Spectrum - A Violin & Piano Recital

On Sunday, October 20th, at 3 PM, welcome to St Stithians College Chapel the celebrated musicians Zanta Hofmeyr (violin) and Malcolm Nay (piano). They will be presenting a recital entitled Spectrum, featuring works by Vitali, Schubert, Prokofiev, Shostakovich, Debussy, and Gershwin.

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.

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.

Zanta Hofmeyr graduated from the Juilliard School of Music in New York where she was a student of Dorothy Delay and Hyo Kang. After her New York debut in Carnegie Recital Hall, she returned to South Africa in 1985. Zanta often appears as soloist with orchestra and was praised for her performances of concerti by Beethoven, Bruch, and Britten. In 1999, Zanta performed the Beethoven sonata cycle together with Malcolm Nay, a project which was repeated with the Bulgarian pianist Ilia Radoslavov in 2016, both in South Africa and the USA.

Malcolm Nay is one of South Africa’s leading pianists, having performed both locally and abroad. His frequent appearances as soloist with orchestra includes several Mozart Concerti with the Chamber Orchestra of South Africa, as well as the premiere of Jeanne Zaidel-Rudolph’s Pendulum. Malcolm is a founding member of several prominent chamber ensembles, including the Hemanay, Musaion, and Wits Trios. Apart from countless festival appearances, these ensembles commissioned works by prominent composers such as Stefans Grové, Hendrik Hofmeyr, Hans Huyssen, Hans Roosenschoon, and Kevin Volans.

The Chaconne in G minor was long attributed to the 17th-century Italian violinist and composer Tomaso Vitali, but it was with the 1867 arrangement and publication by Ferdinand David that the work firmly secured its place in the violin repertoire. Although his inspiration was derived from the original manuscript discovered in a Dresden library, David’s arrangement is very much a work of its time with its virtuoso writing and orchestral textures for both instruments.

Having studied the violin at an early age, the young Franz Schubert had the opportunity to play viola in a string quartet with his father and brothers. He composed his first violin sonatas between the years of 1810-11, and roughly 15 years later, inspired by the young Czech violin virtuoso Josef Slavík, he wrote the Rondo in B minor, D 895. This challenging work opens with a dramatic Andante leading into a spirited Allegro, with the music surging forth to its joyous conclusion.

Sergei Prokofiev’s Flute Sonata was composed in 1943, a result of wanting to compose a “sonata in a gentle, flowing classical style”. With the assistance of violinist David Oistrakh, this work was subsequently arranged as the Violin Sonata no. 2 in D, Op. 94a. A work often noted for its sunny, carefree character, it contains many elements of the neoclassical style, a 20th-century movement prominent in the arts that searched for order and balance, especially during a period of war.

Soon after pianist Dmitri Shostakovich premiered his 24 Preludes, Op. 34 in 1933, his friend and active musical supporter Dmitri Tsyganov, first violinist of the Beethoven Quartet, commenced his project of arranging these short pieces for violin and piano. So enamoured was the composer of these transcriptions, that he is believed to have forgotten that they were originally written for piano. The Prelude no. 10 is a particularly beautiful miniature.

Two song transcriptions by the 20th-century violin virtuoso Jascha Heifetz concludes the programme: Claude Debussy’s Beau Soir, an early song perfectly capturing the beautiful scene of the sun setting over a river as the wheat fields stir in the breeze, and George Gershwin’s “It ain’t necessarily so” from the opera Porgy and Bess brings the recital to a satirical and lively conclusion.

Join us at St Stithians College Chapel on Sunday, October 20th, at 3 PM for an afternoon in the company of the world’s most beautiful violin music.

Tickets, as always, are available at Quicket.