Sunday, September 07, 2025

Sunday music and art at the Prince Albert Kaleidoscope Festival

The Sunday concert was held in another historic Building on Church Street
in the Pink Drawing Room at The Central Private Hotel (now known as Garfield’s Place)
Featuring Artists Louise Lansdown and Emma Farnsworth (violas), Elliot Tingley (cello)
and Tony Alcock (double bass)






Louise Lansdown is the very talented and able organizer of the Music Festival and hopes to repeat it next year
Violist, educator, researcher and philanthropist, Louise is currently Assistant Head of Strings (viola)
at the Royal Northern College of Music (RNCM) in Manchester
and Professor of viola at the Yehudi Menuhin School (YMS)

Along with her viola students,
she is the founder of a major cross-continental collaborative string teaching project called “ARCO”
ARCO Soweto was founded in July 2015 in Soweto, Gauteng
in partnership with the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire in the UK, where Louise was Head of Strings
She and her partner  bassist Tony Alcock live in Prince Albert in their house called Molly
She commissioned some of the music played in the concert

With the title Long Walk to Freedom this concert remembers the struggle, and in particular highlights the Rivonia Trial
with four movements from Monthati Masebe’s Trials that Trail for solo viola
and Grant MacLachlan’s Yihle Moya and Shosholoza for solo double bass
There are two new commissions and world premieres in this concert, both by South African composers -
Gqeberha based Jan-Hendrik Harley and Stellenbosch based Arthur Feder
Harley has composed a short suite for solo double bass ‘Molly’ (the name of Tony and Louise’s house in Prince Albert)
in honour of Tony Alcock’s 60th birthday and Feder a duo for viola and double bass inspired by the Karoo, “In die stilte van die Karoo”
The festival finished with three Argentinian and Uruguayan Tangos
arranged for two violas, cello and double bass by cellist Elliot Tingley
All but these African composers and the music was inspiring

Programme

🇿🇦 Grant MacLachlan (1956*)
Yihle Moyà and Shosholoza for solo double bass
🇿🇦 Monthati Masebe (1995*)
Golden (Arthur Goldreich)
A healthy Grave (James Kantor)
Kathy (Ahmed Kathrada)
Madiba, Dlomo, Yem-yem (Nelson Mandela)
Trials that Trail for solo viola
🇿🇦 Arthur Feder (1987*)
World premiere, new commission for viola and double bass “in die stilte van die Karoo”
 🇿🇦 Jan-Hendrik Harley (1980*)
Molly Variations for solo double bass. New commission and world premiere **

Two Tangos (arr. for two violas, cello and double bass by Elliot Tingley)
🇺🇾 Gerardo Matos Rodriguez (1897-1948)
La Cumparsita
🇦🇷 Astor Piazzolla (1921-1992)
Libertango
Oblivion

Applause!  The music was so well played and so inspiring

Tony Alcock

Louise on Viola



Emma Farnsworth (viola)
She is a recent graduate of the Royal Northern College of Music and passed her final exams with Distinction

Elliot Tingley (cello)

 Emma Farnsworth (viola)


and a visitor just arrived from the UK 


Sitting on the sunny stoep is something South Africans love to do 

The quiet charm of the old houses

Like us, making plans for lunch
We had formally booked a restaurant on line only to discover that they only open in the evening on Sundays
so we had to find another. Rude. Our second find was a huge success. See our article on the Lazy Lizard

Trees do survive in this dry environment

Coral Tree in bloom in this very arid environment; they get only 100 mm of rain a year
Erythrina lysistemon is a species of deciduous tree in the pea family, Fabaceae. It is native to South Africa.

And the vivid Tiger Striped Daisy
It is described as a common characteristic of certain Gazania rigens species
(also called African Daisies or Treasure Flowers) Osteospermum 

We took a walk down Church Street and visited the Prince Albert Gallery
It is filled with some of the best Art we have seen in a very long time

Very inspiring

And so much mixed media too
The landscape pictures in oils are so inspiring. There is a photographic area as well

Lynne is studying watercolours and was very inspired by this small painting of an olive branch

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Posted by MENU at 11:50 am 0 comments

Aloe House, Prince Albert

Aloe House was our accommodation in the pretty Karoo town Prince Albert
which we visited for the very enjoyable Kaleidoscope Music Festival Weekend
It is owned by Peter who came here from the Netherlands in 2008
He is very environmentally conscious and everything on the property is managed accordingly

Booking accommodation on line can be dangerous,
(one place we went to a couple of years ago was a scam and we were never refunded)
We use Booking.com and prefer when travelling overseas to use AirBnB
Lynne is rigorous in her search for just what we want,
 comfort, not luxury, (minimum indoor space - more than 15 square metres for main room), 
a good bathroom and, preferably, some outdoor space
and the first thing she now does is check the reviews. You learn a lot

Aloe House is varied accommodation in a very large property on the edge of Prince Albert
and we had booked the stand-alone cottage with its own parking

We had to miss the first day of the festival because of another event and drove up on Saturday morning
but stayed the extra (Sunday) night so we could have a peaceful night
before we drove back to Cape Town on Monday after breakfast

This house has three different apartments

Our car in the carport next to the cottage

This is where we were staying, a small stand alone cottage behind the big house, with a small kitchen diner,
equipped with with a small fridge, a microwave and a two ring counter top stove
one large room with a fireplace and the hotel sized bed in it, not ideal for Lynne who has chronic asthma
(We did light a fire one night as it was very cold, and did our best to prevent smoke from entering our atmosphere)
and a bathroom with a shower and plenty of hot water
The fire grate in this picture is the braai 'accommodation' on the small stoep, you need to bring braai grid and tools

The kitchen diner

Another view, looking out

The bedroom

The fireplace and sitting area

We were intrigued by this strange structure in a field in front of the cottage
Peter told us that it was an old lucerne bailer, turned onto its end
The structure on the top is a roost for birds,
modelled on the bases made for storks to use when building their nests in his native Netherlands

There is an outdoor entertainment area behind the main house and the cottage which we didn't use



The long drive back to the edge of the property

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Saturday, September 06, 2025

Brunch at Lazy Lizard, Prince Albert

When Lynne researched Where to Eat in Prince Albert before we arrived,
the Lazy Lizard comes up first on most of the online sites
So it was an easy choice after our booking failed at the other restaurant
(which doesn't open for lunch on Sunday, but accepted our booking! - Rude)
and after a very good mid morning concert, what a great brunch/lunch we had
It is on Church Street near Gay's Dairy. Bright and cheerful on the outside
with tables on the stoep (porch), in the garden and inside

They sell an amazing number of different goods to eat or take away

The sun was shining and it was warm so we opted for a table in the garden, where dogs are allowed
The staff were friendly, efficient and busy, always good to see

There is shade if you need it and a lovely wild and bird-filled garden

The extensive menu offers lots of choices - Karoo lamb, hamburgers, Pasta, sandwiches, salads
and, yes, they cater well for vegetarians. 

and more on the other side. It's where you find the drinks

The trees bring the birds, the shade and relaxation

A lovely Japanese maple (Acer)

Lynne was still feeling the affects of the virus, so she plumped for the Immune Booster tea with lemon ginger and mint
It comes in this clever mug which has the additives in an infuser
which can be removed and stored on the upturned lid
The joy was that it came with a jar of really excellent honey to add as much as you needed
Wish we had bought their honey!


The people at the table next to us were really enjoying their ice cream Sundaes
Now THAT is how you make a Sundae, the chocolate one was almost irresistible... we resisted
Next time...

We had ordered from the All Day Breakfast dishes (a nice find!) and hadn't realised that all this also comes with it
We were asked what sort of bread we wanted with our order
There was a lot of choice and it came in padded napkins to keep it really warm
John chose the seed loaf and Lynne the ciabatta. The bread was freshly baked and excellent
Fig Jam, Strawberry and a rather runny but well-made marmalade and butter
A very South African addition, a dish of grated cheese; some of us like our jam with cheese

The micro brewery named  on the table no. tablet in the garden mentioned a craft beer, but it wasn't on the menu,
so John had the ever-dependable Windhoek Draught

He ordered the Mediterranean omelette, which came filled to bursting with everything you associate with the Med
Deemed delicious and freshly made

Lynne opted for the Smoked Salmon, avocado and poached egg
 Yes, real smoked salmon and a  generous portion, freshly sliced avo
and two perfectly poached  eggs, as requested and delivered. Set white , runny yolk

Poached in a pan like her mother used to do, and perfectly done

The sparrows always feast on left over crumbs

Sitting in the shade of a large tree, we lingered a long time. We thoroughly recommend the Lazy Lizard

All the stories we have produced since 2012 can be opened from the archive list near the top of the column on the right of this page

If you do not wish to receive e-mails from us, please email menucape@gmail.com with the word 'UNSUBSCRIBE' in your email

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