Return of old friends in a varied classical line-up

May 5 2009 by Our Correspondent, Perthshire Advertiser Tuesday

THE classical music line-up for this year’s Perth Festival of the Arts features a return of some old friends with some new in a bumper programme of music to suit all tastes.

Once again English Touring Opera grace the stage of Perth Theatre with two contrasting operatic masterworks. Mozart’s ever-popular The Magic Flute opens the festival on Thursday, May 21, with Janácek’s intensely dramatic opera Katya Kabanova on Friday. Due to the popularity of Mozart’s enchanting masterpiece The Magic Flute is being performed again on Saturday evening, so every opera-goer has a chance to catch this exciting new production of Mozart’s perennial favourite.

For the more adventurous, Katya Kabanova has a more serious tale to tell. Based on the Russian novel The Storm, it is the story of conflict between the rich and tyrannical upholders of the old moral code and the human, natural young people. Directed by James Conway, who brought Jenufa to Perth three years ago, both operas have a strong line up of first-class young singers and, as always, both operas are sung in English.

The opening concert this year features the celebrated Prague Symphony Orchestra under their chief conductor Petr Altrichter, with the talented young pianist Freddy Kempf as soloist. They perform Beethoven’s exciting First Piano Concerto with Dvorak’s wonderful New World Symphony and beginning with Smetana’s symphonic poem Vltava, a very popular concert of classic ‘lollipops.’

Chamber music is in abundance once again with a return of the Nash Ensemble of London. They produced a wonderful set of concerts last year as artists-in-residence and follow those with two concerts on Thursday and Friday evening (May 28 and 29) featuring quintets by Mozart, Beethoven, Mendelssohn and Dvorak. This talented group of musicians present meticulously performances in their committed and polished style. This is chamber music played at its very best.

On Tuesday, May 26, the pairing of clarinettist Emma Johnson with pianist Pascal Rogé is a tremendous coup for the festival. These two highly-gifted soloists have combined for a special recital that will prove to be a very exciting performance of works ranging from Weber to Bernstein.

The next evening features a very special concert with a performance by the acclaimed acappella ensemble The King’s Singers. They have entertained and delighted audiences for over forty years and last appeared at the festival some thirty years ago. The original line-up has changed, but their wonderful style of singing, charm and wit remains. This concert, entitled Romance du Soir, will be a major highlight of this year’s festival and has all the ingredients of an evening of unbridled musical magic.

The daily lunchtime Schools Concerts are always a favourite of the festival with seven concerts performed by pupils from schools in the area. These concerts, in St John’s Kirk, are performed daily throughout the festival at 12.30pm. Similarly, on the final Saturday morning at 11am in St John’s, Scone musician Lawrence O’Donnell (bassoon) is joined by brother Michael (oboe) James Burke (clarinet) and Alexander Karpeyev in a concert featuring works by Poulenc and Glinka.

The final festival concert is always the star event and this year is no exception with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and the American conductor Andrew Litton performing Finzi’s Eclogue for Piano and Strings, featuring Litton as soloist and Brahms’s exciting, life affirming Second Symphony. The main soloist is the Scottish violinist Nicola Benedetti, playing the wonderful Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto to give the festival a tremendous climax.