Dear Friends,
The year is slowly starting its inevitable winding down but we are still in for some wonderful music before we reach 2016. The Spring season of the CPO starts in some two weeks time with a number of superb artists and programmes. I am sure that we are all going to enjoy the spring that the concerts put back into our step after a hiatus of almost three months!
As for the Friends, we are also approaching two of our last events of 2015. The Annual Quiz will take place at the Glen Country Club, 3 Victoria Road, Clifton on Monday 19 October at 6pm. As you know the Friends provides the most delicious soups and bread for supper at the event and the quiz is conducted by the inimitable David Burda who certainly sees to it that the questions are interesting, informative and not always impossible! It is a great, fun evening and tickets are only R100 per person. We can only accommodate 17 tables of 10 persons each and there has been a very good response to the Quiz. If you would like to attend I would urge you to contact Andrew Wilding on (079) 5674261as soon as possible to reserve either your seat or a table.
As you know, the Friends Gala Concert, which promises to be a splendid affair, will take place this year at the City Hall on Thursday, 19 November 2015 at 8pm. The programme will be an all-Brahms one with the Third Symphony being played in the first half of the concert and the monumental Second Piano Concerto in B flat Major, Op.83 following after the interval. Our soloist this year is the illustrious and exciting Antonio Pompa-Baldi who is no stranger to Cape Town. We all recall his magnificent performances of the Rachmaninoff Piano Concertos and the Rhapsody on a theme of Paganini a few seasons ago. We are also delighted that Maestro Bernhard Gueller, long a favourite with Cape Town audiences will be on the podium.
There will be a reception for all Friends of Orchestral Music following the concert and I look forward very much to welcoming you all there. This reception will be open only to members of the Friends and I will be advising you of how to secure your entrance to it within the next couple of weeks. Please note that those Friends who wish to book their normal seats will still be able to do so until Tuesday, 6 October 2015 and that the seats will then be open to the general public. So please reserve them by then! Seats are R500 for the general public and R450 for the Friends and platform seats are R200. I can assure you that it is going to be an evening to remember. Please also note that no potential new members will be subscribed on the night of the concert.
Best wishes
Derek Auret
Chairman: Friends of Orchestral Music
“After silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music.” — Aldous Huxley