'Bridge the chasms that divide'

Violist Xandi van Dijk on this special evening concert

The Signum Quartet is very excited to present works from both our South African projects in this very personal concert at the SQBA next January. I was born in Cape Town and have deep ties to the South African music scene, including a composer father and composer brother. I have spent the past 25 years premiering and performing countless South African works and therefore I am really happy that my Signum friends have grown to love these pieces as I do. Our first South African project has culminated in the release of “A Dark Flaring” on ECM, and from this album we will be performing the magnificent works by Ivy Priaulx Rainier and Arnold van Wyk, both written in London at the beginning of the Second World War. These are works we love and which we have spent the last decade playing all over the world, from Cape Town to Carnegie Hall. Shirley Apthorp writes in her booklet notes for our CD:  

“The complicated historical and in the same breath cultural backdrop that goes hand in hand with musical repertory composed over this specific period, in the South African context, is not only impossible to ignore but moreover serves as catalyst, canvas and disrupter – sometimes all at once – for most of the music presented here. The country after all didn’t become united until 1910, when South Africa was declared a self-governed country under the Commonwealth in the aftermath of the Anglo-Boer Wars. Apartheid ensued following the World Wars – racist segregational policies that lasted until 1990 and continue to be worked through, digested and dealt with today.” 

This brings us to our second South African project, “bridge the chasms that divide”, the title of which is a quote from President Nelson Mandela’s inaugural speech in 1994*. In this project, we wanted to commemorate 30 years since the end of Apartheid and asked some leading South African composers of different generations to reflect on this. We are thrilled to be sharing the stage in Amsterdam with two of them: Rising star Denise Onen will be joining us for her “Demockracy”, in which she interweaves the string quartet texture with electronics and sound collages of important South African voices, and musical legend Dizu Plaatjies will perform with us on musical bows known as uhadi and mhrube in the quintet version of his “21:30”, co-written with his regular collaborator Matthijs van Dijk. Finally, superstar Abel Selaocoe (together with Benjamin Woodgates) wrote “Umthwalo” for Signum. Abel writes: “Umthwalo means ‘a heavy load to carry’ – ‘umthwalo uya sinda’. It is a piece about understanding that the South African nation carries a heavy burden of history and that it will need time to heal,” therewith echoing Mandela’s words:

*The time for the healing of the wounds has come.
The moment to bridge the chasms that divide us has come. The time to build is upon us.