KZN Philharmonic orchestra’s World Symphony Series Winter Season ~ COncert 1

Audience favourite Daniel Boico opens the KZN Philharmonic’s two-concert Winter Season. Many of you will have heard the Zulu Mass by Qinisela Sibisi, so his Heritage Overture will be of special interest as the
evening’s five-minute curtain raiser.

The multi-award-winning Russian pianist
Andrey Gugnin – hailed by Gramophone
Magazine as “a passionately virtuosic
performer” – takes centre stage in
Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 1, which
flowed f rom the pen of the 17-year-old
student at the Moscow Conservatoire in

The mature composer, then living in the United States, revised the piece in 1917, and it is this version that took its place in the concert repertoire going forward. The work offers soloists who have the technical chops to surmount its challenges a grateful palette to display their bravura arsenals. The concerto was conceived as a vehicle for Rachmaninoff’s dazzling pianistic skill.

The first and third movements abound with virtuoso passages, while the contemplative Andante Cantabile
unveils one of the composer’s loveliest yet little-known melodies. As performed here, our concertgoers will experience Rachmaninoff’s unbridled ability to ratchet
up audience excitement over its last pages.

Inspired by a growing nationalist movement among the Czech people, Dvořák achieved international acclaim and fame for his Slavonic Dances. The success of the 1885 world première of his Symphony No. 7 in London would
guarantee his status. Dvořák became haunted by the work, as a personal statement about Czech patriotism. His biographer John Clapham recognised its “greater dramatic power, deeper emotional feeling, and a breadth of vision unparalleled in anything else Dvořák had previously composed”. By curtain down, the work will have cast its spell on KZN Philharmonic music lovers.

Date: Thursday, 19 June 2025
Time: 19:00
Venue: Playhouse Opera Theatre, 231 Anton Lembede Street, Durban
Tickets: Season Tickets available through our office on 031 369 9437/8 or info@kznphil.org.za

Single tickets available online through Quicket or at the door

https://qkt.io/LfHC9whttps://qkt.io/Xun2uc

We look forward to sharing an evening of beautiful music with you!