“I can still hear the words ringing in the air as he sang with a smile, his face aglow with contentment and radiance emanating from within. In that moment, I knew I wanted that, too – the experience of a deep-seated joy; the bliss and fulfilment that comes from doing that one thing that you absolutely and wholeheartedly love.”
These words, recited by Tina Schouw at the fourth Faculty Concert of the 2023 Stellenbosch International Chamber Music Festival, must have resonated with many of the young musician-participants as they listened to the world premiere of this specially-commissioned collaborative work by Schouw and South African-born, New York-based composer Mikhaila Alyssa Smith.
Throughout the week, we have been mesmerised by the virtuosity and versatility of the musicians in the evening Faculty Concerts. These performances are the jewels in the crown of the SICMF’s offerings and we have been fortunate, once again, to bring this year’s ‘chamber music magic’ from the concert hall to living room and smartphone screens across the world.
We’ve reached listeners from around the country and across the equator (“Daniel [Rowland] and Maja [Bogdanović] watching from Amsterdam and sending many greetings!”) and our virtual audience has generously proffered their appreciation:
“Livestreams are great – makes attendance more accessible.”
“Speechless. Bravo! So privileged to being able to watch live. Wish I was there.”
“So glad I discovered this – now I’m not so disappointed I couldn’t be there!”
You may have noticed some novelties as we have polished the pearl of our live broadcasts. This year, we have a total of seven cameras – four rolling in the Endler Hall, two keeping an eye on me in the upstairs foyer, and one roving camera for co-hosts Karen Petersen and Brent Reynolds who have recorded some memorable interactions with Professor Thuli Madonsela and student buskers outside the Konservatorium. (A sneaky GoPro in the artists’ green room also gives us a behind-the-scenes peak of the musicians before they emerge on stage!) Each day, we carefully select a handful of highlights from the previous night’s performance to whet viewers’ appetites as we build up to that evening’s Faculty Concert.
Once the concert starts, chief controller Mark is positioned in the Endler sound booth where he will (quite literally!) be calling the shots (“Camera 2 on standby – I’m coming for you!”) with the assistance of Jacobus de Jager who, when not on stage himself, will be following the score to anticipate the next solo passage or cameo. Together, the team from DPK Productions brings the sights and sounds of the SICMF to the world and, once I have set the scene for our online audience and the first notes have been played, I often slip quietly out of the sound booth and into the hall to hear the music first-hand.
Not only do the livestreams allow us to share these concerts far and wide in real time, but they also preserve special moments and performances. Personal highlights from the first five evenings of this year’s SICMF have included the elegant string trio transcription of the Goldberg Variations (a concert that ended with an encore of a Romanian wedding song that went viral on social media – “Proof that the double bass can also be a percussion instrument!”), the stirring opening chords of Vaughan Williams’s Piano Quintet in C minor (was Nina Schumann channelling the composer’s spirit?), the jaunty Scherzo of Schubert’s final String Quintet in C major, and the haunting pathos of Rachmaninoff’s Trio Elégiac No. 2 dedicated “to the memory of a great artist” – Tchaikovsky. “Every single note [of that piece] has so much grief and sorrow,” pianist Anastasia Markina confided to me.
In addition to the music, the cameras have also captured once-off moments that would otherwise be lost – from Tina Schouw’s dream-come-true anecdote to the now-customary comic gesture when Faculty bassist Knut Erik Sundquist unveils his bow prior to playing.
The interval interviews have been an opportunity to introduce viewers to ‘Faculty first-timers’ and to reconnect with our ‘Faculty family’, and insights have ranged from flutist Demarre McGill’s advice to young musicians (“You are better than you think!”) to conductor Rebecca Tong’s appreciation of the SICMF’s well-rounded musical programme (“Private coaching, performing chamber music and being part of an orchestra makes a musician a whole”) and a day in the life of Logistics Manager Brent (“A lot of thinking on your feet and finding the quickest solution!”). Anastasia, who didn’t give me a moment to finish the second part of my quick-fire question (Shostakovich or Stravinsky…?) before exclaiming “Shostakovich!” said, “I am amazed at how receptive, warm and appreciative the audience is.” Her advice? “Stay passionate! Educate yourself; listen to the big masters and what they do when they perform.”
And the bloopers? Fortunately, there have not been too many (that I have noticed) – largely thanks to the constant stream of directives (and banter) from the crew in my earpiece! Tricky names keep me on my toes, and sometimes my tongue reverts to an intuitive but incorrect pronunciation – despite having practised the correct form dozens of times. Faculty cellist Boris Andrianov’s late arrival for the Schubert on the third night (perhaps you noticed his mismatched socks?) meant that I had a lot of unexpected dead air to fill!
Festival Director Peter Martens wrote in this year’s festival programme that “at the SICMF both the old and the new can be heard side by side in perfect proportion”. A special quality of the SICMF is its acknowledgement of important musical anniversaries such as the 70th birthday of Péter Louis van Dijk, with his son and Faculty artist Xandi leading and playing the viola solo in his father’s Sarabande for Strings on the first night.
And so much is still to come! Were you also enticed by Faculty conductor Julien Benichou’s vivid descriptions of the orchestral showpieces coming up this weekend? For instance, the Festival Concert Orchestra will be playing the Prelude to ‘Khovanshchina’ by Mussorgsky on Saturday, with Benichou observing that the arrangement by Shostakovich that will be played “is far superior to the regular [orchestration] by Rimsky-Korsakov – it’s a great way for the strings to learn beautiful tone and long phrases.”
What is it about the SICMF that keeps bringing the artists, participants, staff and audience back to Stellenbosch, year after year? This is a question I love asking my international guests, and Demarre McGill summed it up powerfully: “It’s not just the high level of musicianship… It’s not just the amazing variety of music that we hear at this festival; it’s not just the collegial environment that exists here; it’s not just the passion and energy that you get from the participants; it’s not just that we’re in one of the most beautiful places in the world; it’s not just that we have this amazing energy from the stage … It’s a combination of all of these things that truly makes this one of the most dear, unique and special festivals.”
John Woodland presents the live broadcasts of the 2023 SICMF evening concerts which can be streamed via the SICMF website or on YouTube and Facebook.
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