Berthine in concert: A review

Berthine in concert: A review
 
By Dr. Luis Dias
Berthine van Schoor, Cello
Albie van Schakwyk, Piano
Hanna van Niekerk, Narrator.
What do you get when three “van”s turn up all at once? A concert, that’s what!
The concert, organised by ProMusica on Monday evening at the Kala Academy, got off to a gentle start, with a hitherto unknown and unpublished [...]

Read Full Post »

Haydn Seek!

 Haydn Trio Eisenstadt – a review
 By Dr. Luis Dias
 Harald Kosik, piano
Verena Stourzh, violin
Hannes Gradwohl, cello
 “Architecture is music frozen in place and music is architecture frozen in time”.
A happy marriage of the two took place in the splendid setting of the recently refurbished St Inez church last Saturday evening.
The Haydn Trio Eisenstadt, formed in [...]

Read Full Post »

On Stage with Rebecca, my violin

Read Full Post »

Busking for Musequality & Child’s Play India Foundation

Read Full Post »

World Busk in June!

Perhaps some of you are already aware; next month is Musequality World Busk!
Musequality  takes music projects to some of the poorest countries of the world.
In June, Musequality is organising World Busk. The busk will take place worldwide throughout one week, starting on Monday 8 June and finishing with a day for young musicians- and an attempt [...]

Read Full Post »

A viola-tion, no doubt!

Read Full Post »

Revisiting Korngold

The Royal Opera House is currently staging Die Tote Stadt,  an opera by the composer Erich Wolfgang Korngold (May 29, 1897-November 29. 1957).
This certainly is an underrated and underplayed composer. He has been criticised for being “too Romantic”, described as a Viennese Puccini, with a style reminiscent of Richard Strauss. His music looked back upon a bygone age, [...]

Read Full Post »

Bewitched, bothered and bewildered!

An old Ella Fizgerald classic:
 
After one whole quart of brandy
Like a daisy, I’m awake
With no Bromo-Seltzer handy
I don’t even shake
Men are not a new sensation
I’ve done pretty well I think
But this half-pint imitation
Put me on the blink
I’m wild again, beguiled again
A simpering, whimpering child again
Bewitched, bothered and bewildered – am I
Couldn’t sleep and wouldn’t sleep
When [...]

Read Full Post »

A lifelong Bacchanalia

This weekend’s violinist.com blog focusses on the playing of Bach, a subject I’ve touched upon a few posts ago.
Apparently it has been a daily ritual for many musicians, from Pablo Casals, to today’s Franz Peter Zimmermann & Julia Fischer.
Laurie Niles from violinist.com couldn’t have described his music better: “It never gets tired, it never gets old, it’s [...]

Read Full Post »

Famous quotations

Here’s what George Bernard Shaw wrote to the then-nineteen year old violin virtuoso Jascha Heifetz after one of his concerts in London:
 
“My dear Heifetz,
Your concert filled me and my wife with apprehension. If you challenge a jealous Godhead with such superhumanly perfect playing, you will die young. I earnestly advise you to play something badly [...]

Read Full Post »