CPO BACK AT KIRSTENBOSCH

The Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra is delighted to present a full symphony concert in the gorgeous surroundings of the National Botanical Gardens at Kirstenbosch. The concert on February 12 at 17:30 will be conducted by the CPO’s principal guest conductor Bernhard Gueller, with the CPO’s principal clarinet Ferrol-Jon Davids as the soloist in the sublime Mozart Clarinet Concerto.  Also on the programme are the Polonaise from Tchaikovsky’s opera, Eugene Onegin, and one of the most loved symphonies of all time, Dvorak’s Symphony no 9, From the New World.

Gueller, who has conducted the Nuremberg Symphony Orchestra in its open-air concerts for 70 000 people, is looking forward to conducting the CPO at Kirstenbosch.  “We have chosen a programme of timeless works to showcase this orchestra to this audience. While the CPO is the most versatile orchestra in the country, accompanying opera, ballet and musicals, presenting schools concerts,  chamber music concerts and concerts in places from Athlone and Langa to Durbanville and the Kenilworth race course,  it is always a pleasure for me to conduct the CPO in symphony concerts like this one. The slow movement of the Dvorak Symphony contains the most beautiful melody ever invented,” he says, “and I look forward to the reaction!”

Ferrol-Jon Davids holds a BMus and MMus in Clarinet Performance (cum laude) from Stellenbosch University and, during his studies, he attended two semester exchanges in the USA at the University of Georgia in Athens, Georgia and Montana State University in Bozeman, Montana. He has performed as a soloist in youth concerto festivals across South Africa, including performances with the CPO, KwaZulu-Natal Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Stellenbosch University Symphony Orchestra. He also performed a chamber music version of the Mozart Clarinet Concert in the CPO’s Symphonic Masterpieces in Miniature and will perform it again the Franschhoek Chamber Music Festival on Sunday, February 26.  He is a part-time clarinet lecturer at Stellenbosch University as well.