The Johannesburg Philharmonic Orchestra (JPO) is proud to announce details of its 2019 Summer Season. This runs at the Linder Auditorium in Parktown from 20 February to 14 March. One of four programmes, starting at 20:00, will be presented consecutively each Wednesday and Thursday throughout the season, with Wednesday performances reprised the following evening and a third performance of the third programme reprised on Saturday 9 March. The season continues to uphold the honoured tradition of the acclaimed World Symphony Series (WSS), which launched in Durban 23 years ago and was introduced to JPO audiences in 2017.
“We are proud to launch our 2019 World Symphony Series Summer Season with a spectacular line-up of international talent on our roster, who will join us in taking the experience of concert-going in the city of Johannesburg to a new level,” says JPO Chief Executive and Artistic Director Bongani Tembe.
“We are happy to welcome our dedicated subscribers back to the Linder Auditorium as well as enthusiasts who prefer to cherry-pick their musical outings. Our finely curated programmes include a judicious mix of well-loved pieces along with some enticing but less familiar masterworks, which you are sure to enjoy discovering!”
The distinguished Russian-born conductor Victor Yampolsky launches the season on 20 and 21 February on a celebratory note with one of the concert repertoire’s great show-stoppers – Dvořák’s ebullient Carnival Overture. This will be followed by an exciting debut from one of Europe’s frontline new generation stars, the acclaimed young soloist Alexander Gilmann, who will give a rare account of Erich Korngold’s dazzling 1947 Violin Concerto. The second half of the evening sees maestro Yampolsky putting the JPO through its paces in a performance of Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony, one of the great Russian master’s most admired orchestral creations.
The award-winning Brazilian-born conductor Debora Waldman makes her JPO debut on 27 and 28 February with a programme of Norwegian, French and Czech masterworks. Grieg’s Peer Gynt Suite No.1 opens proceedings, followed by Ravel’s jazz-inspired Piano Concerto in G, showcasing the prodigiously gifted young Venetian soloist, Gloria Campaner. Ms Waldman brings her programme to a close with a performance of Dvořák’s lyrical Symphony No.8, a sun-filled work which was inspired by the Bohemian folk music the composer loved so much.
Well-known German conductor Bernhard Gueller will be at the helm of an all-Mozart programme on 6, 7 and 9 March, performing two of the great Austrian musical genius’s most sublime works, symphony No. 41 also known as his “Jupiter Symphony” and the Requiem K626, the latter where the JPO will be joined by a quartet of vocal soloists and the Gauteng Choristers.
The Israeli-American conductor Daniel Boico makes a triumphant return to the JPO’s podium to round off the season on 13 and 14 March with a programme featuring two of his signature works, Mendelssohn’s iconic Hebrides Overture and Sibelius’s towering Symphony No 2. The evening’s centrepiece sees the Russian superstar virtuoso pianist pulling out the stops in Grieg’s A minor Piano Concerto.
Season tickets for the Johannesburg Philharmonic’s World Symphony Series 2019 Summer Season are available through Computicket. Call 0861 915 8000 or book online at www.computicket.com. For more information visit wwwjpo.co.za
