Peta Stewart
The Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra is delighted to welcome Polish violinist Michal Buczkowski who is making his South African debut on 2 May, 2024, at the Cape Town City Hall. He will perform the Third Saint-Saȅns Violin Concerto, a work he says is one of the most beautiful violin concertos out there. The concert, under the direction of principal guest conductor Bernhard Gueller, brings the Autumn Symphonies season to a close.
Michal may be new, but his provenance is old, for one of those who had the most important influence on his musical life was Wanda Wilkomirska, so popular with the Cape Town Symphony Orchestra and its audiences some 30 years ago .
“She was the best friend I had. She allowed me to believe in my dreams, gave me the strength to reach for what seemed unattainable,” he says.
“It was my destiny”
While he says there were no musical traditions in his family, Buczkowski felt there was something missing. “When I was little, I would often take two sticks and pretend to play the violin. I had always reacted very enthusiastically every time I heard good music on radio and TV and sang all the time! It came naturally to me, and since this interest was apparent to all, I was entered in an exam at a primary music school. Like most of the others, piano was the instrument of choice, but the headmistress looked at my small hands and decided that the violin would be better for me. That’s how I became a violinist, it was my destiny.
“In high school I understood that playing the violin would become my profession, that I wanted to devote myself to it. It came very naturally, and my belief was encouraged by the awards and distinctions I won at competitions. While they were great to earn, what was important to me was that with the violin I was able to express who I was, what I wanted to say about myself to others. And it still is today.”
Stanisław Moniuszko Academy
Michal moved to The Hague in The Netherlands in 2018, having studied after he left the Stanisław Moniuszko Academy of Music in Gdańsk, Poland, at the Conservatorium Maastricht in The Netherlands, then at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Brussels, Belgium where he graduated with honours.
Coincidentally, when was 12 or 13, he performed in The Hague as a soloist with his Polish school orchestra. He teaches as well, from children as young as 5 years old to students.
“ It is precisely teaching the little ones, observing their unadulterated enthusiasm for the violin and how they achieve their first successes that is something special for me. I also teach mostly online an extremely talented boy from Kenya and a student from Congo. Their hard work and commitment are somethings that never cease to amaze me.”
He’s an avid reader, art connoisseur and inveterate movie goer, especially Scandinavian cinema. Then there is his love of silence, nature and the sea. What enjoys about tennis and its top players like Serena Williams and Rafael Nadal is their fighting spirit, self-belief, striving for goals, factors that are also so important in the profession of a musician.
A noted chamber musician
“What I admire most about music is that it tells the most beautiful stories that no words can tell. And that there is a depth of all possible and impossible feelings.”
As a soloist, he performs music across Europe in genres that flow from Bach to contemporary. He is also a noted chamber musician, and enjoys performing lesser known or brand new repertoires.
“There are a few concert halls in the world where I would like to play, a few albums I’d like to make, but most of all, I’d like to play music that isn’t so often performed on stage. On my last CD album, I recorded Marcel Dupre’s Violin Sonata, an excellent piece that has waited over 100 years to be released on record for the first time.”
On his current tour of South Africa Buczkowski, will also give two recitals with Tertia Visser Downie (Erin Hall on 4 May, and in Hermanus on 5 May), and perform with the Free State Symphony Orchestra on 9 May.
What: Final concert in the CPO’s Autumn Symphonies Michal Buczkowski
Where: Cape Town City Hall
When: Thursday, 2 May 2024, 7.30pm Cape Town City Hall; pre-concert talk 6.45pm
CPO dress rehearsal : 2 May, 2024, 11 am, Quicket
Tickets: Webtickets, Artscape Dial-A-Seat 021 421 7695, Quicket
WS
