The Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra’s Spring Symphony Season includes four symphony concerts at Cape Town City Hall.
The season begins on Thursday 10 November with conductor Omri Hadari leading the orchestra in Mendelssohn’s Ruy Blas Overture and Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 5. British pianists Nettle and Markham are the soloists in Mendelssohn’s Double Concerto.
On Thursday 17 November and Saturday 19 November, Hadari returns to lead the orchestra in Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 (“Choral”). Soloists performing with the New Apostolic Church Choir are Siphamandla Yakupa (Soprano), Elizabeth Frandsen (Mezzo), Lukhanyo Moyake (Tenor), and Mandla Mndebele (Baritone).
On Thursday 24 November, conductor Daniel Boico leads the orchestra in Haydn’s Symphony No. 4 (“London”) and Prokofiev’s Alexander Nevsky (with mezzo Violina Anguelov as soloist with the Philharmonia Choir of Cape Town). Violinist Yevgeny Kutik is the soloist in Wieniawski’s Violin Concerto No. 2.
On Thursday 1 December, Boico returns for the final concert, which includes Bartók’s The Miraculous Mandarin Suite and Holst’s The Planets. Michael Thornton is the soloist in Strauss’s Horn Concerto No. 1.
More concerts not part of the formal season include a Friends of Orchestral Music fundraising gala on Thursday 3 November with conductor and pianist Howard Shelley leading the orchestra in Mozart’s Symphony No. 35 (“Haffner”), as well as performing as soloist in Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 18 and Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 20.
On Sunday 13 November, conductor Carlo Ponti leads the orchestra in Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf and Britten’s The Young Persons Guide to the Orchestra, with Evita Bezuidenhout as the narrator. On Friday 2 December, for the Huberte Rupert Memorial Concert, Jan Huge is the soloist in Saint-Saëns’s Piano Concerto No. 2.
And just around the corner (on Sunday 9 October in Johannesburg and Saturday 15 October in Cape Town) is The Armed Man – A Mass for Peace, which features the orchestra with The Philharmonia Choir of Cape Town and the Johannesburg Symphony Choir. A sweeping condemnation of violence, it evokes the terrible sadness, loss and waste of conflict, as well as the peace, serenity and beauty of a world in harmony.
Book at Computicket or www.cpo.org.za.
