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Evening cloud over Cape Town

I also recall that I encountered another strange aberration of the South
African sensibility while sipping my morning fresh coffee (with fresh cream!).
One of my favourite magazines was The Gramophone, a well-written quality
British publication with lots of pictures of musicians, record sleeves and
orchestras. I sought one out in a couple of bookstores, but found none, not even
outdated samples. However, I did find a locally produced ‘equivalent’, and quickly
realised why the real thing was missing; there were many supremely gifted black
musicians in the real world, and recognition of any such qualities was verbode. So,
therefore, was the magazine. (This ethical stupidity had been the focus of a drama
in 1962, when Stravinsky had come to South Africa to conduct his music and
been told that he would conduct some concerts with white audiences and only
one with a black audience. Declaring that he conducted only for ‘people’ he, as the

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