Gerhard Joubert, Piano Recital: Keyboard Music from 3 centuries (and 3 countries)

ABOUT

Welgemeend Manor House, Cape Town

Wednesday 22 May 2024,19h00

One of South Africa's most interesting young concert pianists, Gerhard Joubert, presents a farewell recital in Cape Town, before heading for Germany to further his studies abroad. He writes about his concert programme:

I have decided to compile this programme consisting of true gems in the piano literature - some well-known and others less often performed. There is a clear emphasis on Fauré, the French master, whose solo piano music I only discovered recently but am completely in awe of. I hope this will be a discovery for some others too. Many of the titles are picturesque and can stimulate the imagination. The opening French Baroque selections are in dialogue with the other French works on the programme (even the Chopin can be considered French despite the composer's Polish heritage, as he settled in France in his early twenties). The final work on the programme by Debussy also links with the Rameau as it was inspired by a contemporary of Rameau's in the visual arts - Jean-Antoine Watteau (they were both born in 1684, a year before Handel, D. Scarlatti and J. S. Bach!). The work in question is Watteau's The Embarkation for Cythera ("L'embarquement pour Cythère"). The inclusion of a work by South African composer Arnold Van Wyk lies close to my heart as I often heard my mother practicing his works when I was little (especially his monumental "Nagmusiek" [Night Music] for solo piano). Both the Fauré and Van Wyk are in turn inspired by Chopin as the titles (Nocturne and Berceuse) suggest the most famous contributions to the genre by Chopin.

DIRECTIONS