The Star (South Africa)

First JPO female conductor shows deft touch
August 12, 2009

Johannesburg Philharmonic Orchestra
Conductor: Ewa Strusinska
Soloists: Nina Schumann and Luis Malgahaes, duo pianists
Programme: Music by Schumann, Mendelssohn and Schubert
Where: Linder, Parktown. Thursday and Friday.


In many ways it is rather ridiculous and perhaps unforgivable that, for an age that is quite happy to send women into battle, the scarcity of female conductors still has a kind of freaky aura about it.

It's not a woman's job, no authority, and dozens of other questionable arguments may fly around, but ultimately only results carry any weight.

The Johannesburg Philharmonic Orchestra (JPO) management - not a very progressive one - took the step to contract a female conductor for the first time ever in their nine-year history. She is Ewa Strusinska, originally from Poland, but based in Britain.

She has showed her mettle in this, the opening concert of their Third Symphony Season of 2009.

The strongest overarching impression of her conducting and leadership lies in the strength she achieved within the basically gentle scope of three German/ Austrian composers representing the early flowering of Romanticism. In the opening work, Schumann's Genoveva Overture, the slow beginning sounded rather tentative, with undernourished string sonorities.

In the faster section which follows, Ms Strusinska gave us a powerful delineation of the contrapuntal flow, while getting to the heart of the matter regarding Schumann's swooping romanticism and leading to a resounding climax.

Mendelssohn completed his Concerto in E major for Two Pianos and Orchestra at the age of 14. Its youthful spontaneity shone in a scintillating performance by the Stellenbosch-based husband- and-wife team of Nina Schumann and Luis Malgahaes.

In their expressive and often deeply layered playing (especially in the Adagio non troppo) they gave us glimpses of musical prophecies, both in terms of the composer's own work and beyond.

It's a unique work which is very seldom heard, especially in all its youth precocity.

The duo performed in an ebullient life-affirming way, albeit sobered by spots of fugally formal writing. The notes from both Allegro-movements burst from the staves, but were also infused with the kind of sparkling, well-articulated accents which kept it fully alive. Strusinska and the JPO gave them precise and alert support.

Finally, in Schubert's Fifth Symphony, the conductor kept the JPO light on its feet: perfectly balanced, poised and stylishly pointed. Because of ideal choices in tempo, the well-defined, effervescent lines and typical Schubertian lyricism was moulded with beautiful textural definition and clarity of sound.

In the Menuet & Trio repeats were subtly varied and the "ritardandos" consummately handled.

Apart from some ragged ensemble in the higher strings, the whole was suave and sleek, but shaped, savoured and illumined by the kind of touch few men might achieve.

# Ewa Strusinska conducts the JPO again in the Linder on Thursday and Friday at 20:00, with music by Haydn and Beethoven.

Paul Boekkooi