Three local artists will take centre stage in the first concert of the new season of the Johannesburg Philharmonic Orchestra in the ZK Matthews Hall at Unisa on Sunday afternoon.
Alan Stephenson from Cape Town will be on the podium to conduct his own composition, Concert Grosso for Two Violins and Strings. The two soloists for this work as well as Mozart’s Concertone for two violins K. 190 (186e) in C major, will be the well-known concert master of the JPO, Miroslav Chakarian, and the leader of the second violins, Samson Diamond.
The closing work for the concert is Mozart’s penultimate symphony, the Symphony No. 40, K. 550 in G minor.
Mr Stephenson is English-born and studied at the Royal Manchester College of Music, but has lived in South Africa since 1973, working as 'cellist, conductor and composer. The recording company Claremont GSE has recorded a number of his works, mainly from the concerti which he has written specifically for friends and colleagues.
According to the British reviewer James R Taylor, Stephenson maintains the rather unfashionable view that the essentials of all good music are melody, harmony and rhythm, qualities evident in his works. However, his music is often powerfully structured and always has a sense of movement and purpose. For all its immediately attractive surface his is not superficial or "wallpaper" music. The listener will undoubtedly catch echoes of other composers in these pieces, but if Mr. Stephenson has, like all worthwhile artists, learned from his predecessors he has also developed a personal and recognizable voice of his own.
The concert starts at 15:00. Tickets can be purchased at the desk before the concert.