Have you ever been involved in the Chamber Music Contest in any way? Our Alumni includes people of all ages who have been involved since it began!

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2 Join The Alumni Have you ever been involved in the Chamber Music Contest in any way? Our Alumni includes people of all ages who have been involved since it began! Join the Contest Alumni and get the latest information on how we ll be marking the 50th Jubilee as well as insider scoop, social get-togethers, special offers and more. Sign up at: chambermusic.co.nz/contest-alumni For the Future of the Contest The 50th Jubilee Appeal aims to establish a new endowment fund of $250,000 to ensure the legacy of this nationwide event. Chamber Music New Zealand would like to thank our generous donors whose pledges have already enabled us to reach 44% of this target. Core Patron: Sir James Wallace KNZM Gold Jubilee Patrons: Paul and Sheryl Baines, Donald and Susan Best, Philip and Rosalind Burdon Graeme and Di Edwards, Ann Harden (in memory of Joan Kerr) Tom and Ann Morris, Roger and Catherine Taylor, Lloyd Williams and Cally McWha To support the appeal visit chambermusic.co.nz/support-us 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.

3 Brodsky Quartet 1 Welcome Kia ora and welcome to the first concert of Chamber Music New Zealand s 2015 Kaleidoscopes season. The Brodsky Quartet have been playing together since they were teenagers. In the 50th anniversary year of our Chamber Music Contest, it is good to be reminded that some of the young musicians we will hear in June may one day be internationally admired is also the centenary of the birth of Douglas Lilburn, whose works are featured in a number of our programmes later in the year. Douglas described the impact that the Bartók String Quartet No 5 had on him and his students. It was, he said, the most lucent, most moving and exciting work, brilliant in its structure and the virtuosity of its string writing. Altogether, I hope that you will find the Brodsky Quartet s programmes similarly stimulating and enjoyable. I have just taken up the role of Chief Executive with Chamber Music New Zealand, an organization that I have long admired. I look forward to meeting you at our concerts. Peter Walls Chief Executive Chamber Music New Zealand Programme Purcell Chaconne in G minor page 4 Britten Poème page 4 Bartók String Quartet No 5 page 5 Interval Beethoven String Quartet in page 6 B flat Opus 130 Hamilton Napier Wellington Christchurch Invercargill 18 March 20 March 26 March 28 March 31 March The Wellington concert is being recorded for broadcast by Radio NZ Concert

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6 4 Chamber Music New Zealand Henry Purcell Born London, ca 10 September 1659 Died London, 21 November 1695 Chaconne in G minor (Arranged by Britten) Benjamin Britten Born Lowestoft, 22 November 1913 Died Aldeburgh, 4 December 1976 Poème Baroque composer Henry Purcell is probably the most influential English composer of all time. The deep respect of his contemporaries is reflected in the musical tributes that were played at his funeral, and his popularity is all the more remarkable since he was only 36 when he died. The son of a court musician, he probably became a chorister at the Chapel Royal as a boy, then went on to become composer for the royal orchestra at the age of 18, and two years later organist at Westminster Abbey. He wrote the Chaconne (or Chacony) in G minor probably either for a quartet or small orchestra. It uses a French courtly dance form, in which the upper parts develop a set of variations over a repeated short harmonic pattern. Some 250 years later Benjamin Britten arranged the work, retaining the original pitches but enhancing some rhythmic elements and notating dynamics and other colouristic indications for the performers. Britten is now widely recognised as one of the 20th century s most important composers, although it wasn t until the first performance of his opera Peter Grimes in 1945 that his reputation was established. Like Purcell, Britten showed his talent early, and by the time he was introduced to the composer Frank Bridge at the age of 14 he had written more than 100 pieces, including several works for string quartet. Bridge played a vital role in Britten s musical development, broadening his musical horizons and teaching him to think carefully about every note he wrote. One of the first compositions for his new teacher was the Quartet in F of 1928, from which we will hear the second movement tonight. This simple but melodious Andante re-works material from one of Britten s own Three Poems for String Quartet, written the previous year. It shows an astonishing level of maturity in its use of sparse, clear textures.

7 Brodsky Quartet 5 Béla Bartók Born Nagyszentmiklós, Hungary (now Sînnicolau Mare, Romania), 25 March 1881 Died New York, 26 September 1945 String Quartet No 5 Allegro Adagio molto Scherzo: Alla bulgarese Trio Andante Finale: Allegro vivace Presto In addition to his remarkable career as a composer and concert pianist, Bartók was also a pioneer in the field of ethnomusicology. He and his friend Kodaly collected more than 16,000 recordings of folk music performances from Hungary and the surrounding region, and this work profoundly influenced Bartók s own compositional style. Elements such as uneven metres, pentatonic melodies, dissonant coincidences of melodic lines, and even the atmospheric sounds of the countryside at night can all be related back to his collecting trips. Bartók gradually melded these with the Western music traditions that had formed the basis of his musical training. By the time he wrote the String Quartet No 5, he had developed a strong individual voice, and was beginning to gain a reputation as a composer, particularly outside Hungary. The Quartet was commissioned by the American arts patron Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge, composed in the summer of 1934, and first performed in Washington the following year by the Kolish Quartet from Vienna. It is written in an arch form, with the central Scherzo movement itself a symmetrical structure. As indicated by the title, Bartók has written in a Bulgarian style, using typical rhythms from Bulgarian folk music, although the melodies are his own. The central Trio has the unusual rhythmic pattern and its increasingly dense textures give a sense of stasis, while the more obviously dance-like Scherzo that surrounds it has a pattern of beats. The slow second and fourth movements both contain night music sounds, in which one can imagine the sounds of small creatures going about their business, under a muted cloak of darkness. In both these movements, the nocturnal effects form a background to human-sounding melodies and chorale-like passages. The first movement is another arch form, with its three main themes returning inverted and in reverse order in the second half. The final movement returns to the energetic style of the first, and includes a short section that seems to simulate the sound of a barrel organ. This is thought to be Bartók s ironic response to critics who complained that his music needed to be simpler.

8 6 Chamber Music New Zealand Ludwig van Beethoven Baptised Bonn, 17 December 1770 Died Vienna, 26 March 1827 String Quartet in B flat Opus 130 Adagio ma non troppo Presto Andante con moto, ma non troppo Alla danza tedesca Cavatina Allegro Encore, CMNZ s Supporter Programme, provides many avenues for you to help guarantee that others can continue to enjoy chamber music, just as you do today. You can play a vital part in the future of chamber music in New Zealand by giving to our Foundation. We thank all our donors for their generous support. For more information about Encore, visit The last decade of his life was a difficult personal time for Beethoven. His hearing had gone, he had frequent stomach upsets, and many of his aristocratic patrons had suffered financially from the Napoleonic wars and could no longer support him. Musically, however, he was achieving great things, with successful premières of the Mass and Ninth Symphony in He was commissioned in 1822 by Prince Nikolay Galitzin of St Petersburg to write three quartets, but could not begin work on them until two years later. The first (Opus 127) was completed in February 1825 and he immediately began work on the second (Opus 132). That work was not finished until July due to a serious illness that kept Beethoven confined to his bed. The third, which became the Quartet in B flat (Opus 130) was written later in 1825, and at the end of that remarkable year he began work on a fourth work, the Quartet in C sharp minor (Opus 131), which was completed by mid-1826.

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10 8 Chamber Music New Zealand Regional Concerts & Other Events Board Chair, Roger King, Paul Baines, Gretchen La Roche, Sarah Sinclair, Lloyd Williams, Vanessa Van den Broek Staff Chief Executive, Peter Walls Business Manager, Jenni Hall Business Support Coordinator, Gemma Robinson Operations Coordinator, Rachel Hardie Artist Development Manager, Catherine Gibson Programme Coordinator (Education and Outreach), Sue Jane Programme Writer, Jane Dawson Alumni Correspondent, Salina Fisher Audience Development Manager, Victoria Dadd Marketing & Communications Coordinator, Candice de Villiers Ticketing & Database Coordinator, Laurel Bruce Design & Print, Darcy Woods Publicist, Sally Woodfield Office Administrator, Becky Holmes Branches Auckland: Chair, Victoria Silwood; Concert Manager, John Giffney Hamilton: Chair, Murray Hunt; Concert Manager, Gaye Duffill New Plymouth: Chair, Joan Gaines; Concert Manager, Susan Case Hawkes Bay: Chair, June Clifford; Concert Manager, Liffy Roberts Manawatu: Chair, Graham Parsons; Concert Manager, Virginia Warbrick Wellington: Concert Manager, Rachel Hardie Nelson: Chair, Annette Monti; 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 Marlborough Music Society Inc (Blenheim), Cromwell & Districts Community Arts Council, Musica Viva Gisborne, Music Society Eastern Southland (Gore), Kaitaia Community Arts Service, Aroha Music Society (Kerikeri), Chamber Music Hutt Valley, Motueka Music Group, South Waikato Music Society Inc (Putararu), Waimakariri Community Arts Council (Rangiora), Rotorua Music Federation, Taihape Music Group, Tauranga Musica Inc, Upper Hutt Music Society, Waikanae Music Society, Wanaka Concert Society Inc, Chamber Music Wanganui, Warkworth Music Society, Wellington Chamber Music Trust, Whakatane Music Society, Whangarei Music Society. Menagerie South (clarinet/violin/piano) Kerikeri 10 April Tauranga 12 April Rangiora 2 May New Zealand String Quartet *with Stephen De Pledge, piano Motueka Blenheim Waikanae Rotorua Wellington* 16 April 17 April 19 April 21 April 26 April Trio Amistad (flute/sax/guitar) Wellington 3 May Gore 10 May Motueka 12 May Whangarei 15 May Warkworth 16 May Tauranga 17 May Gisborne 19 May Andrew Beer & Sarah Watkins (violin/piano) Rotorua 23 March Rangiora 27 March Cromwell 29 March Warkworth 12 April Wellington 21 June Level 4, 75 Ghuznee Street PO Box 6238, Wellington 0800 CONCERT ( ) info@chambermusic.co.nz /ChamberMusicNZ

11 Chamber Music New Zealand thanks the following organisations for their ongoing support National Partners Concert Partners Carolyn and Peter Diessl, Deane Endowment Trust, Turnovsky Endowment Trust Corporate ABRSM, Apra Amcos Charitable Trusts and Foundations Supporting the Brodsky tour ASB Community Trust, Asia NZ Foundation, Community Trust of Southland, Dragon Community Trust, Eastern and Central Community Trust, Endeavour Community Foundation, Four Winds Foundation, IHC Foundation, Infinity Foundation, Invercargill Licensing Trust, James Wallace Arts Trust, The Lion Foundation, Marie Vandewart Music Trust, Otago Community Trust, Stout Trust, The Canterbury Community Trust, Trevkel Music Trust, TSB Community Trust Business Partners Absolutely Positively Wellington City Council, Auckland Live, Base Two, Community Post, Infosoft, Karajoz Coffee, KBB Music, KPMG, Miller Strategies, Phantom, ROSL, SOUNZ, Sparks, Tohu, Victoria University Accommodation Crowne Plaza Auckland, Nice Hotel New Plymouth, County Hotel Napier, Intercontinental Wellington, Kelvin Hotel Invercargill Chamber Music New Zealand 2015 No part of this programme may be reproduced without the prior permission of Chamber Music New Zealand.

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