If you live in Cape Town and go to an evening concert in Stellenbosch, perhaps at the famous Endler Auditorium, you want to be there on time and perhaps stay the night afterwards so that you don’t have to drive home on the motorway in the dark
We had a very special concert to go to; a celebration of the 70th Birthday of an old friend, composer Péter Louis van Dijk, conducted by his son Xandi van Dijk. Lynne was best friends with Péter's first wife, Susi Waldmann. They met at Girl Guides and she came to know Peter and the boys better when she returned to South Africa from England in 1993. Sadly, Susi died in 2000
Peter has since remarried, to Junita, whom we
have both come to know. They live in Port Elizabeth so we haven’t seen each
other for too long. We tried to find affordable accommodation in Stellenbosch,
but it was Graduation time at Stellenbosch University and the city was full
The Ender Auditorium, which
has excellent acoustics
Gathering in the foyer, we
met a couple of people we know and another who recognised us!
Time to take our seats and,
fortuitously, Lynne had booked seats very close to where Péter was sitting in
his wheelchair
The Stellenbosch University
Symphony Orchestra "was founded by Prof Eric Rycroft in 1981
The aim of
the orchestra is to provide music students with first-hand training for their
profession,
as well as offer talented musicians studying other courses, experience in symphonic orchestral playing
They
have an impressive organ, useful for the Saint-Saëns organ concerto (one of Lynne’s
favourites)
All links to musical pieces are by kind permission of Xandi van
Dijk
The programme
Conductor Xandi van Dijk
about to conduct the first piece, About Nothing, which has an
unusual choral beginning
He didn’t use a baton to
conduct, just his whole body, full of rhythm and music
Xandi getting ready to play
the piece his father wrote for him, Sarabande for Strings, on his
viola
It brought so many happy memories and some very sad ones for Lynne; she
had tears streaming down her face
If you want to hear some of
the beautiful music, click on the links from Xandi van Dijk's Facebook page
The Mozart Adagio from Clarinet Concerto in A Major solo by family member Heidri Faber,
who now plays in an orchestra in Oslo, was sublime
The orchestra was supported
by the Vox Chamber Choir for the performance of San Gloria
Huge applause for this
piece and for the Brahms where the first movement was rather rumbunctious
and
the last, and most familiar movement; the orchestra played like
angels
It was time for some fun
Renowned composer Peter Louis
van Dijk at 70
Matthijs van Dijk joins his brother Xandi to perform a narration for the finale of Musicians of Bremen
A much-performed piece,
written by Péter Louis van Dijk many years ago when the boys were young
and the audience was asked to
join in with the choir for part of a song in the programme
The performance was very
lively
The joy of singing continued as we all joined in to sing Happy Birthday to Peter
A celebratory birthday hug
and kiss for his father
after a splendid performance by Conductor Xandi van
Dijk and the orchestra and choir
A hug from son Matthijs
The pleasure of receiving
some gifts
Peter very happy with his
present of some wine
and a hug and kiss from
Peter's wife Junita
Xandi with his young son, who
reminds Lynne very much of her friend Susi
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