FESTIVAL

The Cape Town Baroque Orchestra (CTB) is proud to present the 2023 Cape Town Baroque Festival. The festival features music from the Spanish Renaissance up until the 21 st century, yet all relating to the Baroque aesthetic.

Our two international quests, Anna Fusek (baroque violin, recorder, spinetta) and Gianluca Geremia (theorbo, guitar) will join players from the Cape Town Baroque Orchestra and singers from The Lutesong Consort in a variety of programmes.

We continue our focus on the value of collaboration, furthering our on-going relationship with the Cape Town Concert Series, as well as with the early vocal ensemble The Lutesong Consort. A first for the 2023 festival is a collaboration with the South African Composers Symposium, through which an exciting programme of new music for baroque instruments will be presented.

We are also delighted to celebrate the 80 th birthday of local harpsichord and organ builder William Selway (Bill) Robson with a series of short concerts in the chapel, originally a farmhouse dating from 1790, that he restored during the Covid-19 pandemic, as well as tours through his workshop.

The Cape Town Baroque Festival is kindly supported by the Rupert Musiekstigting and Bill van Rensburg.

The 2023 Cape Town Baroque Festival, in collaboration with the South African Composers’ Symposium, presents an exciting programme of new music for baroque instruments. The programme includes sets of variations for baroque violin on baroque themes composed by Matthias Maute in 2021, a piece titled The Seige of Chester (1997) for virginals in a quarter comma meantone tuning by William Mival, and a work composed in 2007 for recorder and percussion by Australian composer Racheal Cogan. Two newly composed works by Arthur Feder and Antoni Schonken will form the centrepieces of this programme.

With: Annien Shaw and Ralitza Macheva (baroque violins), Rosamund Ender (viola da gamba), Caroline Walters (recorder), Emilio February (percussion), and Erik Dippenaar (virginals, harpsichord)

Date: Friday, 22 September
Time: 19:30
Venue: Endler Hall, Neethling Street, Stellenbosch
Tickets: R150 and R50 (students)

The 2023 Cape Town Baroque Festival, in collaboration with the Cape Town Concert Series, presents the Lutesong Consort in a programme titled ‘A Spanish Salad – Vocal polyphony from Renaissance Spain’. The aptly named genre of ensaladas (literally: salads) flourished for the largest part of the 16th century in Spain, but only ten survive today. These highly entertaining religious allegories tell of redemption from various natural disasters, and contain a mix of references to popular songs, chant and onomatopoeic nonsense syllables in a variety of metres. The ensaladas developed from the sacred villancico tradition: the singing of songs in the vernacular at matins in chapels and cathedrals on feast days, or as theatrical performance spectacles before the Mass.

The Lutesong Consort will perform two ensaladas by Mateo Flecha (1481–1553) with an ensemble of four singers and period instruments. They will also present sacred and secular villancicos from the Cancionero de Upsala(sic) (Venice, 1556), one of the most important historical sources for this genre. The vocal works will be interspersed with instrumental pieces by Luis de Narváez (1490-1547), Alonso Mudarra (1510-1580) and Diego Ortiz (1510-1570).

With: Lynelle Kenned (soprano), Lente Louw (mezzo-soprano), Jason Atherton (tenor), Keaton Manwaring (bass), and an ensemble of period instruments.

Date: Saturday, 23 September
Time: 11:00
Venue: Baxter Concert Hall, Rondebosch
Tickets: R240 and R190 at Webtickets

The Cape Town Baroque Festival is celebrating the 80 th birthday of local harpsichord and organ builder William Selway (Bill) Robson with a series of short concerts in the chapel, originally a farmhouse dating from 1790, that he restored during the Covid-19 pandemic, as well as tours through his workshop. The concerts will be performed on historical keyboard instruments built by Robson.

With: Erik Dippenaar, Anna Fusek, Gianluca Geremia and Dale de Windt (harpsichord, organ,
spinet, virginals)

Date: Sunday, 24 September
Session 1: Concert at 14:00–14:45 and workshop tour at 15:00–15:30.
Session 2: Concert at 15:30–16:15 and workshop tour at 16:30–17:00.
Venue: Weltevreden, Oranje Road, Noordhoek
Tickets: R250 per session

Join us for a complimentary glass of wine and birthday cake!

The Cape Town Baroque Festival, in collaboration with the annual Recorder Symposium, presents the 17th Cape Town Recorder Symposium. Anna Fusek will be the guest speaker on the topic ‘Tempo rubato – the flow of the upper voice’. She will be joined by Gianluca Geremia (theorbo).

Date: Monday, 25 September
Time: 11:00–15:00
Venue: Imbewu Music Centre, Westerford High School, Mount Road, Rondebosch
Tickets: R200, R150 (pensioners) and R50 (scholars/students)

Anna Fusek (baroque violin, recorder, spinetta) and Gianluca Geremia (theorbo, guitar, melodica) present an intimate chamber concert based on a baroque aesthetic, but sometimes also venturing further afield. Do not miss the opportunity to hear these two international award-winning multi-instrumentalists live!

With: Anna Fusek (baroque violin, recorder, spinetta) and Gianluca Geremia (theorbo,
guitar, melodica)

Date: Wednesday, 27 September
Time: 19:00
Venue: 6 Spin Street, Cape Town
Tickets: R240, R200 (pensioners)

The Cape Town Baroque Orchestra presents the festival finale for the 2023 Cape Town Baroque Festival, consisting of several exciting double concerti, focussing on the dynamic dialogue between two solo instruments and orchestra, and how different composers used this for expressive and dramatic purposes. The concert will be preceded by a talk by Anna Stoddard of FMR’s ‘Anna’s Baroque Bon Bons’.

Concerti by Vivaldi, Telemann and Bach

With: Anna Fusek (recorder and baroque violin), Annien Shaw (baroque violin), Ingo Müller
(baroque oboe), Bridget Rennie-Salonen (baroque flute), Rosamund Ender (viola da gamba)
and the Cape Town Baroque Orchestra

Date: Sunday, 1 October
Time: 16:00, pre-concert talk at 15:15
Venue: St Andrew’s Presbyterian Church, De Waterkant
Tickets: R250, R220 (pensioners), R100 (students)

A festival pass gives you discounted access to all festival events.

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Click here to read the Artistic Report of the 2018 festival.