozart Festival in 2010, and also to special concerts for the 30th Anniversary of the Symphony Choir of Johannesburg and the Chanticleer Singers.

www.artslink.co.za
28 October 2009

 

Florian Uhlig InterviewAls Solist bei Bach-Konzert am Cembalo

Florian Uhlig gastiert beim Musikfestival Schloss Cappenberg

...

Sie haben mittlerweile auch Ihr eigenes Festival in Südafrika, das „Johannesburg International Mozart-Festival“. Können Sie darüber ein bisschen erzählen?

Uhlig: Mozart ist ein Schwerpunkt, dieses Jahr - auch Mendelssohn. Ich bin im Herbst 2008 zum künstlerischen Leiter ernannt worden. Wir hatten im Januar acht Konzerte, sowohl mit großem Orchester als auch Kammermusik und einen Chorabend. Die Besonderheit des Festivals ist, dass wir Musik auch in andere Teile der Gesellschaft bringen, die sonst nicht die Chance dazu hätten.

Was kann man darunter verstehen?

Uhlig: Wir waren beispielsweise mit einem Orchester in einem Township, haben vor 2500 farbigen Schulkindern gespielt und sie auch mit rhythmischen Spielen einbezogen. Außerdem fördern wir das „Melodi Music Ensemble“, talentierte Teenager, die schon auf hohem Niveau spielen. Im nächsten Jahr geht es beim Festival um musikalische Hemisphären. Dann wollen wir noch mehr Konzerte geben und weiteres soziales Engagement zeigen, Workshops und Meisterkurse sind geplant.

...

Interview: Beate Rottgardt
RuhrNachrichten, 30 April 2009
Image: Friedrun Reinhold

 

Good choices and expression

CONCERT: Music by Mozart and Mendelssohn - The two best concertos of Mendelssohn were the main works of this Johannesburg Festival Orchestra (JFO) concert, writes Michael Traub
VENUE: Linder Auditorium
SOLOISTS: Corinne Chapelle, Malcolm Nay
CONDUCTOR: Richard Cock

The Violin Concerto in E minor featured Corinne Chapelle, a young French-American in her first appearance in South Africa. She played with great taste and expression, and her intonation was always good. Her tone was sweet yet penetrating. The variations in tempo in the first movement, according to whether the music was energetic or lyrical, meant that the long line was somewhat compromised.

No such problem appeared in the other two movements, however.

Richard Cock directed the JFO with finesse, and the ensemble with the soloist was accurate. This was also the case in the Piano Concerto No.1 in G minor, the soloist here being Malcolm Nay.

His execution of the technical difficulties in the solo part was admirable, but there would have been more fibre in the expression if he had given the prescribed accents their full due.

The programme was completed by two Mozart overtures, those to the Marriage of Figaro and La Clemenza di Tito (which might be translated to as the “Magnanimity of the Emperor Titus”). In both these cases Cock chose sensible tempi.

All too often, Mozart overtures are spoilt through music speeds, whereupon detail vanishes.

Michael Traub
The Citizen, Johannesburg, South Africa, 09 February 2009

 

Precocious genius

CONCERT: Chamber Music by Mendelssohn and Mozart - A rare chamber work by Mendelssohn was the principal feature of a concert during Johannesburg’s Mendelssohn and Mozart Festival. This was the Sextet in D major for strings and piano, written when the composer was only 15 years old, writes Michael Traub
VENUE: Linder Auditorium
SOLOISTS: Shannon Armer, Florian Uhlig

One can hear why he did not publish it, for the central two movements are less than Mendelssohn’s best, and one of these, the Scherzo, is far too short-winded.

Nevertheless, this achievement of a mere teenager is remarkable, and the outer movements are a delight for a virtuoso pianist, as Florian Uhlig showed himself to be.

He was also nimble in Mendelssohn’s well-known Piano Trio in D minor, opus 49.

Zoë Beyers (violin) and Jacqueline Finlay (cello) matched him in adroitness, though the texture of the first movement was sometimes slightly clotted.

Mozart’s Quintet for the horn and strings in E flat major, K. 407, was less attractively played.

This was principally because Shannon Armer on the horn had a few fluffed notes and sounded less than fully confident. Still, this is a rarely heard work, and was thus welcome.

Mozart’s Piano Trio in G major, K. 564, completed the programme. Though not the composer’s greatest chamber works, the players played it with conviction.

Michael Traub
The Citizen, Johannesburg, South Africa, 09 February 2009

 

Solos add spirit

RECITAL: Zöe Beyers (violin) and Florian Uhlig (piano) - This duo recital was enhanced by the inclusion of several piano solos by Mendelssohn, to add to the violin and piano works by Mozart and Mendelssohn, all played as part of Richard Cock’s two composer festival, writes Michael Traub
VENUE: Northwards, Parktown
PROGRAMME: Music by Mozart and Mendelssohn

Mozart’s violin Rondos, in B-flat major and C major, K.269 and K.373 respectively, were originally composed with an orchestral accompaniment, but were here presented with effectively transcribed piano accompaniments.

Zöe Beyers offered ideal style and intonation, yet the dry acoustic of Northwards robbed her tone of silkiness, and I know that she plays sweetly from also hearing her in the warmer Linder Auditorium acoustic.

The main duo work was Mendelssohn’s Sonata in F major, not all the often programmed.

Inexplicably, it has no opus number and apparently was not published by the composer.

It is a sonata in the grand style, and both Beyers and Uhlig played it with fine rhythmic momentum and a certain boldness, which suited the music perfectly.

Mozart’s Sonata in B-flat Major, K454, found both artists in similar form. Of course, proper Classical style meant a more restrained type of interpretation, in which charm was more apparent than boldness.

Uhlig’s piano solos, all famous pieces, showed off his remarkable dexterity in the quicker pieces and his soulfulness in the lyrical sections.

The works were: the Scherzo in E minor, from opus 16; the Rondo Capriccioso in E minor, opus 14; the Scherzo from the music to A Midsummers Night’s Dream (in Rachmaninoff’s difficult transcription); and the Serious Variations in D minor, opus 54.

The encore at the end of the recital was an arrangement of Mendelssohn’s Song Without Words in F-sharp minor, from the opus 67 set, with the melodic line transferred to the violin and the piano playing the accompanying arpeggios.

Michael Traub
The Citizen, Johannesburg, South Africa, 01 February 2009

 

The genius of the young

CONCERT: Johannesburg Festival Orchestra - The two greatest prodigies in the history of music, Mozart and Mendelssohn (the latter dying young, like Mozart, well before reaching his 40th year), are now being celebrated in Joburg by the ever-enter-prising Richard Cock, writes Michael Traub
PROGRAMME: Music by Mozart and Mendelssohn
SOLOISTS: Zöe Beyers, Florian Uhlig
CONDUCTOR: Richard Cock

In this concert, there were two real rarities by Mendelssohn (who was born in 1809): the youthful Concerto for Piano, Violin and Orchestra in D minor and the Rondo Brillant for Piano and Orchestra, Opus 22.

The Rondo, which is in E-flat major, requires of the soloist quick-silver arpeggios, broken chords and scales.

Florian Uhlig, the visiting German virtuoso, played with the utmost economy of motion and an almost unbelievable dexterity.

This work may not be the composer’s greatest for piano or orchestra, but it is certainly immensely entertaining, not least in the matter of watching the pianist’s flying fingers!

The Concerto for the unusual combination of solo violin and piano was another fine performance.

Zöe Beyers is a violinist with perfect intonation and silky tone.

More than this, she has tremendous rhythmic vitality, a characteristic which imbued the performance with excitement in the virtuoso sections, while her soulful line in the more lyrical sections was equally pleasing.

Uhlig matched her interpretation with fidelity, while Cock managed exact ensemble on the part of the Johannesburg Festival Orchestra, who were playing with their accustomed verve.

Mozart’s contribution to the concert came in the form of two symphonies, the very early No. 4 in D major and the mature No.38, also in D (the latter known as the Prague, after the city where it was first performed).

Cock came into his own here. Both interpretations were imbued with rhythmic vitality and considerable charm, the instrumental balance and sound were admirable and the execution in Classical style.

A large audience gave prolonged applause to every item on the programme.

Michael Traub
The Citizen, Johannesburg, South Africa, 28 January 2009