CONCERT SCHEDULE

UPCOMING CONCERTS

MARCH-MAY 2024

We are excited to open our first season for 2024 with Bach Easter Cantatas!

On Thursday, 28 March, on the eve of Good Friday, four Lutesong Consort singers with members of the Cape Town Baroque Orchestra will be performing four very special Easter works by J.S Bach: Tilge Höchster, meine Sünden BWV 1083 is an arrangement from the 1740’s of Pergolesi’s famous Stabat Mater, with text from Psalm 51; Widerstehe doch der Sünde BWV 54 is Bach’s first extant church cantata for solo voice; Christ lag in Todesbanden BWV 4 was his first Easter cantata; and we conclude with a fascinating arrangement of the ciaconna from Partita for violin No 2 BWV 1004 for solo violin accompanied by four voices, who are tasked with highlighting the famously ‘hidden’ chorale melodies in the composition.

With: Elsabé Richter, Lente Louw, Willem Bester and Keaton Manwaring (voices),
Annien Shaw and Ralitza Macheva (baroque violins), Emile de Roubaix and Petrus Coetzee (baroque violas), Matthias Ender (baroque cello), Henrike Kovats (double bass), Erik Dippenaar (chamber organ) and Uwe Grosser (lutes). The soloist for BWV 1004 will be Annien Shaw, and the concert will be directed from the chamber organ by Erik Dippenaar.

Date: Thursday, 28 March
Time: 20:00 (IMPORTANT: Please note that the concert’s starting time was initially communicated as 19:00, but this has now changed to 20:00 due to unforeseen circumstances.)
Venue: Rondebosch Dutch Reformed Church, Derry Road, Rondebosch
Tickets: R200, via Quicket.

Please join us for a complimentary glass of wine in the Church Hall afterwards.

This concert is generously funded by the Rupert Music Foundation.

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The rest of our season…

Please save the following dates for our upcoming concerts. More details (concert venues, ticket bookings) to follow soon. 

Sunday, 14 April, 16:00 – Handel’s Roman Cantatas
With: 
Lynelle Kenned and Hlengiwe Mkhwanazi (sopranos), Ralitza Macheva (baroque violin), Rosamund Ender (baroque cello, viola da gamba), Dale de Windt (chamber organ) and Erik Dippenaar (harpsichord, director).

Wednesday, 24 April, 19:30 – Concerti and Arias! 
With: Soloists Hlengiwe Mkhwanazi (soprano) and Ralitza Macheva (baroque violin), and the Cape Town Baroque Orchestra.
Directed from the harpsichord by Erik Dippenaar.

May – Variations (date and time t.b.c.)
With: Lynelle Kenned (soprano), Ralitza Macheva (baroque violin) and Erik Dippenaar (harpsichord, director).
(Chamber concert in preparation for the Montreál Baroque Festival)

Sunday, 12 May, 12:00 – Luminous Strings: Late Baroque Concerti Unveiled at the 2024 Greyton Genadendal Classics for All Festival.
Venue: Moravian Church, Genadendal
With: Soloists Annien Shaw, Ralitza Macheva, Odile Burden, Valentina Vorster, Craig Williams (baroque violin) and Rosamund Ender, Cheryl de Havilland (baroque cello), and the Cape Town Baroque Orchestra. Directed from the harpsichord by Erik Dippenaar.
Tickets: R180. Click here to buy.

Wednesday, 15 May, 19:30 – Luminous Strings: Late Baroque Concerti Unveiled
Repeat concert in Cape Town.

PAST CONCERTS

DECEMBER 2023

Come hear Messiah like you’ve never heard it before!

George Frideric Handel’s Messiah has become one of the most frequently performed choral works in Western classical music and has enjoyed a continuous performance tradition since its premiere.

In 1741, Handel travelled to Dublin to give a series of concerts, which was so successful that a second series was soon organised. In early March of the next year, Handel began preparations for a charity concert to be given in April 1742, at which he intended to present the premiere of his new oratorio Messiah, composed between August and September 1741.

Messiah was performed several times during Handel’s lifetime, and he made numerous revisions to the work for almost every performance. For this production of Messiah, the Cape Town Baroque Orchestra (CTBO), directed from the harpsichord by Erik Dippenaar), in association with the singers of Lutesong Consort, will return to the version presented at the oratorio’s first performances in Dublin (13 April and 3 June 1742). Similar musical forces to that first performance will be used: baroque strings and continuo, natural trumpets and timpani, as well as an ensemble of twelve professional singers singing the solos and choruses, and a return to the smaller scale chamber music feel of the first performances.

CTBO is excited to be joined by Austrian natural trumpeters Raphael Pouget and Julian Ritsch for this performance. Pouget is returning to South Africa for a third collaboration with the CTBO. Audiences might recognise him from his performances at the 2018 and 2019 Cape Town Baroque Festivals. Gracing the stage on a vocal front are Lutesong Consort singers Lynelle Kenned, Elsabé Richter and Louise Howlett (sopranos); Lente Louw, Minette du Toit-Pearce and Marcelle Steinmetz (altos); Jason Atherton, Willem Bester and Levi Alexander (tenors); and Aubrey Lodewyk / Van Wyk Venter (alternating), Keaton Manwaring and Patrick Cordery (basses).

This will be a momentous event in the South African performance history of Messiah, since the full 1742 Dublin version is very rarely performed here. Furthermore, in keeping with the Cape Town Baroque Orchestra’s normal concert practice, this production will be performed on period instruments.

“… far surpass[ing] anything of that Nature which has been performed in this or any other Kingdom.” – Dublin News-Letter1742

*This project is kindly supported by the Mzansi National Philharmonic Orchestra, KKNK and the Klein Karoo Klassique.

For more information, email info@ctbaroque.co.za.

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TUE, 5 DEC 19:00 – STELLENBOSCH
WED, 6 DEC 19:00 – CAPE TOWN
FRI, 8 DEC 18:00 – OUDTSHOORN

SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2023

Saturday, 28 October

LES BARRICADES MYSTÉRIEUSES @ Simon’s Town Music Festival

Rosamund Ender (viola da gamba) and Erik Dippenaar (harpsichord) present an intimate recital of music from the French Baroque.

During the Baroque period differing artistic temperaments and practices reigned. Italian musicians leaned towards the world of passion and French musicians towards the world of reason and moderation. France saw dance as the epitome of aristocratic art, and the consummate expression of the mastery of body and mind; and dance influenced music composition profoundly.

The permanent search for good taste (le bon gout), grace and elegance was also typically French and the viola da gamba and harpsichord were instruments favoured by French musicians for their refined expressive possibilities.

Erik Dippenaar will play solo harpsichord works by Rameau and François Couperin, including the well-loved Les Barricades Mystérieuses. Rosamund Ender will play both solo and accompanied viola da gamba repertoire by Monsieur de Sainte-Colombe, Marin Marais, Sieur de Machy and Antoine Forqueray.

Do not miss the opportunity to hear a live performance of this heart wrenching, but not often performed, repertoire.

Date: Saturday, 28 October
Time: 11:00
Venue: Sts Simon & Jude Catholic Church
Tickets: R185

For more information, email info@ctbaroque.co.za.

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Sunday, 29 October

HANDEL AT HOME @ Simon’s Town Music Festival

Members of the Cape Town Baroque Orchestra (CTBO) are joined by sopranos Lynelle Kenned and Hlengiwe Mkhwanazi in their award-winning concert of chamber works for instruments and voices by G.F. Handel (1685–1759). Part of the programme consists of vocal chamber duets, a genre that the young Handel was exposed to as a student in Rome. Many years later several of these duets served as inspiration for choruses in his well-known oratorio Messiah. Baroque oboist Ingo Müller will play a sonata for oboe and also join Lynelle Kenned in an Italian cantata. The CTBO’s Artistic Director, Erik Dippenaar, will perform Handel’s well-loved Harmonious Blacksmith variations.

Included in the ticket price is a delicious Afternoon Tea after the concert.

With: Lynelle Kenned and Hlengiwe Mkhwanazi (sopranos), Ingo Müller (baroque oboe), Cheryl de Havilland (baroque cello) and Erik Dippenaar (harpsichord).
Date: Sunday, 29 October
Time: 15:00
Venue: Simon’s Town Wesley Methodist Church
Tickets: R225

For more information, email info@ctbaroque.co.za.

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Tuesday, 10 October

CAPE CHORAL ACADEMY: BOLANDSE MISSE @ Woordfees

A collection of great choral and orchestral works – the Karoo Mass by Xander Kritzinger and Vivaldi’s Magnificat are some of the musical masterpieces that will take audiences on a journey through the years. The timelessness of the works within the context of our contemporary challenges and celebrations, reminds us that there are things that we sometimes miss and things that we are able to reach out and touch. It is the music that binds and changes us.

With: Cape Choral Academy directed by Xander Kritzinger, Cape Town Baroque Orchestra directed by Erik Dippenaar, and Winand Grundling (organ)
Date: Tuesday, 10 October
Time: 20:00
Venue: Endler Hall, Stellenbosch
Tickets: R175-R210 | R205-R240 at the door

For more information, visit https://woordfees.co.za/en/program/cape-choral-academy-bolandse-misse/ or email info@ctbaroque.co.za.

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22 September – 1 October

CAPE TOWN BAROQUE FESTIVAL

The Cape Town Baroque Orchestra (CTBO) is proud to present the 2023 Cape Town Baroque Festival. The festival features music from the Spanish Renaissance up until the 21st century, yet all relating to the Baroque aesthetic. Click here for more information about the fesitval and the full festival programme.

AUGUST 2023 @ Klein Karoo Klassique

Friday, 4 August

VARIATIONS

A popular genre during the Baroque period was so-called “sets of variations” or “divisions”: Composers composed variations and embellishments on folk melodies or hymns. Erik Dippenaar and Ralitza Macheva present a programme of virtuoso sets of variations from the Baroque, including music by Corelli and Buxtehude. The programme also includes a collection of newly composed sets of variations for solo violin, in a Baroque style, by Montreal-based composer and early music specialist Matthias Maute, as well as an improvised set of variations on the organ by Dippenaar.

With: Ralitza Macheva (baroque violin) and Erik Dippenaar (organ and harpsichord)
Date: Friday, 4 August
Time: 16:30
Venue: Dutch Reformed Church Park, Oudtshoorn
Tickets: R150, R135 (Vriende van die KKNK concession price)

For more information, visit https://klassique.co.za/variations/ or email info@ctbaroque.co.za.

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Sunday, 6 August

HANDEL’S ROMAN CANTATAS

During the 17th century – in parallel with the development of the new forms of opera and oratorio – a form of secular vocal composition developed which came to be called the cantata. Unlike opera and oratorio, the Italian cantata in the 17th century was usually intended for domestic performance. By the beginning of the 18th century, cantatas had developed into self-contained dramatic scenes – almost mini operas. Especially in Rome, in times when the church banned opera performances, these cantatas served as a substitute dramatic outlet for composers and singers. During Handel’s years of study in Italy in the first decade of the 18th century, he composed a great number of Italian cantatas. Following their award-winning Handel at Home programme, members of the Cape Town Baroque Orchestra, alongside sopranos Lynelle Kenned and Hlengiwe Mkhwanazi, present a selection of these dramatic and expressive gems. The recital is followed by a free 45-minute music discussion with artists upstairs in the Banqueting Hall.

With: Lynelle Kenned (soprano), Hlengiwe Mkhwanazi (soprano), Ralitza Macheva (baroque violin), Rosamund Ender (baroque cello & viola da gamba), Dale de Windt (chamber organ) and Erik Dippenaar (harpsichord & Director)
Date: Sunday, 6 August
Time: 14:00
Venue: Burgersentrum, Oudtshoorn
Tickets: R150, R135 (Vriende van die KKNK concession price)

For more information, visit https://klassique.co.za/handels-roman-cantatas/ or email info@ctbaroque.co.za.

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FEBRUARY TO APRIL 2023

Please click on the photograph below to view the concert schedule for February to April 2023

Concert Schedule February To April Camerata Tinta Barocca Update1