Baroque festival tour

* Cape Town Baroque Festival (CTBF) director Erik Dippenaar and Ralitza Macheva on baroque violin at last years festival.

Now in its third year, the Cape Town Baroque Festival (CTBF) will be held from Wednesday September 18 to Tuesday September 24 at various venues.

Themed “Diversity in Early Music”, the 2019 festival celebrates the variety of styles and genres of music from the Baroque period.

This year’s festival will be the first time that concerts will be held in the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (MOCAA) at the V&A Waterfront and Youngblood Gallery in Bree Street. Also, it is the first time that a newly composed work will be performed – a reimagining of JS Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No.3 by local composer Hans Roosenschoon.

The festival’s premier concert is Big Bach Bonanza! on Friday September 20 in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Strand Street, at 8pm.

It includes a variety of com-
positional genres that Bach
used and brings together a large group of baroque specialists, directed by harpsichordist and festival director Erik Dippe-
naar.

The concert features international soloists Erik Bosgraaf (recorder) and Raphael Pouget (natural trumpet), who will also perform in Chamber Baroque on Saturday September 21 at the Baxter Concert Hall, at 7.30pm. For the Chamber Baroque concert, Anna Stoddard will present a pre-concert talk about this unique programme of 18th century chamber music at 6.30pm in the concert hall.

Another unique performance on this year’s programme is a demonstration of the carillon in the Cape Town City Hall tower by Alexios Vicatos.

Three guest ensembles will present diverse programmes. The Flat Mountain Project, a team of musicians who collaborate on projects that showcase modern and experimental classical music, can be heard in Four Seasons Recomposed.

The ensemble Here Be Dragons, led by instrumentalist and composer Jan-Hendrik Harley, explores folk music performed in and around the main cultural centres in Europe during the 15th and 16th century in the concert Folk101.

The Lutesong Duo – Lente Louw (mezzosoprano) and Uwe Grosser (theorbo, lute, baroque guitar) – teams up with fellow musicians for Musica Rustica, a programme of light vocal music from Renaissance Italy that will be paired with Neapolitan-inspired canapés at the 6 Spin Street Restaurant.

Since its inception, the CTBF has invested in upcoming local players of baroque music, and this year young recorder players and pupils from the Ronnie Samaai Music Education Project will receive master classes from Bosgraaf.

For more information visit www.ctbaroque.co.za/festival or email info@ctbaroque.co.
za

Tickets can be bought through Webtickets, Pick * Pay stores or at the door.

Festival passes are available at R580 each by emailing info@ctbaroque.co.za.