b'concertos as containing passages here and there from which the connoisseurs alone can derive satisfaction, but these passages are written in such a way that the less learned cannot fail to be pleased, though without knowing why. This concert features the first movement of the C major concerto with soloist Melvyn Tan, who not only visited South Africa in 2018 expressly to collaborate with the Buskaid Ensemble, but also donated his dazzling performance.Edward ElgarSospiri, Op. 70 The English composer Edward Elgar originally thought of calling this short work Soupir damour, dedicating it to his friend, the violinist Billy Reed, who was the leader of the London Symphony Orchestra. The title he eventually chose, Sospiri (meaning sighs), reflects far more accurately the depths of sorrow and sense of loss which he and his wife experienced following the untimely death of a close friend. Elgar composed Sospiri some months before the outbreak of the First World War, and it was first performed at a Promenade Concert in the Queens Hall, London on August 15, 1914, eleven days after the war had started. By sheer coincidence, Buskaids 2014 performance of this quintessentially English music, played by a group of young Black musicians based in Soweto, marked the 100th Anniversary of its premierdemonstrating very vividly that music is universal and knows no boundaries, political, cultural, or geographical.Dmitri Shostakovicharr. Levon Atovmyan/Marco CrispoFive Pieces for Two Violins These five short pieces were arranged for two violins and piano by Lev Atovmyan from various stage and film scores by Shostakovich. The Prelude is taken from Shostakovichs incidental music to the Russian film The Gadfly (1955). It is followed by the Gavotte and Elegy from his music for a stage production of Balzacs The Human Comedy. The Waltz which follows comes from the 1937 Soviet film The Return of Maxim, whilst the suite ends with the Polka from his ballet suite The Limpid Stream (1935).buskaid.org.za/ 17'