The energetic, well-loved South African conductor, Gérard Korsten who has established himself in Europe, the Unites States, Australia as well as in the East, is back on the podium in the ZK Matthews Hall in Pretoria in front of the Johannesburg Philharmonic Orchestra (JPO) on Sunday. It will be his last of six concerts with the JPO, having performed in Johannesburg this past week and last week.
The overture on the programme is the Rosamunde Overture by Schubert, D.644, followed by a double concerto -- Bruch’s Concerto for Clarinet and Viola. Two of the JPO’s soloists, Phillip Coetzee (clarinet) and Vladimir Ivanov (viola) will do the honours.
Bulgarian-born Ivanov has lived in South Africa since 1990, and has led the JPO's viola section full-time since 2007. Coetzee, the principal clarinettist for the JPO for the past five years, is also a dedicated clarinet and saxophone teacher.
The last work of the concert will be Beethoven’s lively and beautiful “Dance Symphony”, Symphony no. 7, op. 92 in A major
South African born Gérard Korsten began his career as a violinist after studying with Ivan Galamian at the Curtis Institute and with Sándor Végh, his great mentor, in Salzburg. Following his studies in the US and Europe he became Concertmaster and Assistant Music Director of the Camerata Salzburg and later Concertmaster of the Chamber Orchestra of Europe (COE) from 1987-1996 when he left the COE to concentrate on conducting.
He held positions of Principal Conductor of the State Theatre in Pretoria and the Uppsala Chamber Orchestra in Sweden before he was appointed Music Director of the Orchestra del Teatro Lirico di Cagliari in Italy from 1999-2005. In Cagliari he conducted the first Italian performances of Richard Strauss’s Die ägyptische Helena, Weber’s Euryanthe, Delius’s A Village Romeo and Juliet and Schubert’s Alfonso und Estrella, as well as the productions of the core operatic repertoire including Die Zauberflöte, Don Giovanni, Lucia di Lammermoor, Carmen, Die Fledermaus, Tosca, Aïda, The Barber of Seville and Don Pasquale.
Since then Gérard Korsten has appeared in most notable opera houses and concert halls around Europe including Teatro La Scala Milan (Le nozze di Figaro), Maggio Musicale Florence (Così fan tutte), Teatro Reggio di Parma (La sonnambula), Teatro Lirico Verdi Trieste (Don Pasquale and La fille du régiment), Opéra de Lyon (Ariadne auf Naxos, Henze’s L’Upupa und der Triumph der Sohnesliebe, Siegfried and La Traviata), Royal Swedish Opera (Don Giovanni), Netherlands Opera (Così fan tutte), English National Opera (Aïda) and Glyndebourne Festival Opera (Albert Herring).
He returns to Glyndebourne next season to conduct Offenbach’s La Vie Parisienne for Opéra National de Lyon.
His past symphonic engagements have included concerts with the Budapest Festival Orchestra, Salzburg Mozarteum, Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della Rai Turin, Chamber Orchestra of Europe, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie, Swedish Radio Symphony, Yomiuri Nippon and Melbourne Symphony orchestras. Among his recordings are the CD of Tchaikovsky’s Serenade and Souvenir de Florence with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe on Deutsche Grammophon, Die ägyptische Helena, Euryanthe and Alfonso und Estrella with Orchestra del Teatro Lirico di Cagliari on CD and DVD with Dynamic, as well as a DVD recording of Don Pasquale released on TDK.
Highlights of recent and forthcoming engagements include concerts with the Academy of St Martin in the Fields of London at the Beijing Festival, Bamberg Symphony, Leipzig Gewandhaus, SWR Sinfonieorchester Baden Baden und Freiburg, the Hong Kong Philharmonic, Orchestre National de Lyon and the BBCSSO. The 2011-12 season sees him touring to eight venues in the US with the Irish Chamber Orchestra, returning to the Budapest Festival Orchestra, the Latvia National Symphony and Camerata Salzburg in both Vienna and Salzburg.
Gérard Korsten is currently Music Director of the London Mozart Players (some of his CDs with them has been released) and Principal Conductor of the Symphonieorchester Vorarlberg Bregenz.