Charl du Plessis

Charl du Plessis is a proud Steinway Artist and in April he had the rare honor of selecting a new Model D-274 Concert Grand Steinway from the famous selection room at the Steinway Factory in Hamburg, Germany. The new piano is for the University of Pretoria where Du Plessis is a member of the faculty and lecturer of jazz and classical piano. The new home of this hand crafted instrument will be the Musaion Concert Hall alongside two older Model D Steinways – all aquired through the South African Steinway dealers Pianoforte.
After Du Plessis made his selection the new concert piano was flown to Pretoria and commissioned for use by local Steinway technician Ian Burgess-Simpson. The new Steinway will officially be inaugurated by Charl du Plessis in a gala concert on 24 May in the Musaion featuring the University of Pretoria Symphony Orchestra conducted by Eric Rycroft. Works on the program in this special performance titled ALL THAT JAZZ include Shostakovich Jazz Suite no. 2 and Du Plessis’s debut performance of the ever popular Gershwin Piano Concerto in F. Only limited seating is available and can be reserved by calling (012) 4202947.

The programme for the penultimate concert of the Cape Philharmonic Orchestra’s Spring Season was heavy with promise, not only for its great selection of works, but for the opportunity to hear and experience the two featured artists of the evening.

Conductor Theodore Kuchar and pianist Charl du Plessis have each attained celebrity status for their respective achievements. Kuchar is one of the most prolifically recorded conductors of the past decade with his name appearing on over 100 compact discs by leading labels like Naxos, Brilliant Classics and Ondine. He has conducted and collaborated with numerous orchestras and superstar artists the world over, including the reputable Berlin Symphony Orchestra and the Janáček Philharmonic Orchestra, as well as artists like Yo-Yo Ma, James Galway and Joshua Bell.

South African-born pianist Charl du Plessis also oozes star appeal. Du Plessis has been named a Steinway artist and is especially known for his versatility as a pianist; being able to perform music ranging from baroque to pop and making his own interpretations of classical and jazz favourites accessible to a wider audience. In addition to the many accolades and awards he has won, the latest CD by the Charl du Plessis Trio, Shanghai Brunch, won the KykNet Ghoema Award for Best Instrumental album in 2012, and was nominated for a SAMA award as the Best Classical and Instrumental album for 2012.

The audience was buzzing with excitement at the great privilege of having Kuchar conduct the Cape Philharmonic Orchestra on home ground. And Kuchar lived up to expectations as his fierce commitment, passion and discipline guided the evening’s performances, from Aaron Copland’s magical Appalachian Spring:Suite, to the concluding performance of three movements from Bedřich Smetana’s Ma Vlast (My Homeland).

A magnificent rendition of Aaron Copland’s Appalachian Spring:Suite ensured a rave opening to the evening. This concert suite first premiered in 1945 and offers a potpourri of sounds ranging from typically Western Americana, to images of folksy square dances with country fiddlers and hymn-like spiritual elements. It tells the story of a pioneer celebration in spring in the early part of the last century, around a newly built farmhouse in the Pennsylvania hills. And, while Copland was initially lambasted for his contribution to “populist American” music, this final in a trilogy of dance interpretations of the American frontier spirit has attained a status much higher than just an overtly patriotic morale booster.

The Cape Philharmonic Orchestra beautifully and convincingly captured this characteristic and strikingly diverse spirit of American music and in particular the American frontier spirit in their performance. Their playing was positively superb, from the slow and blooming sound palette of the first section to the robust final variations based on the Shaker hymn Simple Gifts.

As du Plessis walked on stage, it was clear that he had a great number of fans present in the City Hall that evening. And sure enough the audience thoroughly enjoyed the playful and racy Rhapsody in Blue of George Gershwin. Du Plessis’s brilliance, his excellent sense of timing and his gaudy demeanour was spot on for this showy composition that is quite ironically described as Gershwin’s first serious composition. And, as Kuchar walked from side to side on his podium, pointing at and engaging directly with orchestra members, it also became clear why he has been described as “…an exciting and talented conductor with a take-no-prisoner approach”.

Du Plessis’s own composition, Re-invention Suite no. 1, is a crossover arrangement of two classical works – the Andante from Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 21 and a theme of Grieg’s Piano Concerto in a minor – with jazz and pop elements. The first movement, Mozart’s Shuffle Concerto, sees the famous Mozart theme reinterpreted to include drums and bass as well as a new rhythmic framework. The final movement, Grieg’s Gaga Romance, is a combination of a well-known Grieg theme together with Lady Gaga’s ‘Bad Romance’.

Du Plessis’s crossover arrangements have gained him immense popularity amongst the general public, and have made a number of classical and jazz favourites more accessible to a wider audience. Whether you are a fan of these crossover arrangements or whether you dismiss them as Richard-Clayderman-inspired-compositions-in-a-post-modernistic-style, they are certainly entertaining! The audience lapped up the performance, as enthralled by the orchestra as by du Plessis’s ability to switch easily and convincingly between classic, pop and jazz.

The concluding performance of the evening, three movements from Bedřich Smetana’s cycle of six tone poems Ma Vlast (My Homeland), was the final triumph of an evening of splendid music. Moving from the patriotic American frontier to Smetana’s Bohemia (today’s Czech Republic) posed no problem for the enthusiastic orchestra under Kuchar’s experienced hand. In fact, Kuchar’s recording of this work with the Janáček Philharmonic Orchestra (Brilliant Classics) has been described as “breathing the fresh air of the composer’s homeland”.

The audience sat spellbound as we listened to Smetana’s expression of his deeply felt Czech patriotism. We were overwhelmed by the grandeur of nature in his Bohemia’s Meadows and Forests. And the vigorous polka had us all fired up for The Moldau, a depiction of the Vltava River and Smetana’s most famous work, for which the orchestra gave an emotion-filled performance of this well-known sweeping string tune against the murmurs of the water on the riverbanks.

The final movement selected from Smetana’s Ma Vlast was Šárka. This lesser known movement tells the Central European folk tale about a maiden who vows to destruct the male species after having been spurned by her lover… a vow that is no doubt still taken by many a maiden today. However, two males that might just be saved from such womanly scorn are the two stars of this wonderful symphony concert; Kuchar with his stern command and Du Plessis with his surfer-blond hair.

Andra le Roux-Kemp

Charl du Plessis performed Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue with the Cape Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Theodore Kuchar at the City Hall, Cape Town on 23 August 2012.

The composer certainly captured what one thinks of as the spirit of rural America in this score (and others).

The Polish conductor, Michal Dworzynski, directed a lively, account of the music, and the JPO delivered the brightest of sounds in the extrovert stretches of the score.

Then came the Rhapsody In Blue by Gershwin, the iconic American work for piano and orchestra.

Be it noted that both Copland and Gershwin were the children of immigrant Jewish stock, yet be- tween them were able to epitomise “America”.

The brilliant soloist in the Rhapsody was Charl du Plessis, whose interpretation gave unfailing pleasure. Apart from the gripping rhythm, what was specially noteworthy was the relatively sparing use of the sustaining pedal, making the solo line stand out in consequence in exactly the style that Gershwin himself used to adopt in his piano performances.

The music emerged with the utmost colour and vitality, and the applause at the end was merited.

As an encore, Du Plessis played an arrangement (I think by the composer himself) of Gershwin’s The Man I Love.

The concert closed with Rachmaninoff’s Symphonic Dances, one of the composer’s last works.

At the outset of the first dance, the melodic line did not stand out sufficiently over the accompaniment, but the balance soon improved.

Despite the small number of strings in the orchestra, the music sounded radiantly sonorous in the sweeping melodies, especially in the second-movement Waltz.

Where the music disappoints slightly is in the slow episodes of each movement; the composer’s inspiration was not always at the high level that one knows it could be, and the episodes slightly outstay their welcome.

The Charl du Plessis Trio album SHANGHAI BRUNCH has been crowned as the winner of a Ghoema award in the category for Best Instrumental Album 2012. The Ghoema awards are presented by KykNet and is the first idependant Afrikaans music awards in South Africa. The winners were announced on 11 March at Carnival City, Johannesburg. Shanghai Brunch contains classical favorites in a jazz style with drummer Hugo Radyn and bassist Werner Spies.

Steinway Artist Charl du Plessis recently launched the first in a series of projects to honour great musicians who most inspired him. Growing up in Bloemfontein Charl first came into contact with the rare piano style of veteran pianist Japie Human. The elaborate arrangements and virtuoso style of Human’s recordings served as a great source of inspiration for Charl but has never been available to the general public.

After permission was granted to use recordings from the personal archives of Japie Human, a collaboration with Salon Productions saw the launch of a best-of  double disc compilation CD set by this wizard of the keys. Piano Kaleidoscope celebrates the most popular recordings of classical compositions and novelty piano pieces as performed by Japie Human. This legend in the history of multi talented masters of music presents some of his best recordings of the past 40 years featuring favourites by Schumann, Gershwin and Liszt as well as musical jewels in the form of Pianola arrangements by Zez Confrey and Billy Mayerl to name but a few.

Pretoria audiences will have the privilege of a single live performance of Japie Human at the Brooklyn Theatre on Sunday 12 December at 15:00. This once-in-a-lifetime concert will feature music from Piano Kaleidoscope and will host the talents of Zanta Hofmeyr and Charl du Plessis who will team up in duet performances with Japie Human .

Piano Kaleidoscope can be purchased from Salon Music, Shop 28 in Brooklyn Mall Pretoria (012 346 3474) or by visiting www.salonmusic.co.za.