I’ve been longing for a classical music concert, and saw a leaflet advertising a chamber music performance. I got a ticket and loved every minute of the Sunday Beau Soleil Piano Quartet performance at Hermanus Civic Auditorium!
The seasoned musicians’ flawless presentation of compositions by Mozart, Turina, and Schumann was mesmerizing! Their chamber music performance was hosted by Overstrand Arts Kunste (OAK), a “society that helps performing artists share their talent with the Overberg community“. Details about the musicians and their performance are shared below.
Beau Soleil Music Centre
With some of Cape Town’s “top performing musicians on its teaching faculty,” Beau Soleil Music Centre in Kenilworth has a “history of excellence”. Staff revived Beau Soleil Piano Quartet, and the popular group performed on Sunday afternoon at Hermanus Civic Auditorium.
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“The Beau Soleil Music Centre officially opened in 1983. Sponsored by the Western Cape Education Department.” South African History Online
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Beau Soleil Piano Quartet
The Beau Soleil Piano Quartet consists of full-time Beau Soleil staff members – Liza Joubert (piano), Principal and Head of Strings Marina Louw (viola), and Dane Coetzee (cello), in collaboration with “well-known Italian violinist,” Lucia Di Blasio-Scott.
The chamber music program included:
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Piano Quartet No 2 in E flat, K 493 – a “finely balanced chamber work demonstrating the piano’s virtuosity in collaboration with a string trio”. In 1785, publisher Franz Anton Hoffmeister commissioned Mozart to create three quartets. Hoffmeister thought one of the quartets was too difficult and that the public wouldn’t buy it, so he released Mozart from his obligation. Nine months later, Mozart published his own quartet no. 2 in E flat.
Joaquin Turina Piano Quartet in A min, Op 67 – written in 1931, the quartet “imbues the spirit of Turina’s homeland, Spain, marrying Spanish idioms with compositional techniques steeped in mainstream Europe“.
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“Some of the world’s most beautiful chamber music was composed for piano and three strings.”
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Robert Schumann Piano Quartet in E flat, Op 47 – one of three string quartets Schumann wrote and his only piano quartet – was written in 1842 with his wife – “gifted pianist” Clara Wieck Schumann – in mind. Schumann dedicated the quartet to his patron, amateur cellist Count Mathieu Wielhorsky. The third movement has been called the “highlight of the work, and one of the most beautiful themes of the classical music Romantic Period 1830-1900“.
The chamber music touched my soul. Pianist Liza Joubert asked the audience to comment at the end of the performance on which of the three compositions was their favorite. That’s difficult, as each one was so unique and beautiful. If I had to choose, it’s a toss-up between the two completely different compositions by Turina and Schumann. It was a memorable afternoon of chamber music performed to perfection.