22/08/2026
DA CAPO QUARTET FINDS HARMONY CLOSE TO HOME
by David Wilson
Overstrand Arts/Kunste’s Sunday afternoon concert on 16 August at the Hermanus Civic Auditorium provided a welcome reminder that fine musicians do not always have to travel from Cape Town or further afield to appear on a Hermanus stage. All four members of the Da Capo Quartet are Overstrand residents, making this performance both a celebration of chamber music and of the considerable musical talent found within our own community.
Still a relatively new ensemble, Da Capo brings together flautist Tracey Burger, pianist Colleen Labuschagne, cellist Barbara Kennedy and Debi Best on clarinet and saxophone. They were joined for several of the lighter and more rhythmically driven works by guest drummer Steve Goold.
Despite its name, Da Capo is not a quartet in the conventional string-quartet sense. Its distinctive combination of flute, clarinet or saxophone, cello and piano gives it a broad tonal palette. Nor did all four musicians participate in every work. Trios at times emerged from the full ensemble as the programme progressed, allowing individual voices to come forward and ensuring that the afternoon continually changed in colour and texture.
The programme ranged boldly across several musical worlds. It opened with Thomas Lauderdale and Pepe Raphael’s atmospheric La Soledad, followed by Vincenzo Di Chiara’s colourful La Sp****la. These established an immediately warm, continental mood before Brahms’s familiar Hungarian Dance No. 5 introduced sharper rhythmic contrasts and a surge of energy.
A Bach Sonata in G minor brought the programme back towards the formal clarity of the classical tradition, while two selections from Max Bruch’s Eight Pieces, Op. 83—Rumänische Melodie and Nachtgesang—provided a more introspective Romantic centre. Here the combination of clarinet, cello and piano was particularly effective, the darker instrumental colours lending warmth and emotional depth.
The first half then moved almost mischievously into another world with Duke Ellington’s It Don’t Mean a Thing (If It Ain’t Got That Swing) and Vincent Youmans’s ever-popular Tea for Two. The appearance of the guest drummer added rhythmic lift without overpowering the chamber character of the ensemble. This transition from Bruch’s reflective lyricism to Ellington’s swing might have seemed improbable on paper, but in performance it felt natural and refreshing.
After the interval, Ede Poldini’s delightful La Poupée valsante reopened proceedings with charm and lightness. Carl Maria von Weber’s Trio in G minor, Op. 63, for flute, cello and piano then provided one of the more substantial classical statements of the afternoon. Its inclusion demonstrated that Da Capo is capable of moving beyond familiar melodies into music requiring sustained ensemble concentration and close communication.
Jacob Gade’s celebrated tango Jalousie returned the audience to the world of dance, followed by three contrasting miniatures by Paul Juon: Rêverie, Elegie and Danse phantastique. Their succession of reflection, tenderness and animated movement seemed almost to summarise the structure of the concert itself.
The closing selections, Fermo Dante Marchetti’s enduring Fascination and Barclay Allen’s lively Cumaná, brought the afternoon to an appropriately spirited conclusion.
What made this wide-ranging programme work was an underlying alternation between song and dance. Lyrical pieces such as La Soledad, Nachtgesang, Rêverie and Fascination were balanced by the rhythmic vitality of the Hungarian Dance, Ellington’s swing, Poldini’s waltzing doll, Gade’s tango and the Latin-American momentum of Cumaná. Rather than sounding like an unrelated collection of favourites, the programme developed a recognisable pattern of reflection and release.
Each musician contributed a distinct character: Burger’s flute brought brightness and agility; Kennedy’s cello added warmth and depth; Best’s movement between clarinet and saxophone expanded the ensemble’s range; and Labuschagne’s piano provided both its harmonic foundation and rhythmic cohesion. The changing combinations also prevented the programme from becoming tonally predictable.
For a quartet still developing its collective identity, Da Capo displayed considerable imagination in selecting music that was accessible without becoming commonplace. Most importantly, the three, four and sometime five musicians appeared to enjoy making music together, and that sense of shared pleasure communicated itself naturally.
OAK frequently brings distinguished visiting artists to Hermanus. On this occasion, it showed that an engaging and varied concert could be created by four musicians who already call the Overstrand home.
