OpusZA - Music for Clarinet and Piano

On Sunday, December the 1st, at 3 PM, welcome to St Stithians College Chapel the celebrated musicians Danré Strydom (clarinet) and Grethe Nöthling (piano). They will be presenting a recital entitled Opus ZA, featuring contemporary South African works by Hendrik Hofmeyr, Noel Stockton, Matthijs van Dijk and Alexander Johnson, in addition to Johannes Brahms’ Clarinet Sonata in F minor, Op. 120 No. 1.

In the true spirit of musical collaboration, the Chamber Music Collective is proud to announce its new association with the Tres Fontes Concert Series, in partnership with the St Stithians Boys’ Music School with this, our second concert.

This concert series, running adjacent to the renowned Northwards and Shed & Silo series, will take place in the contemplative St Stithians College Chapel, situated on its Lyme Park campus, as an ideal venue for audiences in Sandton and Fourways.

Danré Strydom has established herself as one of South Africa’s premier solo, chamber, and orchestral musicians through her global concert experience. After playing clarinet/bass clarinet ad hoc for the award-winning Brussels Philharmonic from 2008 to 2013, Danré accepted a position as woodwind lecturer at the UFS Odeion School of Music. She is the Continental Chair of the International Clarinet Association and was selected to be a Buffet Crampon Artist (2015), being the first South African representative.

Since making her musical debut at age 7, performing as soloist with the Johannesburg Symphony Orchestra, pianist Grethe Nöthling has won several national music competitions, awards, and bursaries. She has performed as a soloist with the KZN Philharmonic Orchestra, the Chamber Orchestra of South Africa, as well as the Free State Symphony Orchestra. Since completing her graduate studies in the USA, she has served as piano lecturer at the UFS Odeion School of Music, and at the South African College of Music, UCT. Grethe was recently appointed as Head of Keyboard at St John’s College.

Opus ZA, a unique recording and live performance project, is the brainchild of Strydom and Nöthling. These artists, then colleagues at the UFS Odeion School of Music in Bloemfontein, were motivated to perform exclusively South African compositions for the ensemble, works both recently composed as well as those rarely heard. This project culminated in a 2022 CD recording for Belgian record label Aliud Records, an album which is available on Spotify.

Hendrik Hofmeyr describes Canto notturno (2010) as a “sombre nocturne which exploits the dark timbre and lyrical character of the clarinet”. Jazz icon Noel Stockton dedicated his Three Pieces for Clarinet and Piano to his colleague and friend, Heinrich Armer. Each movement is unique in its inspiration, with influences from the serialist movement and the Hungarian folk music of Béla Bartók clearly evident. Matthijs van Dijk’s Apogee (2010) refers to the meaning of the word, ‘the farthest of highest point: culmination’. The work is shaped in the form of a continuous arc, the sparse opening textures gradually thickening and growing towards the work’s climax, before fading into nothing. Alexander Johnson’s youthful Jazz Sonatina (1989) is a four-movement work containing such diverse 20th-century influences as jazz, ragtime, and the piano music of Maurice Ravel and Béla Bartók.

The programme will finish with the Clarinet Sonata in F minor, Op. 120 No. 1 by Johannes Brahms (1894). The composer’s last opus devoted to chamber music, this work is filled with moments of great emotion, both turbulent and introspective. Its four-movement structure includes a tender serenade for the clarinet, a charming German Dance in triple time, as well as a fanfare finale where the now long-forgotten sorrow of the first movement has been transformed into an exhilarating conclusion.

Join us at St Stithians College Chapel on Sunday, November 17th, at 3 PM for an afternoon in the company of the world’s most beautiful clarinet music.

Tickets, as always, are available at Quicket.

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