Baroque Bridges

Join the combined forces of award-winning chamber group Ensemble Hesperi and the renowned South African Buskaid Soweto String Ensemble for a once-in-a-lifetime performance of Baroque and Early Classical music.

For this special collaborative project, generously supported by the Continuo Foundation, Hesperi and Buskaid present a joyful programme of familiar favourites and lesser-known gems for strings, recorder and harpsichord, building musical bridges across time, borders and cultures.

Music to include a string arrangement of Johann Sebastian Bach’s motet Singet dem Herrn ein neues Lied; two sparkling movements from Georg Philipp Telemann’s suite in A minor for recorder and strings; a string symphony by the French composer and performer of African descent Joseph Bologne; a stunning trio sonata by George Fredrick Handel; and charming dances by British-African abolitionist and composer Ignatius Sancho.

The concert will also feature compelling rhythms and haunting melodies from Jean Philippe Rameau, one of the Buskaid musicians' favourite composers, and we celebrate both ensembles' affection for Henry Purcell with a selection of incidental music from King Arthur and Faerie Queen.

The concert will end, as Buskaid concerts always do, with Kwela music, an improvised genre of street music with roots in traditional African township music and anti-apartheid protest songs, arranged and performed (with dance moves!) by members of the Buskaid ensemble.