Newsletter – February 2025

As always, our ‘Christmas with Richard Cock’ concerts were a great success. We had two Christmas concerts this year and the Linder Auditorium was full to the rafters. The audience at both concerts was absolutely wonderful – joyful, lusty singing was the order of the day – as one comment went: ‘It was a wonderful experience, uplifting – full of joy and laughter’.

The interaction between the audience and us on the stage is so important, we feed off one another and so make the concert experience extra, extra special – and of course Richard is the dynamo driving it all, getting everyone engaged, singing, and enjoying themselves; as one person said: ‘Richard is a national treasure’. I think we all agree with that!

Now – this whole over the top thrilling experience is the beauty of

LIVE MUSIC PERFORMANCE!

There is no way you can get it by streaming or from a CD or listening to a concert or music work in any other way! It only happens in live performance! With real people making music right there in front of you – for you! Don’t deny yourself that experience –                     

SUPPORT LIVE MUSIC PERFORMANCES!

Our next performance will definitely be a glorious experience too:

Franz Schubert – Mass in G
Soloists: Magdalene Minnaar (S), Thomas Erlank (T), Tshilidzi Ndou (B)
and
John Rutter – Feel the Spirit
Soloist: Bongani Nakani
Sunday 16th February 2025 @ 3 pm
Linder Auditorium, Parktown
The Phoenix Orchestra
Conducted by Richard Cock

Franz Schubert (31 January 1797 – 19 November 1828) was an Austrian composer of the late Classical and early Romantic eras. Despite his short life, Schubert left behind a vast oeuvre, including more than 600 secular vocal works (mainly Lieder), seven complete symphonies, sacred music, operas, incidental music, and a large body of piano and chamber music. Appreciation of Schubert’s music while he was alive was limited to a relatively small circle of admirers in Vienna, but interest in his work increased greatly in the decades following his death. Today, Schubert is considered one of the greatest composers in the history of Western classical music and his music continues to be widely performed.

Mass No. 2 in G major, was composed in less than a week in early March 1815 and remains the best known of his three short settings, or missae breves, dating between his more elaborate No. 1 and No. 5. Apart from some passages for soprano, its solistic interventions are modest, Schubert, characteristically, inclines toward a devotional mood.      

Sir John Rutter CBE (24 September 1945) is an English composer, associated mainly with choral music and active internationally for many years. His larger choral works, Gloria, Requiem, Magnificat, Mass of the Children, The Gift of Life, and Visions, are widely performed around the world. He has enjoyed a long association with Clare College, Cambridge, first as student, then Director of Music, later as parent, and recording producer for their renowned choir. John Rutter has visited South Africa several times and conducted the SCJ.

Feel the Spirit is a cycle of seven familiar spirituals expertly arranged by John Rutter for mezzo-soprano solo, SATB choir, and orchestra. The vivid and expressive arrangements can be performed individually, or as a complete cycle that showcases the rich heritage of the spiritual. The work brings new life to such well-loved titles as Steal away, I got a robe, and When the saints go marching in.

You can look forward to another wonderful concert.   So – book now to avoid disappointment – use this link   https://www.quicket.co.za/events/290435-feel-the-spirit-john-rutter-schubert-mass-in-g/  

The choir in action singing Sue Cock’s ‘Come Africa’ at the Sunday Christmas concert.

Click on these links to hear the concert

First part:
https://youtu.be/uZLU57cDSi8?feature=shared

Second part:
https://youtu.be/4d1kMOaJurE?feature=shared

These videos are not done by a professional but by an enthusiastic member of the audience.