The KZN Philharmonic scored a real hit on Monday night when world-renowned conductor Vladimir Ashkenazy conducted the orchestra’s first concert of the new season. Waiving his performance fee, which must have been a considerable saving for the KZNPO, he extracted the sound of angels from the orchestral players who were at their most brilliant.

Small in stature Ashkenazy may be but the enthusiasm and dynamism exuding from the powerhouse on the podium held a more-than capacity audience of 2,000 spellbound. Once it was known that the concert was a sell-out, the maestro graciously agreed to hold an open rehearsal in the morning and this attracted over 800 people.

Watch out for William Charlton-Perkins’s review (courtesy of Daily News Tonight) in the next day or so.