Bookings have opened for the Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra’s Franschhoek Chamber Music Festival from 13 to 16 February.
All 10 concerts in this the fourth annual festival will be held in the excellent acoustic of the historic Dutch Reformed church. The guest artist this year is Miclen LaiPang, the violinist of the renowned Trio Zadig, associate artist at the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel in Paris. He is also the founder and artistic director of the Miesbach Chamber Music Festival and teaches at the International Chamber Music Academy of Southern Germany in Ochsenhausen, Germany and at the Talent Summer Music Courses in Brescia, Italy.
Miclen has just been given the use of the Castleman ex-Marquis Champeaux Stradivarius.
The concerts all feature masterpieces of the chamber music repertoire from Mozart’s Gran Partita to Beethoven’s Razumovsky Quartet, Schumann’s Piano Quintet, Mozart’s Clarinet Quintet, Mendelssohn’s Piano Sextet and a chamber version of Beethoven’s Triple Concerto. In all, CPO musicians will be showcased in an intimate chamber musicians setting, which in itself is set in lush grounds with awnings and food and wine to be enjoyed.
A piece that has probably never been performed outside Europe since it was discovered a couple of months ago is the Mozart Serenade for Two Violins and Bass, K. 648, which will be played by Suzanne Martens and Philips Martens (violin), and on the cello (not bass) Peter Martens.
According to Peter the work, discovered in Leipzig, dates from around the time Mozart was 10 years old. It is referenced in a letter written by Mozart’s older sister, Maria Anna, which she wrote on 3 December 1801. Published in September 2024, the work was recently performed at the unveiling of the new Köchel catalogue in Salzburg. “My curiosity got the better of me and I ordered the music directly from the Mozarteum in Salzburg, where I studied. It is utterly charming. While clearly the work of a child, it is clear this was an extraordinary one!”
Guests who join the CPO in the ten concerts are concertmasters Farida Bacharova and Suzanne Martens, pianists Esthea Kruger, Pieter Grobler and Francois du Toit and harpsichordist Erik Dippenaar.
Youth will also be showcased by pianists Isaac van der Merwe and Gerhard Joubert, trumpeter Chad Groepies, who has just won an audition to join the CPO, CPYO/CPO ad hoc cellists Seul Pearl Yung and Ashlin Grobbelaar and violinist Gilah Kellner and harpist Ricardo Hinnaker.
Tickets are available online at Quicket.
