Among the leading lights of the London Philharmonic Orchestra is South African Gina Beukes. She spoke to Coenraad Visser
WHEN the London Philharmonic Orchestra takes the stage on its South African tour, a face familiar to South African audiences is at one of the front desks — Gina Beukes was recently appointed principal second violin of the orchestra regarded by many as Britain’s finest.
With her feet in the pool during an orchestra reception at the late Mario Chiavelli’s Summer Place, and due to return to the Carlton Hotel to prepare for a rehearsal, she reflects on the coincidence that it was after hearing her play at the Carlton that Chiavelli awarded her a scholarship to study at the Julliard School in New York.
Beukes is relaxed and content with her life right now, laughing at the fact that she has never officially been told she was unsuccessful in her bid to lead the National Symphony Orchestra here. The first she knew about it was when she heard through the grapevine in London that someone else had been appointed.
Gone is the anger she might have vented in her days as one of this country’s musical firebrands, who often irked managements with her refusal to accept the pedestrian fare so often proferred by her orchestral colleagues, and her demands for a fair financial deal for local musicians.
She remains dismayed by the disdain with which some of our orchestras treat Gerard Korsten, who is held in such high esteem in Europe.
Korsten, a lifelong friend and music partner, was instrumental in Beukes’ being invited to join the acclaimed Chamber Orchestra of Europe, which he often leads and sometimes conducts. With the COE she toured Italy and Germany, working with conductors including Sir Georg Solti and Claudio Abbado.
After pondering her future for some time in London, she successfully auditioned for the LPO position, which she now holds for a trial period. (Her leadership qualities were internationally recognised as long ago as 1979, when she was chosen concert master of the International Youth Orchestra in Aberdeen.) At the LPO audition she was asked to play Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto, a work she had performed previously in South Africa.
This is just one of her South African experiences that now stand her in good stead. Another, she says, is a brief stint teaching at Stellenbosch University — “teaching makes you think about why you do what you do”, a question a principal often has to ask. Another is leading the Cape Town Symphony Orchestra and NSO for short periods. Inspiring the first violins to give their best has given her the stamina she needs for her new job.
No longer does she have to drag her section along — the LPO seconds are demanding and constantly pushing. It is this energy and keenness which she relishes about the LPO. And working with conductors such as departing principal conductor Franz Welzer-Msst, who constantly excites his players and challenges them to think — as he did by suggesting an unconventional bowing to the strings in the Scherzo of Beethoven’s Symphony No 9, one of the works performed on this tour.
After South Africa, she and the LPO are off to Japan, a country Beukes toured with the Julliard Orchestra. She has her feet firmly on the international musical rollercoaster, and she won’t be getting off in a hurry.