Top cellist at Nederburg
2007-09-20
ON Sunday at 17:00, one of South Africa’s top cellists, Hans Huyssen, will perform three of Bach’s sublime suites for cello at the fourth Nederburg Concert this year.
“Bach’s Suites for unaccompanied cello stand out as virtually unprecedented examples of pure, musical expression, in the sense that all musical parameters, including harmony, melody, rhythm, form, gesture and emotion, are all condensed into a single strand of music,” maintains Huyssen.
He adds that even in this barest form they are complete, with nothing lacking, and display Bach’s utmost mastery.
“For many musicians they exemplify something like the ultimate manifestation of music.”
Huyssen will be playing on two period instruments, a five-string Piccolo cello that dates from 1707 (when Bach was 22 years old) and a four-string Baroque cello that dates from approximately 1750, around the time of Bach’s death.
The state of the instruments corresponds to those that Bach would have known, and for which he wrote the music.
Huyssen believes the early instruments have opened a pathway of understanding the music which he did not find, using a modern cello.
“There is a remarkable appropriateness between the instruments and the music, which makes it fitting and natural, almost easy, to play these specific works on these specific instruments. I find I have the right tools to do the job,” Huyssen says.
A composer and conductor, Huyssen attended the University of Stellenbosch before pursuing his studies in Salzburg (cello) and Munich (composition).
His abiding interest in the field of Early Music has seen him perform as a Baroque cellist with several European period instrument ensembles and has also influenced his approach to contemporary music as a composer.
After 14 years overseas, Huyssen returned to South Africa to pursue an African form of contemporary music.
Since returning home he has co-produced with Dizu Plaatjies the CD/CD-R “Fynbos Calling”, as well as an African adaptation of Purcell’s “Dido and Aeneas” for the 2002 Spier Arts Festival.
His first stage work, Masque, an African opera, premičred in October 2005 in Cape Town to much critical acclaim.
Tickets are R125 which includes a delicious finger supper served with fine Nederburg wines.
Bookings can be made by calling Irma Albers or Magdel Horrell at 021-809-8106 or 021-809-8345.
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