PETA STEWART
It took 11 years for Christina Brabetz to gather the courage to return to the city she had left, and she’s glad she did it. Christina is in town to play the Shostakovich Violin Concerto no 1 with the Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra in its 12th International Summer Music Festival.
The Concerto is part of the programme with Prokokiev’s Romeo and Juliet selections and the premiere of a new piece by Stellenbosch composer Antoni Schonken at Artscape Opera on Thursday, February 15, at 8pm. German maestro Jochen Rieder will be on the podium.
Christina, 24, was born in Windhoek, and grew up hearing the sound of the violin played by her mother. The family moved to Cape Town when she was 5, the age at which she insisted on having her own violin. Her brother Mark, two years her senior, started piano lessons. While Christina continued with the violin, Mark eventually turned to cello. He’s with Christina in Cape Town, exploring old haunts such as their old home in Vredehoek, while she has been preparing for the concerts with the CPO at Kirstenbosch and the Shostakovich!
Nothing has changed, yet everything has
“I think that I missed Table Mountain more than anything,” she says. “As soon as I saw it when we arrived, it was as though the last decade didn’t exist. I was 13 then. It was a hard decision for the family to leave and my parents have not yet been back. Going to live in Vienna was a culture shock. It’s so old world and Cape Town so new. There are so many good memories. It is incredible to be back. We still miss many things. The weather, the friendly attitude of all the people, the positive outlook on life.”
She remembers how her parents were so supportive of her choice to play the violin, how they drove her from one Sanlam competition to another, from one eisteddfod to another, to lessons with Jack de Wet in Milnerton – her “incredible mentor who greatly influenced and inspired me on my path as a soloist.“ This was in between the swimming galas she loved to participate in.
There was never doubt in her mind that music would be her career. At 5 she was curious, and it was never a problem for her to practice because she loved playing the instrument so much. She now plays a Guadanigni violin loaned by the Deutsche Stiftung Musikleben Foundation, and competes every two years to keep the instrument.
Christina went to Germany to study with Antje Weithaas, a soloist a couple of times in the days of the CTSO and CTPO.
She is now busy with her master’s degree with Kolja Blacher, former concertmaster of the Berlin Philharmonic. In 2010, she won the prestigious Tonali Grand Prix in Hamburg.
She also loves playing chamber music (she and Mark play together at family occasions with her parents in Vienna) and she has shared platforms with artists such as Wolfgang Emanuel Schmidt and divides her time almost equally between orchestral performances and recitals, such as at festivals like Verbier and Schleswig-Holstein.
She played with the Nuremberg Symphony shortly before coming here, not for the first time, and has performed with the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, Amsterdam Chamber Orchestra and in the Konzerthaus in Vienna.
Christina will give a master class for CPYO violinists while she is here.
Who: CPO with Christina Brabetz, violin, conductor Jochen Rieder
What: 12th International Summer Music Festival 2018
Where: Artscape Opera House, Cape Town
When: 15 February at 8pm, 2018
Info, book: www.cpo.org.za Artscape Dial-a-Seat 021 421 7695, http://bit.ly/Brabetz
WS
