Peta Stewart
Having a Tchaikovsky Silver Medallist in Cape Town is one thing, but having a Tchaikovsky Silver Medallist perform in Cape Town on his 24th birthday is very special.
George Harliono, definitely one of the most exciting young pianists on the international scene today, will perform the 2nd Piano Concerto by Tchaikovsky on his birthday on Thursday, 16 January 2025, in a FOM Benefit Gala which opens the Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra’s Summer Festival. Two days later, on Saturday, 18 January, he will appear in recital on the Cape Town Concert Series platform. Both concerts are in the Cape Town City Hall.
Tchaikovsky Competition
Harliono is looking forward to coming to Cape Town, and Cape Town is lucky to have this young man for whom all doors such as Suntory Hall in Tokyo, Taiwan National Concert Hall, Seoul Arts Centre and Seoul Arts Centre have opened following his win in Moscow in 2023.
Not that he was not busy before, but “I am very grateful for the performance opportunities that I have been given. I understand that many pianists my age don’t get the same engagements, so I want to make the most of this time while I can. Winning a medal in the Tchaikovsky Competition is a great honour for me. Since I was very young, maybe 11 or 12, I have looked up to the medallists of the competition. Pianists such as Cliburn, Ashkenazy, Trifonov and Seong Jin Cho have been a great inspiration for me,” he says. He has of course won prizes in other competitions such as the Gina Bachauer Grand Piano Competition and the Dinu Lipatti as well.
Expanding horizons
British born and educated, Harliono began piano lessons when he was seven, when his mother, a self-taught pianist, decided he needed a professional teacher. Two years later he gave his first recital in a church in Cambridge close to where he was born and raised and has never looked back, making his concerto debut when he was nine.
It’s a career that he loves, and what he loves particularly about his life is not only that he can perform but that he is also expanding his horizon by teaching and giving master classes. He is also going back to Indonesia as often as he can, the land of his mother, for he loves the county and the people and always feel welcome there, he says.
He is looking forward to performing the Second Piano Concerto by Tchaikovsky here.
“Everyone knows the First Piano Concerto and it’s perhaps overplayed. The second doesn’t get the attention it deserves.”
“The two concerti are very different yet of course there are similarities. Both have beautiful melodic writing as well as virtuosic and technically challenging piano writing. In the Second Piano Concerto there’s a wonderful piano trio, almost a triple concerto, in the second movement. The last movement is one of my favourite pieces to perform, there’s a joyfulness about this movement that leaves you so satisfied at the conclusion.”
Masterclasses abroad
While he spends the major part of his life performing, often with orchestra, he also presents masterclasses, this year in Japan, Taiwan, Indonesia and the Philippines. But since his goal is to share, he does plan to teach more and present more master classes.
For now, he is happiest when he is performing with a good conductor, a good orchestra, in a good acoustic and with an appreciative audience and there’s no doubt he will have all four in Cape Town for his concert, and the last two for his recital!
For his recital, he will perform four pieces by Rameau, Ballades 1 and 2 by Chopin, Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata, Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite and Dumka by Tchaikovsky.
Jonathan Lo will conduct the FOM Benefit concert on January 18, the first in the CPO’s Summer Festival of three concerts at the City Hall. Also on the programme is the Meistersinger overture and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 2. The pre-concert talk at 18:45 will be presented by John Woodland.
George leaves us for Germany where he will perform in a gala with the Stuttgart Symphony Orchestra.
Who: George Harliono Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra and Cape Town Concert Series
Where: Cape Town City Hall
When: CPO with Jonathan Lo, conductor 16 January, 2025 at 7.30pm. Cape Town Concert Series 18 January 2025 at 11am.
Tickets: CPO or Artscape Dial-a-Seat 021 421 7695. CTSC.
WS
