This August, something more than the seasonal strong winds whirled through Joburg. The Johannesburg Philharmonic Orchestra, for all its conservatism, maintained its strong track record of bringing exciting and invigorating talent to the City of Gold, and this season the dervish came in the person of 32-year-old Japanese pianist Keigo Mukawa.
This August, something more than the seasonal strong winds whirled through Joburg. The Johannesburg Philharmonic Orchestra, for all its conservatism, maintained its strong track record of bringing exciting and invigorating talent to the City of Gold, and this season the dervish came in the person of 32-year-old Japanese pianist Keigo Mukawa.
Mukawa, who arrived with top prizes at the Queen Elisabeth and Long-Thibaud-Crespin competitions to his name, played recitals for the Johannesburg Musical Society and Glenshiel, bookending a week where he came to perform Saint-Saëns's Fifth Piano Concerto in the JPO's Early Spring Symphony Season.
Saint-Saëns's thrilling concerto
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The French composer Camille Saint-Saëns wrote his final Piano Concerto while on vacation in the Egyptian town of Luxor, and it contains a number of different musical references. It begins conventionally enough, with a breezy Gallic charm, but is soon dashing off musical postcards from every corner of the globe: a splash in the Nile here, some snatches of Javanese gamelan music there, and then traces of Moorish perfume just when you thought you were on your way back to Paris.
It's also a thrilling opportunity to show off pianistic brilliance, perfect for the virtuoso Saint-Saëns, who performed the solo himself at...
