The Johannesburg Philharmonic’s Orchestra’s first season kicks off on Wednesday 9 February

Date: 08 Fabruary 2011

The Johannesburg Philharmonic’s Orchestra’s first season kicks off on Wednesday 9 February.
Johannesburg concerts will take place on Wednesday and Thursday nights at the Linder Auditorium in Parktown. Selected programmes will be repeated at Unisa’s ZK Matthews Hall in Pretoria on Sunday afternoons.

The first three weeks of the season will see Emil Tabakov, the eminent Bulgarian conductor, composer and double-bass player, leading the JPO as well as a number of top international soloists. Maestro Tabakov is well-known around the world as a guest conductor and has an enormous repertoire featuring a variety of styles from classical and romantic to contemporary genres.

On Wednesday, 9 February 2011 and Thursday, 10 February 2011, the JPO will kick off its first season of concerts for 2011 with Rossini’s Semiramide: Overture and Mozart’s Symphony No.36, K.425, C major (Linz), and will be joined by pianist Michael Roll for Beethoven’s Piano Concerto, No.4, Op.58, G major.
Roll is one of Britain’s most distinguished pianists, who came to prominence at an early age and has since enjoyed a career that has taken him around the world, giving recitals and appearing with prominent orchestras. The programme will be repeated at Unisa’s ZK Matthews Hall at 3pm on Sunday, 13 February.
On 16 and 17 February, the orchestra will perform another Mozart composition, The Impresario Overture, K486, as well as Beethoven’s Symphony No.4, Op.60, B-flat major. Also on the menu is Haydn’s Cello Concerto, Hob.V11b:2, D major, featuring talented 25-year-old Belorussian cellist Georgi Anichenko, now based in Paris, who has won several international music competitions – including first prize in the Unisa International String Competition.

The following week, on 23 and 24

February (as well as on 27 February at Unisa), it’s the turn of Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliet Overture, Saint-Saëns’s Introduction & Rondo capriccioso, Op.28, and Rimsky-Korsakov’s Capriccio Espagnol, Op. 34. Accomplished and highly decorated Bulgarian violinist Svetlin Roussev will make a special appearance, performing Ravel’s Tzigane, Rapsodie de concert for Violin & Orchestra.
Join the JPO for some choice musical encounters of the classical kind in 2011! The Wednesday and Thursday night concerts at the Linder Auditorium start at 8pm, and the Unisa Sunday concerts start at 3pm. Tickets are available at Computicket or at the door. For more information, call 011 789 2733, e-mail info@jpo.co.za or visit http://www.jpo.co.za/.