major, Op 92 (Beethoven). Gints Glinka (conductor), Dmitry Kouzov (cello). Berlioz’s full title for Romeo’s and Juliet’s Love Scene is ‘Dramatic symphony with chorus, vocal solos, and a prologue in choral recitative, composed after Shakespeare’s tragedy’. Indeed, Shakespeare’s poetry – and Beethoven’s great slow movements of the 9th Symphony – are an obvious inspiration to Berlioz’ work, one which had great impact on Richard Wagner, who witnessed its inauguration at the Paris Conservatoire in 1839. Not far from it, at the Cirque d’Hiver, Édouard Lalo would premiere his Cello Concerto with Adolphe Fischer as soloist. Beethoven too had the fortune of relying on some of the finest musicians of his time, when he openend the7th Symphony in Vienna in 1813. Most in the public loved it but Carl Maria von Weber expressed concern that Beethoven was now obviously “ripe for the madhouse”, while Thomas Beecham once compared it to a scene of “a lot of yaks jumping about.” City Hall, Grande Parade, 021 410 9809

8 May, 4.30pm, Stellenbosch University Choir conducted by André van der Merwe. Endler Hall, cnr Neethling and Victoria streets, Stellenbosch, 021 808 2345

12, 13, 14 May, 8pm, Philip Miller’s REwind: A Cantata

for Voice, Tape and Testimony. Baxter Theatre, Main Road, Rondebosch, 021 685 7880

12 May, 8pm, CPO Winter Symphony Season, Concert 2, Prometheus Overture (Beethoven), Violin Concerto in D major, Op 61 (Beethoven). Symphony No 2 in C minor, Op 29 (Scriabin) conducted by Gints Glinka. Roman Simovic (violin). Beethoven’s Prometheus Overture was intended to open a ballet, which was performed 29 times within the first two years,

but never again thereafter. Neither choreography nor libretto have survived. The second work of the evening, the Violin Concerto had almost been forgotten at the time of Beethoven’s death, before it was revived by Felix Mendelssohn. Alexander Scriabin was, like Beethoven, drawn to the myth of Promotheus. Exploring the relationship between light, colour and music, Scriabin was often described as a visionary. When Vassily Safonoff, the conductor of the New York Philharmonic conducted Scriabin’s Symphony No.2 for the first time, he waved the score at the orchestra and said,” here is the new Bible, gentlemen.” City Hall, Grande Parade, 021 410 9809

13 May, 8pm, Arianna Quartet perform Mozart’s K464, Janacek’s Kreutzer Sonata. Endler Hall, cnr Neethling and Victoria streets, Stellenbosch, 021 808 2345

14 May, 8pm, Arianna String Quartet. Beethoven’s Quartet No. 2, Op. 18, Shostakovich’s Quartet No. 7, Schubert’s Death and the Maiden. Baxter Theatre, Main Road, Rondebosch, 021 685 7880

17 May, Vivaldi, Dvořák, Hofmeyr & Stephenson. Marian Lewin (cello) and Friends (Chamber Series). Endler Hall, cnr Neethling and Victoria streets, Stellenbosch, 021 808 2345

19 May, 8pm, CPO Winter Symphony Season, Concert 3, Finlandia, Op 26 (Sibelius), Piano Concerto No 1 in E minor, Op 11 (Chopin), Symphony No 5 in D minor, Op 47 (Shostakovich) Conducted by Yasuo Shinozaki. Claire Huangci (piano). Jean Sibelius’ Finlandia, a rendition of a nordic landscape, became a disguised symbol of Finnish resistance to Russian expansionism. Similarly poetic, yet politically inspired, is Chopin’s Piano Concerto No 1, which was performed in 1830 as a farewell concert, just before Chopin

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would leave Poland behind, carrying with him a silver cup with soil of his native land. At the time when Schostakovich composed his Fifth Symphony in 1937, he was under stringent observation, compelled by the state authorities to abide with the ideal of socialist realism. Scaling down from his earlier complex style, Schostakovich’s 5th managed to garner approval from both the regime’s leadership expecting political monumentality and the public asking for personal expression. Schostakovich kept it to himself if this symphony was a symbol of Stalinist victory, or a parody thereof. City Hall, Grande Parade, 021 410 9809

21 May, 7pm, Russian music for cello and piano,

perfomed by Anzel Gerber (cello) and Rinko Hama (piano). Prokofiev’s Cello Sonata Op. 119, and Rachmaninov’s grand Cello Sonata in G minor, Op. 19. La Motte, R45 Main Road, Franschhoek, 021 876 8000

21 May, 8pm, KEMUS: Pierrot Lunaire (Chamber Series). Endler Hall, cnr Neethling and Victoria streets, Stellenbosch, 021 808 2345,

22 May, 3pm, Euphony, a concert with Shirley Sutherland. Masque Theatre, 37 Main Road, Muizenberg, 021 788 1898

22 May, 4.30pm, Music of the night. Louise Howlett (soprano), Albert Combrink (piano), present a story of love lost and found through the styles of opera, mixing Broadway and jazz. Endler Hall, cnr Neethling and Victoria streets, Stellenbosch, 021 808 2345

25 May, 10.30am, Rika Vermeulen (Morning Melodies). Baxter Theatre, Main Road, Rondebosch, 021 685 7880,

26 May, 8pm, CPO Winter Symphony Season, Concert 4, Maskarade Overture (Nielsen), Piano Concerto No 2 in G minor, Op 22 (Saint-Saëns). The Planets (Holst). Conducted by Yasuo Shinozaki. Jonathan Oshry (piano). Set in the Spring of 1723 in Copenhagen, the Masquerade Ouverture questions authority (of a father who had promised his daughter to someone she didn’t want to marry), and subsequently allows love, liberty and enlightenment to triumph. Another happy end, albeit of a different scale, is presented in the Piano Concerto of Saint Saëns. While the opening is sombre, the ending is witty and tumultous, prompting the composer Zygmunt Stojowski to famously quip that it “begins with Bach and ends with Offenbach”. Gustav Holts’ Planets too are remarkable in their scope and emotion. If one of the planets sounds strangely familiar to you, it is because you have been exposed to the Rugby World Cup before: Jupiter, originally composed during the time of the First World War was chosen by the International Rugby Board as their theme song “World in Union”. City Hall, Grande Parade, 021 410 9809

28 May, 8pm, Pieter Grobler Piano Recital. Endler Hall, cnr Neethling and Victoria streets, Stellenbosch, 021 808 2345

29 May, 3pm, Voices of Cape town. 10th Anniversary Concert Gala, Artscape, 1-10 DF Malan Street, Foreshore, 021 421 7839

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