When Avigail Bushakevitz tells you that the one thing she would change if she could, would be to move South Africa right next to Germany, you know that this Berlin-based violinist, born in Israel and raised here is truly a South African at heart, says PETA STEWART.
Avigail Bushakevitz (pictured left) will be in Cape Town to perform the 3rd Saint-Saen’s Violin Concerto with the Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra on 29 September at the City Hall and to give a recital for the Richard Wagner Society on Sunday 2 October with Albie van Schalkwyk in Sea Point.
This is the last concert of the current Spring Symphonies at the City Hall season, under the direction of Bernhard Gueller, who will also conduct the Tragic Overture by Brahms and the Symphony No 8 by Dvorak.
Why did Avigail chose this concerto?
“This was the first concerto I ever performed in its entirety with anorchestra, here in Cape Town, when I was fourteen years old. When I heard a recording of the piece the first time I was bowled over. Saint-Saëns is such a fabulous composer, and throughout the years I discover more pieces of his I have never come across. It is fantastic in its harmonic world, rich with wonderful melodies, brilliantly orchestrated, virtuosic, and the second movement exquisite and delicate. I had a conversation with Maestro Gueller once about this fabulous piece, and we both agreed we love it, so here we are to perform it!” says Avigail.
They were going to be performing it together before Covid stepped in so they are both happy that it will finally happen.
Formative years in SA
Much has happened since Avigail last performed in South Africa. For one thing, she and her husband violist Ernst-Martin Schmidt had a third child, Tabea now 18 months to join Ada, now 6, and Gideon aged 4. Each child, she says, has taught her better time management! She won’t be bringing them with her – it’s a long trip for a very short time and usually the family come for a longer time. They come as often as they can to “still the homesickness” and were actually here earlier this year.
The last time she performed with the CPO was in 2019 when she performed the Khachaturian Violin Concerto, and in 2020 she performed, with Albie van Schalkwyk in a recital for the Cape Town Concert Series.
Although she is not able to bring the family with her, it’s always a joy to come back to perform. After all, she spent many of her formative years studying with Jack de Wet before going off to the Juilliard School of Music in New York where she earned her Bachelors’ and Masters’ degrees, then on to Tel Aviv’s Conservatoire before settling in Germany, drawn then first by being close to her brother, the pianist Ammiel Bushakevitz.
Heart’s home base
“Cape Town will always remain my heart’s home base, and I am so looking forward to playing with the Cape Town Philharmonic again. As for the recital, it’s a great programme, with Debussy, Clara Schumann and Prokofiev, with the one and only Albie van Schalkwyk!” says Avigail.
She enjoys Berlin of course. First of all, there’s her position in the Konzerthaus Orchestra where her husband Ernst-Martin is a violist. Then Ammiel also lives there (at least when he is not giving concerts or accompanying lieder in other parts of Europe and the world). In November they will give a recital at the Konzerthaus together. In last three weeks she has been playing symphonies of Mahler, Brahms, Tchaikovsky, as well as several of Richard Strauss’ demanding writing for violin in orchestra, “so I have been at my orchestra desk most of the last weeks. For the rest of September I have recitals with a pianist in Berlin, and in October I have a string trio tour as well as symphony orchestra and chamber orchestra. Every week has its own genre-forte for me, and I love the diversity.” She also plays in a trio with her husband and a cellist.
What: Violinist Avigail Bushakevitz with the CPO
Where and when: Spring Symphonies at the City Hall season on 29 September 2022
Book: Dial-A-Seat 021 421 7695 and Computicket
WS
