IT’S all about music, raising funds and celebrating another landmark.
On Saturday, the Capital Symphony Orchestra (hosted by Medical Practice Consulting and sponsored by Hetero Drugs South Africa) will present a gala programme to raise funds for the HIV Clinicians Society of South Africa on the eve of World Aids Day, December 1.
Pretoria composer and conductor, Keith Moss, will make his debut with the Capital Symphony Orchestra, an ad hoc group who are determined to perform many concerts in the future. The Gauteng orchestra is made up of professional musicians primarily from Joburg, Soweto and Tshwane.
Moss is an avid promoter of South African classical music and the concert will, for example, feature a work by local composer Peter Louis van Dijk.
Rhapsody in Blue by George Gershwin will be performed by Steinway Artist Charl du Plessis at the piano in its original form with the traditional instrumentation of banjo and saxophones.
“I’ve played it before so a return to this piece is a great joy,” says Du Plessis.
Rachmaninoff provides the final piece and the orchestra will perform his Symphonic Dances which features the 85-piece orchestra needed to perform this work. The stage being just big enough to seat this full orchestra will include every conceivable orchestral instrument ever made for the standard repertoire.
Fifty-four string players will make up the body of the orchestra and will be led by concert master Denise Sutton. No other orchestra in Gauteng boasts such a large membership and this concert promises to show audiences what these pieces were meant to sound like in all their glory.
“It’s great to know that classically speaking, things are happening,” says Du Plessis, who as a career pianist has to be imaginative in his performance schedule. “It takes a while to know that nobody will call you, you have to create it yourself,” he says after a hugely successful year with a story-telling concert tour which shone a light on especially neglected pianos around the country. He would perform but at his side, a piano tuner who would then add the perfect touches to the instrument which was also a long-term solution.
“This is the real deal,” he says of the orchestra with so many musicians. – Diane de Beer
•The gala evening takes place in Unisa’s ZK Matthews Hall to raise funds with a second concert for the repeat on Sunday Tickets from www.consulting. co.za or www.itickets.co.za and proceeds will go directly to the HIV Clinicians Society. For info, contact [email protected].