PETA STEWART
When recorder specialist Stefan Temmingh listened to the Willem Jeths Recorder Concerto for the first time, it immediately resonated with him – and he didn’t quite understand why at the time.
Temmingh is in Cape Town to play this concerto with the Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Bernhard Gueller in the last on the Winter Symphony Season concerts on 30 August 2018 at the City Hall.
“I was asked by a German orchestra, the Bochum Symphony, to play a modern piece and I listened to 20 concertos. This one just spoke to me, it spoke to my soul. Closer to the time, I got in touch with Jeths who asked me if I had had a difficult childhood because I understood the piece so well. “
“The piece is about Jeths’ childhood. The idea behind it is that we all see the recorder as an instrument associated with childhood. Jeths has said that he believes the emotions in his music are not necessarily his own but that people recognize themselves in it. Perhaps I did because my childhood wasn’t easy. Living with a creative giant like my father had its moments, especially when we made music together, but there were other problems like alcohol and and when I was in primary school my parents got divorced. I was learning to play the recorder at Groote Schuur Primary and my teacher gave me love and stability for that one hour a week which was something I really needed. So my love for the instrument just grew,“ he says.
Stefan Temmingh is called “a revolutionary of the instrument”, and is today considered to be one of the foremost exponents on the recorder internationally and not just on one recorder. He is an expert on all three different types.
For the Jeths piece he will be playing the Renaissance recorder, one well-suited to be heard above the sound of a symphony orchestra and perfectly suited to the composition which includes quotations from Mahler’s Kindertotenlieder.
Gentleman’s Band
He says this instrument is like a soprano voice – it just sings. And one can hear that beautifully in the Jeths concerto! Apart from that Temmingh also plays Baroque type and modern recorders. And while he is usually bringing examples of all to South Africa, he will only bring two to Cape Town on this trip. It’s likely that the other recorder will be used for an encore, if he says, the audience asks for one.
Stefan Temmingh left for Europe when he was 19 (he adds if he hadn’t established himself there he would have returned to go to Hotel School!), and has lived there ever since, travelling from his Munich base to China and Columbia, from Japan to any number of countries around the world, and often with his Gentleman’s Band at festivals or on tour.
He says he would love to play more concertos, but when the audiences demand violin, cello and piano and not even much clarinet or oboe, what chance does the recorder have? Judge for yourself!
On the programme for this final concert are the Drum Roll Symphony by Haydn and Enigma Variations by Elgar. Temmingh, winner of the prestigious German ECHO Award, will be signing his eclectic collection of CDs, which “cross the boundaries of repertoire and sound” in the foyer after the concert.
Seats for the CPO’s Spring Symphony Season go on general sale at the end of September 2018.
Who: CPO with Stefan Temmingh recorder; conductor Bernhard Gueller
What: Stefan Temmingh interview
Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra: CPO Winter Symphony Season 2018, Stefan Temmingh recorder
Where: Cape Town City Hall
When: 30 August 2018 at 8pm
Info, book: www.cpo.org.za, Artscape 021 421 7695, http://bit.ly/ElgarsEnigma
Stefan Temmingh Wikipedia: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stefan_Temmingh
WS
