While enjoying the hospitality at the Suidoosterfees (which was taking place last weekend at Artscape Theatre) I reflect back at our symphony concert about 10 days ago where we played Shostakovich’ 10th Symphony.
This symphony is just something else. It’s not just another piece of music, but it’s a full experience which takes you through many emotions. Other monumental pieces like this for me are Mahler’s 2nd Symphony and Bach’s St. Matthew Passion. When you get to experience those full works in a beautiful hall it’s truly mesmerising.
On top of this we got to play it with Bernhard Gueller leading the way and during our rehearsals he shared beautiful stories and background information on the 10th Symphony. It became very clear that unfortunately this symphony and the reasons for it being written is still very current. Different tyrants, oppressors and dictators now, but still many people suffering, fleeing and dying for just expressing an opinion or wanting to dress a certain way.
South Africa was in that situation actually not that long ago, roughly 30 years, but the change was made here and today I sit here amongst the most diverse people in this fabulous part of the world drinking, eating, laughing, sharing stories and working with each other with kindness and joy.
The CPO was part of a show called Soomloos (seamless) which is a tribute concert towards one of the founders of the Suidoosterfees 20 years ago Jakes Gerwel, an anti-apartheid activist and later Director-General of the Presidency when Nelson Mandela was in office (amongst many other things). In this show much loved local performers from various music genres, hip hop to opera, join forces to give a stunning show where one genre follows the other seamlessly and just like where I’m sitting now, with joy and lekka vibes!
These are the days that I truly appreciate having had the opportunity to grow up in a country ( The Netherlands) where there is no war or oppression and where the people experience freedom of speech, religion and expressing yourself. And today I see in SA the great effort of many to overcome this time of Apartheid, enjoy the freedom of speech, right to vote, freedom to go anywhere and be anyone you wanna be. There’s some way to go still, but the ‘gees’ (spirit) is there 🙂
After these serious words some explanation about the title:
One of my (and our concertmaster’s) favorite SA performers is Early B who is an afrikaans rapper and is just ‘befok’ (awesome) 🤘🏻 and while looking through the playlist for today’s concert 2 weeks ago I saw 2 of his numbers on it: Leka Djy and Ben Ten! The excitement…. ! 🙌🏻😃🙌🏻 (do yourself a favour and follow the links!)
I’m not sure which one excited me more… the Shos 10 or the Ben Ten!! 🤣
To be continued … 🙂
Roxane Steffen 