A Symphony Concert Extraordinaire...

As you may well have gathered, I am a proud Capetonian of note, revelling in all the natural beauty and splendours of my beloved Mother City. There is of course so much more, and our cultural offerings are as rich and diverse as the magnificent mountains and land and seascapes. Before our hectic child rearing years, Mr SQ and I used to regularly attend the weekly symphony concerts at the city hall, but that seems to have fallen by the wayside over the past two decades. By contrast, the Cape Philharmonic Orchestra has risen to greater heights, and we ventured forth on Thursday night (braving bitterly cold weather in favour of the familiar fireside) to go to the Weber, Rachmaninov, and Vaughan Williams concert.

I still get a thrill going to the city hall, even though she resembles a somewhat shabby old lady at this stage. Past grandeurs, history and the backdrop of Table Mountain compensate for the seediness which surrounds her and the somewhat archaic ticket sales system. We are out and about, and ready to partake of a great event, which is about to exceed our already high expectations on the musical front.

The evening kicks off with an informative talk by the inimitable Rodney Trudgeon, king of classical music in my mind, whose remarkably rich voice, charming delivery and seemingly infinite knowledge of music leaves me utterly enthralled and in awe. His descriptions of concertos are poetry in themselves, and we are so very lucky to have him now in cape Town and especially hosting "Classic Breakfast" on FMR most weekday mornings. Dunno where Suzy Q would be without you doll, so in case you didn't know, you're dearly loved by this blogger.  www.fmr.co.za

The most impressive Curtain-Raiser was performed by the Cape Philharmonic Youth Wind Ensemble, conducted by Sean Kierman. Those bright young things, all eager, talented and clearly delighted to be performing on such an auspicious stage were an inspiration to behold and a pleasure to listen to, particularly in the light of being part of an outreach initiative. The future of a country is in it's youth, so hope springs eternal in my mind, and I wish that more could be done to invest in the lost children of the country.

But I digress before the big event, the unforgettable highlight of the evening, which was the performance of Sergei Rachmaninov's  Piano Concerto No. 3 in D Minor, OP. 30 by the Cape Philharmonic Orchestra. We were seated in one of the balconies, which rather makes one feel like royalty, but more importantly allows for great acoustics and also give's a bird's eye view of the goings on on stage.

Guest conductor Arjan Tien from the Netherlands swooped, controlled and cajoled his musicians from a moving Maria von Weber overture, to the most rousing and emotive pieces of piano music I  have ever heard performed.  Anotonio Pompa-Baldi, the highly acclaimed Italian pianist delicately, deftly and passionately played the Steinway till it sang, soared and roared. And that was as nothing to the resounding ovation of the audience. I thought my my heart was going to bounce right out of it's chest. 

As for the rest, it fairly paled into insignificance, but the symphony concerts are hopefully going to feature more regularly on our calendar. After all, if we don't all make an effort to support our arts, we will have only ourselves to blame if and when they fall by the wayside. 

www.cpo.org.za

On that note, good night and best wishes for an enjoyable weekend to you,

With love from Suzy Q