Review of the week: Matthew Krouse
Classical music always garnered a heap of bad press in the old South Africa. Great works of Western music were, we were informed, part of a Eurocentric dominance – an unnecessary aberration in the lives of poor Africans. Apparently, so we’re told, times have changed.
Today, a generation of black intellectuals that grew up with jazz have “taken to classical music”. This was the good news unleashed, at a press briefing for the visiting Ludwigsburg Festival orchestra and choir, by Fanyana Shiburi – general manager of corporate affairs for Mercedes-Benz.
To the left of him sat the world famous festival conductor, Professor Wolfgang Gnnenwein, who added, “We trust in the power of music to unite people.”
South Africa must be one of the few countries where classical music has so divided people that its life has depended on endorsements from the politically correct. Whether in township halls or in the palatial theatres of the previous performing arts councils, because it demands enormous resources, classical music is a form that hasn’t been allowed to exist for its own sake.
With the high level of sponsorship afforded the project by Mercedes-Benz, the present visit by approximately 80 members of the Ludwigsburg Festival orchestra and choir stands as a privilege and not a right.
However sumptuous, it is a gift horse that new South Africans would probably look in the mouth, if it didn’t contain in it some development element.
As a result, on November 7, 91 young musicians from townships in Pretoria will attend a Ludwigsburg-run workshop, under the auspices of the State Theatre educational project. Started in 1995, the project gained its initial sponsorship from Mercedes-Benz, and now serves to empower teachers and students from the communities of Atteridgeville, Mamelodi, Eersterust and Ga-rankua.
Further aspects of the level of “sensitivity” in the project can be found in the programme that includes Arnold Schnberg’s A Survivor from Warsaw.
The aged composer, himself a Holocaust survivor, based the choral text on stories told by Warsaw ghetto survivors in 1947. The piece culminates with the men’s chorus singing, in Hebrew, four verses from Deuteronomy.
A bonus in the programme is the appearance of well-known performer, director and television all-rounder John Matshikiza who will provide the narration for the Schnberg. It’s a cross-cultural collaboration that seems to make sense of the programme that has, in it, a rather dowdy edge.
Another luminary present is Romanian-born soloist Michael Abromovich who, among his other accolades, was invited to join the Asian Youth Orchestra with Sergiu Comissiona on a European tour earlier this year.
The South African tour began at Cape Town’s Nico Theatre on November 2 with Programme II. The orchestra played to an almost-full auditorium made up of the Franschoek set including Steve Tshwete, Minister of Sport and Recreation.
While the night’s musical feast seemed slightly long – with the audience shuffling through parts of the second half – there was a distinct feeling that, above the nit- picking criticisms of the fundis, we were in the presence of something great.
Perhaps it was the onslaught of so much artistry and the ethereal quality of the choral music that caused some members of the audience to rise to their feet during the lengthy applause.
Programme I includes Mozart’s Jupiter Symphony, Schnberg’s Survivor from Warsaw and Mozart’s Requiem, and will be performed in Johannesburg on November 9. Programme II includes Schubert’s Unfinished Symphony, Mendelssohn’s Psalm 42 for choir and orchestra and Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 4 in G Major and his Choral Fantasia Op. 80 and will be performed in Pretoria on November 8