THE WORLD IS BEGGING FOR CAPE TOWN

Matthijs van Dijk is one of South Africa’s foremost composers of the younger generation and his works have been performed by orchestras, chamber groups and solo instrumentalists both here and abroad.

Following a concert at Stellenbosch University’s Endler Hall celebrating the 70th anniversary of illustrious composer Peter-Louis van Dijk conducted by Xandi van Dijk and featuring Junita van Dijk with Peter-Louis, Xandi and Matthijs van Dijk in a pre-concert talk, most of the family will be in Cape Town with the CPO on June 1 for the performance of Matthijs’ Concerto for Violin and Orchestra. (And this is the end of a two-week period of performances of his string quartet movement “(rage) rage against the” by Xandi’s Signum Quartet at the Library of Congress concert series, Princeton University, and Carnegie Hall and then “R62” which was premiered in an allSouth African programme with the Munich Chamber Orchestra.

WHAT IF A NIGHTCLUB USED AN ORCHESTRA INSTEAD OF A DJ?

In 2021, after Jeffrey Armstrong had won the UNISA Competition with a programme that included a sonata he commissioned of Matthijs (inspired by blues and heavy metal), he suggested Matthijs write a concerto for violin. “Well, actually…” was Matthijs’ reply, and sent Jeffrey a concerto he'd completed in 2015 as a “thank you for your support” present for violinists Patrick Goodwin and Marc Uys, who are now working in Canada and managing the Princeton Symphony Orchestra respectively. Matthijs is thrilled that Jeffrey, who was the CPYO concertmaster before leaving SA to study in Europe, has been engaged to premiere the work with the CPO.

Violinist, Jeffrey Armstrong

“Besides for being a sensitive performer and extremely musical violinist, his dedication to South African compositions and composers is strong and highly commendable. Having heard him now perform some of my chamber music a few times with his Cape Chamber Music Collective (as well as lead the SICMF Symphony Orchestra in a performance of my overture “Dance.”, which quotes snippets of this concerto), I am very excited to see how he approaches this piece, as he will no doubt bring the rock 'n roll flare it demands.”

While on paper a concerto for violin, written in the traditional form of three movements, “it’s more like Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra in which every section of the orchestra has a spotlight shone on it at some point.

“Stylistically, I lean very heavily towards contemporary and popular music gestures (specifically rock and electronic dance music), blending them with art music gestures in a similar way Leonard Bernstein would use jazz in his works. Emphasising this, I include a modernised 'rock band' version of a 'Basso Continuo' ensemble, comprised of electric bass, piano and drum kit (with the solo violin filling the role as the ‘lead guitarist’).

Matthijs van Dijk

“The whole work deals with questions of identity, with the first ‘movement’ specifically being about me grappling with my own musical identity as a ‘classical composer’, having embraced my love for rock 'n roll in my classical pieces more overtly around the time of writing the concerto, and how I fit within the South African classical landscape. I channelled my frustration at the time of having a lot to say as a composer, but no place to say it, with newer works often ignored in favour of the usual canon of classical composers (with those included usually not being from beyond the 1950s, such as Shostakovich — who I parody in this piece even though I'm a massive fan), and performances of new South African compositions feeling like a rarity.

“The second ‘movement’, in contrast, is a love letter to my partner at the time, who had encouraged me to write the piece. I based it around an unfinished song I had written for her, which, due to her Irish heritage, had a slight nod to an Irish-ish folk song. The last ‘movement’ is heavily inspired by my then obsession with classical music being performed in bars, a performance practice I experienced while living in New York. This led to me writing quite a few works based on the idea of “What if a nightclub used an orchestra instead of a DJ?”