The CCMC pays homage to two South African Composers
The Cape Chamber Music Collective, in collaboration with the renowned Amici Quartet, celebrates two Cape Town based and South African composers who both died last year – Thomas Rajna and Allan Stephenson.
This programme is the fifth offering by the CCMC this year in a series of concerts in and around Cape Town:
Franschhoek: Friday 27 May 19:00 at the NG Kerk. Tickets are R140, including a free glass of wine.
Thomas Rajna was born in Budapest and settled in South Africa in 1970, where he held the position of professor of piano at the South African College of Music and also lead a very active career as a composer.
Allan Stephenson left England in 1973 to take up the position of sub-principal cellist with the Cape Town Symphony Orchestra. He was a prolific composer with in excess of 100 works to his name.
Stephenson’s Miniature String Quartet and Rajna’s String Quartet No.2 are reminiscent of their major compositional influences: for Stephenson, his love of African and Jazz rhythms; and for Rajna, his Hungarian heritage.
Puccini’s short Crisantemi/Chrysanthemums is very apt since chrysanthemums are associated with funerals in Italy. Parts of it were reworked by Puccini for some of the most poignant moments in Acts III and IV of his opera Manon Lescaut.
The programme concludes with Ravel’s String Quartet in F maj. This was Ravel’s first substantial multi-movement work and displays influences from Debussy’s quartet, composed ten years earlier. The work demonstrates Ravel’s skillful ability to use classical form and structure to present unified melodies and themes, complex rhythmic patterns, and a wide range of tone colours and textures.
Student tickets available at the door for half of the full price on the day of the performance.
www.capechambercollective.com
