A father-son partnership was the unusual feature of last night’s concert in the Durban City Hall. The Israeli conductor Omri Hadari, completing his three-concert session with the orchestra, was joined by his son, the violinist Netta Hadari, who had part of his musical training in Cape Town and is now a professor of music in the United States.

Together they presented the Violin Concerto by Samuel Barber, the American who is best known for his dignified and eloquent Adagio for Strings. The concerto was written in 1939, and it is remarkably free of the astringent dissonances which are typical of so many twentieth century compositions.

On the contrary, the first movement in particular is sweetly lyrical. The second movement is more tense and dark, with effective use of the brass and percussion instruments, and the finale is a brief, whirlwind Presto which is apparently very difficult to play.

Netta Hadari, a tall, robust-looking young man, handled this virtuoso work with great skill and aplomb and produced a beautiful tonal quality in its calm and reflective moments. His father ensured that the orchestra was the most sympathetic of partners, and at the end the conductor and the soloist, father and son, embraced with an affection that must have warmed the hearts of the audience.

Enthusiastic applause was rewarded with an encore from the violinist, a piece by Bach.

The concert opened with a sparkling performance of one of Rossini’s lesser known overtures, Semiramide, and the high point of the evening was Dvorak’s big and beautiful Symphony No 7 in D minor.

A performance like this one provides ample evidence of what a great composer Dvorak is. Omri Hadari is not a particularly flamboyant conductor, but his sweeping gestures and animated demeanour on the podium certainly produced results, with all sections of the orchestra playing in top form. The symphony ended in a glorious blaze of sound, followed by prolonged applause from a captivated audience. - Michael Green