(Abel Selaocoe)
A most enjoyable
recital which was very much appreciated by the full house audience. (Review by
Keith Millar)
The cello is a very
versatile musical instrument. Of all the stringed instruments, it is the most
like the human voice and can produce a wide variety of tones, from warm low
pitches to bright higher notes.
The instrument is
used in a wide range of musical genres and can be heard as a solo instrument,
in chamber music groups, with baroque ensembles, in symphony orchestras and on many
occasions in contemporary, folk and jazz music.
It was this
versatility, along with the voices and moods that the instrument is capable of,
that young cellist Abel Selaocoe wished to demonstrate with his eclectic
programme for his recital which took place in the Beethoven Room at the
National Arts Festival in Grahamstown.
Selaocoe is the
winner of the Standard Bank Young Artist for Music Award at this year’s
festival.
The 24-year-old
cellist is a rising star in his field. He started playing music at the age of
nine in Sebokeng in Southern Gauteng. He has been based in England for the past
seven years where he studies at Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester.
He has performed as a soloist with many orchestras, including the KwaZulu-Natal
Philharmonic and the Johannesburg Philharmonic.
He started his
recital by playing French Impressionist composer, Claud Debussy’s Cello Sonata
in D Minor. This short work is structured in three movements, with the second
movement being rather unique as most of the solo part is played pizzicato. Overall,
it is an ornamental, lyrical and energetic piece of music.
The next work was
also by a French composer. Maurice Ravel’s In the Style of Habanera. Ravel used
the slow sultry Spanish dance, the habanera, for this piece and the rhythms of
this dance can be heard throughout.
Frank Bridge was next.
He was a British composer and the first movement of his Cello Sonata was heard.
Bridge was a pacifist and this work written at the start of the First World
War, displays his great despair over the futility of war and the general state
of the world.
In the Style of Albéniz,
a Spanish flavoured piece by modern Russian composer Rodion Schedrin was next.
This was followed by a composition by James
a Scottish classical composer
and conductor. His work is entitled Kiss
on Wood and is a spiritual reflection of Christ on the cross.
The final piece on
the programme was Lamentatio by the
Italian composer Giovanni Sollima.
Both Selaocoe and
his accompanist Tyler Hayes, put in accomplished and polished performances and
handled the virtuoso sections with skill and panache.
Before each item,
Selaocoe described the music to be heard. He showed an easy and friendly charm.