CONCERT SCHEDULE
UPCOMING CONCERTS
PAST CONCERTS
2025
South African-born countertenor Clint van der Linde has enjoyed a long and successful international career as an opera and concert singer. He is no stranger to some of the most prestigious stages in the world, including Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Carnegie Hall, Wigmore Hall and the Royal Albert Hall. Lutesong Consort, along with players from the Cape [...]
The Cape Town Baroque Orchestra is joined by visiting baroque violin specialists Julia Wedman and Cristina Prats-Costa, from Toronto, Canada. Julia is also a member of the renowned Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra: They will lead us through a diverse variety of repertoire, including string concerti and concerti grossi by Handel, Vivaldi, Corelli, and Muffat, as well [...]
The Cape Town Baroque Orchestra (CTBO) presents their Summer Baroque Season of three concerts in February 2025 in various venues across Cape Town. The season includes a variety of baroque repertoire, including chamber, orchestral and vocal music, all played and sung by an exciting line-up of local and international artists. Click here for a downloadable [...]
BACK DUE TO POPULAR DEMAND! These two performances are repeats of our award-winning and previously sold-out Variations programme. A popular genre during the baroque period was so-called ‘sets of variations’ or ‘divisions’: Composers often wrote variations and embellishments on songs, folk melodies or hymns. Members of the Cape Town Baroque Orchestra, Ralitza Macheva (baroque violin), Erik Dippenaar [...]
2024
After the first performances of Messiah in Dublin in 1742, Handel performed the oratorio several times more during his lifetime. For each of these performances, he adjusted the work according to the singers and instrumentalists available to him - a common practice during the baroque period. Following the Cape Town Baroque Orchestra’s (CTBO) reconstruction of the [...]
After the first performances of Messiah in Dublin in 1742, Handel performed the oratorio several times more during his lifetime. For each of these performances, he adjusted the work according to the singers and instrumentalists available to him - a common practice during the baroque period. Following the Cape Town Baroque Orchestra’s (CTBO) reconstruction of the first [...]
In addition to the two performances of Handel's Messiah on 28 and 30 November in Cape Town and Hermanus respectively, we are also presenting a Messiah study day on Sunday, 24 November, 12:00-15:00 at St Andrew’s Presbyterian Church, De Waterkant. The study day will include a historical background to Messiah, demonstrations by CTBO instrumentalists and Lutesong Consort singers about aspects of period performance, a background to the [...]
The Cape Town Baroque Trio explores various methods of instrumental narration from the baroque era. The baroque practices of affect, rhetoric, allegory and symbolism are demonstrated in the programme, where seasoned baroque instrumentalists Annien Shaw (baroque violin), Ralitza Macheva (baroque violin) and Rosamund Ender (viola da gamba) perform works by Corelli, Biber, Telemann, and Vivaldi. [...]
The Cape Town Baroque Trio explores various methods of instrumental narration from the baroque era. The baroque practices of affect, rhetoric, allegory and symbolism are demonstrated in the programme, where seasoned baroque instrumentalists Annien Shaw (baroque violin), Ralitza Macheva (baroque violin) and Rosamund Ender (viola da gamba) perform works by Corelli, Biber, Telemann, and Vivaldi. [...]
Wednesday, 15 May
Luminous Strings: Late Baroque Concerti Unveiled
Throughout its 20-year existence, the Cape Town Baroque Orchestra (CTBO) has invested significantly in the upskilling of its musicians in the playing of period instruments. In this concert, the CTBO will present a programme of concerti featuring CTBO string players as soloists, showcasing their hard work, dedication, acquired skills, and their love for the craft, as well as celebrating the fact that a good baroque orchestra consists of a collective of collaborative soloists!
The late baroque era (approximately 1680 to 1750) produced a wealth of expressive and exciting compositions for stringed instruments. CTBO baroque violinists and concertmasters, Annien Shaw and Ralitza Macheva, have selected works from well-known composers, such as Vivaldi and Corelli, but also lesser-known contemporaries, such as Hasse and Monn, to portray the variety and virtuosity of music from this period.
Join us for an afternoon where the baroque (gut) strings take centre stage in a captivating concert dedicated to the splendours of the baroque era.
With: Soloists Annien Shaw, Ralitza Macheva, Odile Burden, Valentina Vorster and Craig Williams (baroque violin), Rosamund Ender and Cheryl de Havilland (baroque cello), and the Cape Town Baroque Orchestra.
When: Wednesday, 15 May, 19:30
Where: St Andrew’s Presbyterian Church, De Waterkant
Tickets: R100-250
Please join us for a complimentary glass of wine after the concert.
Enquiries to i[email protected].
Sunday, 12 May
Luminous Strings: Late Baroque Concerti Unveiled
Presented as a part of the 2024 Greyton Genadendal Classics for All Festival
Throughout its 20-year existence, the Cape Town Baroque Orchestra (CTBO) has invested significantly in the upskilling of its musicians in the playing of period instruments. In this concert, the CTBO will present a programme of concerti featuring CTBO string players as soloists, showcasing their hard work, dedication, acquired skills, and their love for the craft, as well as celebrating the fact that a good baroque orchestra consists of a collective of collaborative soloists!
The late baroque era (approximately 1680 to 1750) produced a wealth of expressive and exciting compositions for stringed instruments. CTBO baroque violinists and concertmasters, Annien Shaw and Ralitza Macheva, have selected works from well-known composers, such as Vivaldi and Corelli, but also lesser-known contemporaries, such as Hasse and Monn, to portray the variety and virtuosity of music from this period.
Join us for an afternoon where the baroque (gut) strings take centre stage in a captivating concert dedicated to the splendours of the baroque era.
With: Soloists Annien Shaw, Ralitza Macheva, Odile Burden, Valentina Vorster and Craig Williams (baroque violin), Rosamund Ender and Cheryl de Havilland (baroque cello), and the Cape Town Baroque Orchestra.
When: Sunday, 12 May, 12:00
Where: Moravian Church, Genadendal
Tickets: R180
Enquiries to i[email protected].
Wednesday, 24 April
Concerti and Arias!
The Cape Town Baroque Orchestra presents a programme featuring the instrumental concerto in all its forms (solo concerto, concerto grosso and orchestral concerto) alongside arias from baroque operas, featuring soloists Hlengiwe Mkhwanazi (soprano), Ralitza Macheva and Annien Shaw (baroque violins), and Erik Dippenaar (chamber organ). The programme includes Vivaldi’s violin concerto La Tempesta di mare, Handel’s Op. 4, No. 4 organ concerto, and a concerto grosso by Corelli. Mkhwanazi will sing arias by Handel and Vivaldi. Come be transformed by the range of affects in this exciting programme!
With soloists: Hlengiwe Mkhwanazi (soprano), Ralitza Macheva and Annien Shaw (baroque violins), Erik Dippenaar (chamber organ) and the Cape Town Baroque Orchestra. Directed from the harpsichord by Erik Dippenaar.
When: Wednesday, 24 April, 19:30
Where: St Andrew’s Presbyterian Church, De Waterkant
Tickets: R250, R220 (pensioners), R100 (students)
Please join us for a complimentary glass of wine after the concert.
Enquiries to i[email protected].
Saturday, 14 April
Handel’s Roman Cantatas
Photo credit: Klein Karoo Klassique / Hans van der Veen
Following award-winning performances of our concert Handel at Home in 2022/23, featuring players of the Cape Town Baroque Orchestra and sopranos Lynelle Kenned and Hlengiwe Mkhwanazi, the same baroque dream team now brings you: 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.
The young GF Handel (1685–1759), during his years of study in Italy in the first decade of the 18th century, composed a great number of Italian cantatas. In Handel’s Roman Cantatas, Lynelle, Hlengiwe and a chamber ensemble of CTBO players present a selection of these dramatic and expressive gems.
With: Lynelle Kenned (soprano), Hlengiwe Mkhwanazi (soprano), Ralitza Macheva (baroque violin), Rosamund Ender (baroque cello and viola da gamba), Dale de Windt (chamber organ) and Erik Dippenaar (harpsichord/Director).
When: Sunday, 14 April, 16:00
Where: St Andrew’s Presbyterian Church, De Waterkant
Tickets: R240, R200 (pensioners), R100 (students)
Please join us for a complimentary glass of wine after the concert.
Enquiries to i[email protected].
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.
2023
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-Letter, 1742
*This project is kindly supported by the Mzansi National Philharmonic Orchestra, KKNK and the Klein Karoo Klassique.
For more information, email [email protected].
GET YOUR TICKETS HERE:
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 [email protected].
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 [email protected].
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 [email protected].
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 [email protected].
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 [email protected].
FEBRUARY TO APRIL 2023
Please click on the photograph below to view the concert schedule for February to April 2023
