Chamber Music New Zealand Presents

Fred Turnovsky, who arrived in New Zealand in 1940, was a member of a small group of refugees from Europe who infl uenced immeasurably our cultural life. Having grown up in Prague, one of the undisputed cultural centres of Europe, he was struck by the fact that professional music, which he had taken for granted, did not appear to exist in his adopted country.

With his drive and dedication he set about, in a positive and practical way, to foster the Arts, especially music. In collaboration with other music enthusiasts he established what we call today 'Chamber Music New Zealand' and was a driving force in the early days of opera in New Zealand.

He also established the Turnovsky Endowment Trust which has, over a period of many years, generously supported the Arts. Fred died in

1994 but his family, in wishing to fulfi l his vision of a strong cultural environment, continues to foster the Arts through the Turnovsky Endowment Trust.

We hope you enjoy the performances by the outstanding Doric String Quartet.

Helen PhilpottTrusteeTurnovsky Endowment Trust

Helen was awarded Life Membership of Chamber Music New Zealand in May of this year in recognition of her outstanding national contribution to the success of the organisation.

From the Tour Supporters

Please respect the music, the musicians, and your fellow audience members, by switching off all cellphones, pagers and watches. Taking photographs, or sound or video recordings during the concert is strictly prohibited unless with the prior approval of Chamber Music New Zealand.

1Doric String Quartet

ProgrammeWelcome

Welcome and thanks for joining us this evening!

It’s our pleasure to welcome back the Doric String Quartet for their second tour to New Zealand. Many of us will remember their superb performances on tour with Piers Lane back in 2010. Since then, they have performed throughout the world and their recordings on the Chandos label featuring Haydn, Korngold, Schubert and Schumann have won many awards and accolades.

One of these fi ne CDs convinced our tour supporters to sponsor them and we are very grateful to the Turnovsky Endowment Trust for making this tour possible.

Please sit back and enjoy a programme of masterworks presented by an outstanding new generation British string quartet that has emerged over the past decade.

Euan MurdochChief ExecutiveChamber Music New Zealand

Haydn String Quartet Op 76 No 6 6

Brett Dean Eclipse 7

Interval

Schubert String Quartet in G D887 8

Dunedin 17 JulyHamilton 22 JulyNapier 23 JulyWellington 25 JulyChristchurch 31 July

Doric String Quartet will also adjudicate the National Finals of the NZCT Chamber Music Contest in Christchurch, 1-2 August.

The Wellington concert is being recorded for broadcast by Radio NZ Concert

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NZCT Chamber Music ContestNational Finals, 1–2 AugustCharles Luney Auditorium St Margaret’s College | ChristchurchAdjudicated by the Doric String QuartetFREE entry for CMNZ Subscribers. Simply call the box offi ce to reserve your free ticket.For more details visit: chambermusic.co.nz

Join The AlumniThe 50th anniversary of the NZCT Chamber Music Contest is approaching.The event reaches the milestone in 2015 and Chamber Music New Zealand will be celebrating with wonderful events, concerts and festivities!Have you ever been involved in the contest in any way? Sign up at: chambermusic.co.nz/contest-alumni

Encore, CMNZ's Supporter Programme, provides many ways of gifting your support.

You can support the future of chamber music in New Zealand by giving to our Foundation.

We thank all contributors for their generous support.

For more information about Encore, visit chambermusic.co.nz/support-us

3Doric String Quartet

Alex Redington violinJonathan Stone violinHélène Clément violaJohn Myerscough cello

The Doric String Quartet has established itself as one of Britain’s fi nest young ensembles, combining technical precision with deep musical insight. Formed in 1998 at The National School for Young Chamber Music Players, the Quartet joined the Paris-based ProQuartet Professional Training Program in 2002, then studied at the Music Academy in Basel. It was selected for representation by the Young Concert Artists Trust in 2006, and made its Edinburgh Festival debut that year. Two years later the Quartet won the Osaka International Chamber Music Competition in Japan, and was awarded second prize in the Premio Paolo Borciani in Italy.

Now a regular visitor to major festivals and venues in Europe, the Doric String Quartet made its fi rst visit to Australia and New Zealand in 2010, and later that year made their debut in America, where they are now a regular visitor. Before this tour, the group has been performing at the West Cork Music Festival, and will return to Britain to record the string quartets of Janáček.

The Quartet’s fi rst CD, featuring works by Haydn, was released on the Wigmore Live label, and was Editor’s Choice in Gramophone Magazine in 2010. Since then, the group has issued recordings of Walton and Schumann (both of which were nominated for Gramophone Awards), as well as two featuring Korngold, and most recently Schubert.

“The Doric Quartet … have a compelling sense of how Schumann’s moods can

turn on a musical sixpence.”

BBC Music Magazine, December 2011

Doric String Quartet

4 Chamber Music New Zealand

Performers are a vital part of the musical scene in any country, inspiring local composers and building loyal chamber music audiences. One of the fi rst British ensembles to become prominent in recent history was the London String Quartet. It was formed in 1908 and toured extensively around the world, championing new works by British composers such as Bridge, Delius, Elgar, Ethel Smythe and Vaughan Williams. The group was making one of its many recordings at the time of the fi rst air raid on London, in 1917, and chose to keep working despite the danger. Albert Sammons, the fi rst violinist, clearly had a good eye for marketing opportunities, since he later said: “If we could only have recorded the sound of the bombs dropping in the middle of it we would have sold thousands of the records”.

String Quartet Yearthe British tradition

Sammons also encouraged his pupil Samuel Kutcher to form a group in 1922, and the Kutcher String Quartet became one of Britain’s leading ensembles until its dissolution in 1940. The players premièred works by British composers including Bax and Bliss, but also introduced audiences to the work of contemporary European composers. Its choice of music was not always appreciated, though, with one reviewer complaining after hearing a work by Alfredo Casella in December 1926: “In England …. musicians ought to think twice before playing such frigid music at this season of the year.”

The Spencer Dyke Quartet was also active in England during the 1920s and made the fi rst recordings of many standard works, for the newly-formed National Gramophonic Society.

Amadeus Quartet

5Doric String Quartet

However, when the young composer Benjamin Britten noted in his diary in 1932 that he had listened to the Spencer Dyke Quartet playing Beethoven’s Quartet in F minor and Bridge’s Three Idylls, he commented rather caustically that the compositions were so good that “even the quartet’s murderous playing couldn’t murder them”.

One of fi rst quartets to be brought to this country by the newly-formed Federation of Chamber Music Societies (now Chamber Music New Zealand) was the Griller Quartet, which opened the 1951 season. At the time, the musicians had been playing together for 23 years and they performed the quartet written for them by Arnold Bax. Musicologist John Thompson described their visit as “a milestone in New Zealand’s post-war music history”. They returned in 1953 and as well as performing 26 concerts around the country they tutored at a chamber music school in Cambridge.

In 1958 the Amadeus Quartet – then eleven years old – made the fi rst of many visits,

returning in 1966, 1972, 1977 and fi nally in 1986, a year before the death of viola player Peter Schidlof caused the group to disband.

Concerts by the Allegri Quartet in 1961 and 1963 included performances of the Second Quartet by Tippett, which had been written for the group in 1941. Their visit had another signifi cance for following generations of New Zealanders: the cellist, William Pleeth, suggested the idea of a competition for secondary school students to Arthur Hilton, then chair of the Federation. That idea has grown into today’s annual NZCT Chamber Music Contest.

Audiences in the later part of last century also enjoyed visits by the Gabrieli (1975, 1980, 1984), Aeolian (1977), Chilingirian (1979, 1985, 1988), Endellion (1983, 2001) and Britten Quartets (1992). The fi rst of the new generation of performers was represented by the Belcea Quartet, who visited in 2002 and played the Britten Quartet No 3, a work written for the Amadeus Quartet in 1975.

This second tour by the Doric String Quartet is a welcome continuation of a long connection between British and New Zealand musical establishments.

Griller Quartet

Endellion Quartet

6 Chamber Music New Zealand

Joseph HaydnBorn Rohrau, Lower Austria, 31 March 1732Died Vienna, 31 May 1809

String Quartet In E fl at Opus 76 No 6 Allegretto – AllegroFantasia: AdagioMenuetto: PrestoFinale: Allegro spirituoso

Haydn is generally considered the ‘father’ of the string quartet, and even he noted that he began writing for the ensemble after his patron suggested he add a viola part to some trios he was working on. The resulting combination was hugely successful, and it held Haydn’s attention as a composer for some 46 years, during which he wrote a total of 83 string quartets.

Due to a loosening of his employment conditions at the court of Prince Esterhazy, Haydn was able to make two trips to England, in 1791 and 1794. There he was celebrated and honoured, receiving a Doctorate from Oxford University and performing for enthusiastic audiences.

On his return to Vienna in 1795, Haydn began work on his large-scale oratorios The Creation and The Seasons, and also a set of string quartets that had been commissioned by Count Joseph Erdody. These six quartets were published as Opus 76 in 1799, and the music critic Charles Burney wrote to congratulate Haydn, saying: “I have never received more pleasure from instrumental music – they are full of invention, fi re, good taste and new eff ects”.

The Quartet in E fl at is remarkable for its level of thematic interconnection, with much of that based on inventive uses of a simple scale passage. In a departure from the usual pattern, the fi rst movement is a set of variations, fi nishing with an energetic fugue.

The following slow movement is written as a Fantasia and has been described as a “harmonic labyrinth”, beginning apparently in the unrelated key of B major (although the fi rst half has no key signature) and using a plethora of sharps and fl ats to modulate far and wide. It also ends with a B major chord in which the fi rst violin plays a D sharp, and with a subtle sleight of hand that note turns into its enharmonic equivalent (E fl at) at the beginning of the third movement.

The Menuetto has a typical Haydnesque wit and lightness, though its central trio section is unusual in its use of a scale-based fugato texture, in which all four instruments seem to follow each other around. The Finale is another brilliant romp, though with an unusual rhythmic irregularity that makes toe-tapping a little complicated.

7Doric String Quartet

Brett DeanBorn Brisbane, 23 October 1961

EclipseI Slow and spacious, secretiveII Unlikely FlightIII Epilogue

Brett Dean studied in Brisbane with Elizabeth Morgan and John Curro, then continued his studies in Germany. In 1985 he joined the viola section of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, where he worked for the next 15 years. During that time he also developed his compositional skills, and since his return to Australia in 2000 he has established himself as one of the leading contemporary composers in that country. Brett Dean is one third of the Dean-Emmerson-Dean Trio, which toured for Chamber Music New Zealand in 2005.

Written in a single movement with three distinct sections, Eclipse was commissioned by the Kölner Philharmonie and premièred by the Auryn Quartet in February 2003. Brett Dean wrote it in response to the 2001 Tampa crisis, which he describes as “a showdown between the Australian federal government’s increasingly hardline stance against boat people arriving illegally in Australian waters and the humanitarian resolve of a Norwegian sea captain, Arne Rinnan, whose actions as captain of the freighter, the Tampa, saved the lives of hundreds of refugees when their boat was in trouble in the treacherous waters between Indonesia and Australia”.

The composer writes:

“Despite its political gestation and subject matter, I don’t for a moment believe that a piece of music can change the political ways of the world and my Eclipse remains fi rst and foremost a piece of chamber music and as such can hopefully be appreciated and understood on its own terms. It does however go some way towards explaining its brooding, troubled and at times aggressive features. The fi rst section evolves as an exploration of sound and sonorities from which a motive of oscillating fi fths emerges in the lowest cello range, eventually permeating all instruments which in turn respond with a series of overtone-rich fl ageolet tremoli. This builds into a pizzicato texture, at the outset vigorous and chaotic, then quickly subsiding into a period of vagueness and mystery, descending further and leading into the second section, a nervous presto movement of constantly changing meter and jagged accents, the motor of which is still perpetuated by the oscillating fi fths.”

“If a solar eclipse represents a cusp of razor sharpness between light and dark, then these experiences were surely riding the cusp between life and death, between future and past, transcending any discussion based on politics of state and entering the realm of sheer existence. The drama of the middle section eventually dissipates into a more consolatory fi nal Epilogue where much of the preceding material is reconsidered in a diff erent, and altogether more sanguine light. Though not exactly a happy end, the ambivalent openness of the work’s fi nal chords seemed to me to be the only viable way of viewing this unfi nished saga.”

8 Chamber Music New Zealand

Franz SchubertBorn Vienna, 31 January 1797Died Vienna, 19 November 1828

String Quartet in G D887Allegro molto moderatoAndante un poco mossoScherzo; TrioAllegro assai

Although he studied piano and violin from an early age and was a choral scholar for four years at the Imperial-Royal City College in Vienna, Schubert was not a celebrated performer in his adult life, preferring to devote himself to composition. One consequence of this was that he struggled to interest publishers in his music, since the concert hall reputation of virtuoso players such as Hummel and Paganini was an important form of marketing at that time.

Schubert’s early successes were in the fi eld of solo songs – in 1815 alone, while he was working as a school teacher, he wrote 145 of them. Many of these became popular in Viennese musical salons, but Schubert never earned much money from his work. Even a song like Erlkönig, now one of his most well-known, was rejected by a publisher in 1817.

In 1825, as well as songs, a set of variations for piano duet and a Mass, Schubert wrote three piano sonatas. The Sonata in A minor D845 received particularly favourable reviews and fi nally established his reputation as a composer for piano.

His fi nancial situation, though, remained precarious, and when a friend invited him to

come on a summer holiday the following year, Schubert replied: “It is impossible for me to come to Gmunden or anywhere else, for I have absolutely no money, and everything else is going very badly with me. However, I am bearing up and in good spirits”.

Despite this comment, he had just fi nished writing what is considered to be his most innovative String Quartet, the Quartet in G D887, which he completed in just ten days. Sadly, Schubert seems never to have heard the work played – he died two years later, and the fi rst performance was in 1850, a year before publication.

In typical Schubert fashion, the impassioned introduction moves easily between major and minor keys. Although the movement is in a traditional sonata form, the central development section is minimised, with most of the real development of the two main themes happening in the surrounding exposition and recapitulation sections.

A song-like cello solo introduces the second movement, but the initial mood of suspended emotion is interrrupted by a return to the anguished outbursts that helped defi ne the fi rst movement.

The Scherzo provides the only extended passage of lightness in the quartet, with the main material counterbalanced by a languid and somewhat bucolic Trio. It is interesting to note the similarity with the Overture to A Midsummer Night’s Dream that the 17 year old Mendelssohn wrote later that same year, presumably unaware of Schubert’s Quartet. The fi nal Allegro assai returns to the bitter-sweet Schubertian style of the opening, with an exuberant sonata-rondo movement.

Level 4, 75 Ghuznee Street PO Box 6238, Wellington

Tel (04) 384 6133 Fax (04) 384 3773

info@chambermusic.co.nzwww.chambermusic.co.nz /ChamberMusicNZ

For all Concerts Managersphone 0800 CONCERT (266 2378)

BranchesAuckland: Chair, Victoria Silwood; Concert Manager, Ros Giff ney

Hamilton: Chair, Murray Hunt; Concert Manager, Gaye Duffi ll

New Plymouth: Chair, Joan Gaines; Concert Manager, Susan Case

Hawkes Bay: Chair, June Cliff ord; Concert Manager, Liff y Roberts

Manawatu: Chair, Graham Parsons; Concert Manager, Virginia Warbrick

Wellington: Concert Manager, Jessica Lightfoot

Nelson: Concert Manager, Clare Monti

Christchurch: Chair, Colin McLachlan; Concert Manager, Jody Keehan

Dunedin: Chair, Terence Dennis; Concert Manager, Richard Dingwall

Southland: Chair, Shona Thomson; Concert Manager, Jennifer Sinclair

Regional Presenters Blenheim, Cromwell, Gisborne, Gore, Hutt Valley, Kaitaia, Kerikeri, Morrinsville, Motueka, Rotorua, Taihape, Tauranga, Te Awamutu, Tokoroa, Upper Hutt, Waikanae, Waimakariri, Waipukurau, Wanaka, Wanganui, Warkworth, Wellington, Whakatane and Whangarei.

Staff Chief Executive, Euan MurdochBusiness Manager, Jenni HallOperations Coordinator, Jessica LightfootOffi ce Administrator, Rachel HardieArtist Development Manager, Catherine GibsonProgramme Coordinator (Contest), Pip WantProgramme Coordinator (Education and Outreach), Sue JaneProgramme Writer, Jane Dawson Audience Development Manager, Victoria DaddMarketing & Communications Coordinator, Candice de VilliersTicketing & Database Coordinator, Laurel BruceDesign & Print, Chris McDonaldEvent Coordinator, Keriata RoyalPublicist, Sally Woodfi eld

BoardChair, Roger King; Peter Walls, Paul Baines, Gretchen La Roche, Sarah Sinclair, Lloyd Williams.

© Chamber Music New Zealand 2014 No part of this programme may be reproduced without the prior permission of Chamber Music New Zealand.

Regional Concerts & Other Events

Antithesis (The Dalecarlia Clarinet Quintet)Warkworth, 18 JulyTauranga, 20 JulyWhakatane, 23 July

Ace Brass (brass trio)Tauranga, 17 AugustMotueka, 22 AugustWellington, 24 August

Koru Quintet (wind quintet)Gisborne, 22 AugustWarkworth, 24 August

Stephen de Pledge (piano)Wanaka, 31 AugustWarkworth, 14 September

Faust Quartet (string quartet)Wellington, 31 AugustLower Hutt, 2 SeptemberMotueka, 4 SeptemberBlenheim, 5 SeptemberWanganui, 7 SeptemberRotorua, 10 SeptemberWhangarei, 14 September

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