Zimbabwe

I wrote the article below following my return from Zimbabwe last year, for a recital in Harare, and also to participate in The Bulawayo Music Festival:

From the 7^th Bulawayo Music Festival, 19-23 May 2010.

Zimbabwe receives a relentlessly bad press and whilst the country is undeniably living through a tumultuous period in its brief post-colonial history, its people are still possessed of the ambition and ability to host exceptional events like the Bulawayo Music Festival.

The indefatigable festival director, Michael Bullivant, assembled 4 pianists, a string quartet, one double bassist, a trumpeter and guitarist, BBC Radio 3 broadcaster Petroc Trelawny, as well as the musical comedy act ‘Kit and the Widow’ and in addition to raising essential sponsorship and managing the inherently complex logistics, extracted a commitment from The Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority not to impose power cuts during the festival.

The Zimbabwe Academy of Music which hosted this superb event was, to my utter astonishment, founded, in 1927, by none other than my very first music theory teacher in South Africa, Elsie Fraser-Munn MBE, a highly respected educator. The Academy has spawned many great musicians, amongst whom the legendary accompanist Graham Johnson and it continues, in the face of considerable adversity, to advance a diligent musical agenda.

That this festival should take place under the watchful eye of Elsie Fraser Munn, whose photograph adorns the foyer, seemed therefore to be entirely appropriate.

The four pianists, Leslie Howard, Michael Brownlee Walker, Coady Green and Elizabeth French, presented a kaleidoscope of concerts, ranging from solo recitals to concerts for two, three and four pianos, but they were also judiciously utilised in all of the chamber music performances and Elizabeth French additionally accompanied two instrumental recitals, including mine, which was dedicated to the memory of Ursula Murray, double bassist of the now defunct Bulawayo orchestra.  

It was the members of the all female Odeion String Quartet, resident at the University of the Free State in Bloemfontein, South Africa, who provided the festival’s most pivotal, engaging and imaginative backbone however.

In addition to their scintillating performances of string quartets by Mozart and Ravel, they joined forces with all the other visiting solo artists, as well as spearheading the festival orchestra for the ‘Gala Opening’ and ‘Closing’ concerts, which saw the participation of local musicians and as many young performers as the concert platform could accommodate.

Chamber music for piano and strings provided the bedrock of the festival and I was particularly delighted that the programming so skilfully exploited the presence of the double bass: it allowed me to perform a generous proportion of the major chamber music repertoire for the instrument, including Schubert’s ‘Trout’ Quintet, the Quintet Op.87 by Hummel, Mendelssohn’s Sextet Op.110, the Septet by Saint-Saëns, in which we were joined by the Yorkshire trumpeter Trevor Lax, Rossini’s delightful Duetto for cello and double bass, but most gratifying of all, my first ever performance of the Gran Quintetto in C by Giovanni Bottesini.

This rarely performed Quintetto for string quartet and double bass was first published in Milan in 1850, and whilst I had always known about its existence, sourcing the score proved to be exceedingly difficult. I only recently managed to lay my hands on a set of parts, thanks to my esteemed colleague Thomas Martin, and I have also subsequently traced a copy of the score to a little know Italian library.

Bottesini was himself of course no stranger to Africa, having conducted, at Verdi’s insistence, the première of Aida in Cairo, and to perform this vivacious 4 movement quintet in Zimbabwe therefore had particular resonance for me, as an African.

Surprisingly, Bottesini’s chamber music output, including up to a dozen string quartets, remains neglected, and it would unquestionably be a dereliction of duty not to bring this delightful work to the concert hall more regularly or for that matter to commit it to disc? 

The dashing good looks of South Africa’s pre-eminent guitar soloist, James Grace, ensured his immediate popularity and his musical contribution was received with commensurate feminine rapture.

It was refreshing to hear his solo recital, and performance of Boccherini’s now rarely performed Quintet in D major, with the Fandango Finale, but it was in the Suite Buenos Aires for violin and guitar by Maxim Diego Pujol that he made the greatest impact.

The Suite’s four movements, Pompeya, Palermo, San Telmo and Microcentro, take the listener on a vivid tour of the four distinct quarters of Pujol’s home town and James Grace and Sharon de Kock, the Odeion’s second violinist, gave an idiomatic and evocative account, rising magnificently to the innumerable challenges with which Pujol littered their path.

Leslie Howard has been a central presence in the Bulawayo Festival since its inception in 1997, and is probably best known for his extraordinary 99 CD survey of the complete works for piano by Franz Liszt, meriting an entry into the Guinness Book of Records, but I was intrigued and delighted to encounter Leslie Howard the composer.

Zimbabwean born Michael Brownlee Walker performed two of his Preludes Op.25 and Leslie Howard himself joined the Odeion Quartet for the first performance of his Piano Quintet (2010), a substantial and demanding work in 5 movements.

The final concert contained another Howard world premiere, his Valse Sentimentale for piano, string quartet and double bass, but it was his earlier, exceptionally finely nuanced performance of Dvorak’s Piano Quintet Op.81 with the Odeions that will linger in my memory for some time to come.

Petroc Trelawny conducted a number of engaging ‘Meet the Performer’ interviews and also narrated, with aplomb, the story of ‘The Mukamba Tree’ in the final concert. This 25 minute work, based on a local theme and with music by Richard Sisson, was specially commissioned for the festival and funded by the British Council.

The auditorium was packed to the rafters for what proved to be a stirring finale to the festival, with countless young musicians playing and singing their hearts out, alongside their professional counterparts.

The following morning all the musicians were whisked away, in a gesture of supreme generosity, on a visit to Hwange National Park and the Victoria Falls, to crown a truly memorable experience.