Unisa online - Masterful performance to commemorate Joseph Haydn

On Sunday 1 February 2009, the Unisa Music Foundation hosted a concert featuring mainly baroque music in the Film Auditorium.

John Coulter, who is responsible for tuning and maintaining the Booth Harpsichord which Unisa imported from the UK, gave a masterful performance of the Concerto in G major for harpsichord and strings by Joseph Haydn to celebrate the 200th commemoration of this famous composer’s death.

The recorder player, Olivera Nikolic, was the soloist in Telemann’s Concerto in F major for recorder, string and continuo. Also on the programme were JS Bach’s cello Sonata in G major performed by Berthine van Schoor and Vivaldi’s trio Sonata in A minor for recorder, cello and continuo. Many recorder and violin students from the Unisa Music Foundation’s music empowerment projects in Soshanguve enjoyed the concert and were inspired to practise with renewed enthusiasm.

Unisa's Booth Harpsichord was built by Mr Colin Booth according to a 1728 model by Christian Zell. It has always been housed in the ZK Matthews hall, but will now be stored in the Film Auditorium since the acoustics of this smaller venue suit the softer sounds produced by the harpsichord. The mechanism of the harpsichord activates quills plucking the strings, while the hammers in a modern piano hit the strings.

Although the harpsichord was replaced by the pianoforte at the beginning of the 20th century, it is still used today for baroque music and modern music specially composed for it.

The Unisa Music Foundation's next concert will take place at 16:00 on Sunday 8 February 2009 in the newly renovated Unisa Conference Hall on the Sunnyside Campus. This concert will take the form of a violin and piano duo recital by Zoë Beyers (winner [violin] of the First Unisa National String Competition) and German pianist, Florian Uhlig.