Chamber Music New Zealand and the Royal Society of New Zealand Present

Transcription

1 Chamber Music New Zealand and the Royal Society of New Zealand Present

2 It would be possible to describe absolutely everything scientifically, but it would make no sense. It would be without meaning, as if you described a Beethoven symphony as a variation of wave pressure.

3 Einstein s Universe 1 The Illustrated Talk 5.30pm Professor Brian Foster, accompanied by violinist Jack Liebeck, discusses the ideas that have shaped our concepts of space, time and the universe, and looks forward to new developments. Duration: 80 minutes The Concert 8pm Duration: 100 minutes (including interval) Martinů Madrigal Stanzas 14 Mozart Violin Sonata in E minor K Bloch Baal shem 16 Samuel Holloway Matter 17 INTERVAL Brahms Piano Quintet in F minor 18 Palmerston North Auckland New Plymouth Christchurch Dunedin 17 July 22 July 24 July 29 July 30 July The Auckland and Wellington concert and talks are being recorded for broadcast by Radio NZ Concert 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.

4 The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead.

5 Einstein s Universe 3 Welcome The Royal Society of New Zealand is honoured to collaborate with Chamber Music New Zealand to bring you tonight s exciting programme, which joins together the brilliance of Einstein s physics with the music he loved. Brian Foster and Jack Liebeck first toured New Zealand with the Einstein s Universe illustrated talk four years ago. That talk proved immensely popular and we were therefore delighted when Chamber Music New Zealand suggested expanding the programme to include a full concert. As the national academy of scholars, the Royal Society of New Zealand promotes knowledge and excellence in the sciences, technology and humanities. Einstein s Universe brings together a wealth of excellence and knowledge outstanding musicianship set alongside the latest findings from the world s top physics laboratories. I hope when you leave this evening, you will have gained a greater appreciation of both, and an insight into the world of Albert Einstein. Dr Di McCarthy Chief Executive Royal Society of New Zealand Welcome everyone and a particularly warm welcome to those of you who have joined us specifically for this programme that centres on the genius of Albert Einstein. Jack Liebeck and Stephen De Pledge toured for us back in 2009, the same year that Brian Foster came to New Zealand with his revelatory presentations. Soon after, the plan was hatched to expand the size of the ensemble and combine an illustrated talk and concert on the same stage. Jack and his wife Victoria are joined by Andrew and Julia Joyce (both NZSO principals) and Stephen De Pledge. Because of conflicting NZSO commitments, we are also pleased to introduce Lara Hall and James Tennant both members of the very successful NZ Chamber Soloists. Another vital Kiwi connection is composer Samuel Holloway, who is the Mozart Fellow at the University of Otago. His brand new work Matter has been written for this occasion. This project has been made possible because of our partnership with the Royal Society of New Zealand and we are excited to be working with them for the first time. So sit back, open your hearts and minds and be inspired! Euan Murdoch Chief Executive Chamber Music New Zealand

6 4 Chamber Music New Zealand Einstein s life and work The trouble with you, Mr Einstein, is that you can t count! Fritz Kreisler (in rehearsal) TIME Magazine s Man of the Century Albert Einstein has received such attention that he has reached a mythical status in modern culture. A non-conformist who hated collective action, he followed his own path through life, revelling in discovering and redefining physics in his own way. Albert was born in Ulm in the south of the German Empire in From a young age Albert picked up both his father s interest in engineering and his mother s appreciation of the arts. At five, he began to build mechanical devices, and started to learn to play the violin, although his full appreciation of music didn t develop until later. This was also the time of Albert s first introduction to physics. On receiving a compass from his father, the persistent orientation of the needle to the north left a profound impression. Later in life he recalled the experience and his realisation that something deeply hidden had to be behind things. In 1984 the Einstein family had to move in search of business after his father s electronics company failed. While his father, sister and mother travelled to northern Italy, Albert stayed in Munich to finish his early studies. Contrary to popular belief, he achieved good results at the first schools he attended but struggled with the concept of rote learning, believing it to be crushing to the spirit and prompting him to compare his teachers to drill sergeants. At sixteen he sat the entrance examinations for further study at a polytechnic in Zurich. Although he excelled in mathematics and physics, he was denied entry due to his difficulties engaging with other areas of the curriculum. It has been suggested that he was at some level autistic and this has

7 Einstein s Universe 5 also been posited to explain his initial reluctance to interact as a child and may have given rise to the myth that he was a slow learner. However, on the strength of his maths and physics abilities, he was accepted elsewhere and finished off his secondary school studies, going onto enrol in a mathematics and physics teaching diploma at the Institute of Technology in Zurich. When he graduated he wanted to find a teaching post but after two years of searching he settled for becoming an assistant examiner at the Swiss Federal Office for Intellectual Property where he evaluated patent applications for electromagnetic devices. This position allowed him to pursue his interest in the transmission of electric signals and the electrical-mechanical synchronization of time. These ideas would be fundamental to his formulation of a connection between time and space. In 1905, still at the patent office, he finished off his PhD and penned four groundbreaking papers on the photoelectric effect, Brownian motion, special relativity and the equivalence of mass. His productivity during that year was so remarkable that the year has become known as his annus mirabilis (miracle year). Although other papers of his had been published in prestigious publications, these four papers were to set the cornerstone of his academic career. He would eventually be awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1921 for his paper on the photoelectric effect but when his theories of relativity were also experimentally validated, Albert became Einstein, the prominent public figure and the most famous scientist of our times. Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world. Interview by George Sylvester Viereck 1929

8 6 Chamber Music New Zealand All religions, arts and sciences are branches of the same tree. All these aspirations are directed toward ennobling man s life, lifting it from the sphere of mere physical existence and leading the individual towards freedom. Out of My Later Years 1937 Throughout the 1920s Einstein travelled widely. In 1933, whilst returning from one of many visits to the United States, he decided not to return to Germany due to the rise of the Nazi party and settled briefly in Belgium and the UK. Later he was informed that his cottage was raided by the Nazis and he formally renounced his German Citizenship. As he had Jewish heritage, Einstein s work was amongst those targeted by Nazi book burnings and his name was added to a list of assassination targets. The next time he returned to America, he stayed and took up a professorship at Princeton University. Alongside his increasing visibility as a famous member of society, Einstein became involved in public issues, joining other scientists in a famous letter to alert the US President of ongoing Nazi atomic bomb research in Einstein was offered the presidency of Israel in 1952 but declined the position saying that he was deeply moved by the offer and saddened that he could not accept. After many years of being in the public eye and of further scientific research, Einstein died in 1955, aged 76, from internal bleeding after he refused surgery, announcing that I want to go when I want. It is tasteless to prolong life artificially. I have done my share, it is time to go. I will do it elegantly. Dr Paul Behrens Royal Society of New Zealand

9 Einstein s Universe 7 Brian Foster is Professor of Experimental Physics at Oxford University, and the European Director for the Large Hadron Collider at CERN. His undergraduate study was at the University of London and he graduated with a D Phil from Oxford University in Since then he has held research and teaching positions at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Imperial College London, University of Bristol and Oxford University, where he is a Fellow of Balliol College. In 1999 he was awarded the Alexander von Humboldt Research Prize, and in 2003 received the Max Born Medal and Prize. He was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 2003, was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2008, and has served as Chair of the European Committee for Future Accelerators and a member of UK Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council and the Council of the Institute of Physics. He was awarded an Alexander von Humboldt Foundation Research Professorship in 2010, in conjunction with the University of Hamburg and Deutsches Elektronen- Synchrotron (DESY), where he also holds the position of Leading Senior Scientist.

10 8 Chamber Music New Zealand Einstein s music If I were not a physicist, I would probably be a musician. I often think in music. I live my daydreams in music. I see my life in terms of music... I get most joy in life out of music. Einstein s love for music is well-known. His mother was a pianist, and he began violin lessons at the age of six, although it wasn t until he met Mozart s sonatas at the age of thirteen that his interest in music really began to take off. Mozart remained a favourite all his life, and Einstein s violin, which he called Lina, never left his side from that day on. Many accounts of his playing remain: Just before his 17th birthday Albert played at a music examination in the cantonal school. The inspector reported that a student called Einstein shone in a deeply felt performance of an adagio from one of the Beethoven sonatas. In addition to his prowess on the violin, he also played the piano and, in particular, loved to improvise music helped him in his work. His second wife, Elsa, gives a rare glimpse of their home life in Berlin. As a little girl, I fell in love with Albert because he played Mozart so beautifully on the violin, she once wrote. He also plays the piano. Music helps him when he is thinking about his theories. He goes to his study, comes back, strikes a few chords on the piano, jots something down, returns to his study. Students and colleagues remember this. Music would drift from his office windows at Princeton, and he eagerly seized any opportunity to play, taking part in the regular chamber music evenings with some of the most famous musicians of his day - Fritz Kreisler, Isaac Stern, Artur Rubinstein, Pablo Casals. Einstein was president of the Bloch Society of which Brian Foster is currently the vice-president and he took part in public concerts, playing the organ at synagogues and contributing to benefit concerts for Jewish causes. Foster himself has researched the topic extensively: at one such event a critic, unaware of Einstein s real claim to fame as a physicist, wrote Einstein plays excellently. However, his world-wide fame is undeserved. There are many violinists who are just as good.

11 Einstein s Universe 9 Tonight s programme has been assembled from works we believe he played he kept a library of scores in his office, many of them well-thumbed, including the Martinů Stanzas that he performed with celebrated pianist Robert Casadesus. In Foster s words: The physics revolutionary who overturned the classical universe of Newton was nonetheless deeply conservative in his musical tastes. He adored Mozart and worshipped Bach, of whom he wrote in response to an editor, I have this to say about Bach s works: listen, play, love, revere and keep your trap shut. Beethoven he admired but did not love, while Schubert, Schumann and Brahms gained only guarded and partial approval Of Wagner he said, I admire Wagner s inventiveness, but I see his lack of architectural structure as decadence. Moreover, to me his musical personality is indescribably offensive so that for the most part I can listen to him only with disgust. Despite having been offered the chance to own a Guarneri, Einstein preferred to play a much less distinguished violin, leaving the great instruments to those whom he felt really needed their power and complexity. Towards the end of his life, as he felt facility leaving his left hand, he laid down his violin and never picked it up again. However, Einstein never lost his love for the instrument. As he once said, I know that the most joy in my life has come to me from my violin. Charlotte Wilson Artist Development Manager Chamber Music New Zealand There are many musicians with much better technique, but none, I believe, who ever played with more sincerity or deeper feeling. Janos Plesch With thanks to Professor Brian Foster, The Hebrew University, and Physics World (from which article these extracts were taken, January 2005).

12 10 Chamber Music New Zealand Jack Liebeck violin Jack Liebeck studied at London s Purcell School and Royal Academy of Music, and gave his first concerto performance with the Hallé Orchestra when he was fifteen, gave his Wigmore recital debut in 2002 to a sold-out audience. Since then he has performed with leading orchestras and conductors throughout Europe, and at numerous festivals such as Cheltenham, Kuhmo, Aldeburgh, Spoleto and the Australian Festival of Chamber Music. He has collaborated with other noted chamber musicians, including Renaud and Gautier Capuçon, Bengt Forsberg, Lynn Harrell, Angela Hewitt and Jean-Yves Thibaudet. Jack Liebeck is also a member of the Fibonacci Sequence chamber ensemble. In 2004 his debut recording, with pianist Katya Apekisheva, was selected as CD of the week by The Telegraph, and his 2009 recording of the Dvořák Concerto and Sonata earned him the 2010 Classical Brit Award. The following year he released a CD of the complete Brahms Sonatas to wide acclaim. During the World Year of Physics in 2005, Jack Liebeck began working with Brian Foster to present lectures that connected the scientific work and musical interests of Albert Einstein. The Oxford May Music Festival was developed to continue exploring this link between science and the arts, and Jack Liebeck is the Festival s Artistic Director.

13 Einstein s Universe 11 Stephen De Pledge piano New Zealand pianist Stephen De Pledge began his studies in Auckland with Margaret Crawshaw and Bryan Sayer, then undertook postgraduate studies at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London with Joan Havill. He was chosen for the NFMS Young Concert Artists Award in 1996, and his acclaimed Wigmore Hall debut in 1999 has been followed by regular recitals there. In addition to solo recitals, he has performed with noted musicians including the Berlin Philharmonic Wind Quintet, violinist Viktoria Mullova, violist Rivka Golani and cellist Colin Carr. Stephen de Pledge has a strong interest in contemporary music, and commissioned a suite of works from leading New Zealand composers, entitled Landscape Preludes, which received its first complete performance at the 2008 NZ International Festival of Arts. In 2010 he returned to New Zealand to become Senior Lecturer in Piano at Auckland University.

14 12 Chamber Music New Zealand with Victoria Sayles violin (Holloway, Brahms Quintet) Lara Hall viola (Hamilton, Napier, Palmerston North) Julia Joyce viola (Auckland, Wellington, New Plymouth, Nelson, Christchurch, Dunedin, Invercargill) Victoria Sayles studied at the Royal College of Music, London, and won the Countess of Munster Musical Trust Recital Scheme in She is now Assistant Leader of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, and a member of the English, London and Scottish Chamber Orchestras. As a chamber musician, she has performed across Britain with pianist Martin Cousin, and has collaborated with other leading performers at festivals such as Bangalow (Australia), Gstaad (Switzerland), Prussia Cove and Oxford May Music. Victoria Sayles has a particular interest in encouraging young musicians, and is Director of the Winterschool programme at the Australian Festival of Chamber Music. Lara Hall is Lecturer in Violin and Viola at the University of Waikato, a member of the New Zealand Chamber Soloists and Concertmaster of the Opus Chamber Orchestra. After completing a degree at the University of Auckland, she undertook graduate study at the University of Michigan and attended the Aspen Summer School. She has been Concertmaster of the New Zealand National Youth Orchestra and Auckland Chamber Orchestra, and has released a CD of Fantasias for solo violin by Telemann. Julia Joyce graduated from Victoria University, then studied at the Guildhall School in London. While there, her group won the Guildhall String Quartet Competition, and she was selected to represent the Guildhall at the 2007 Sun Festival in Singapore. In 2010 she joined the viola section of the Philharmonia

15 Einstein s Universe 13 Orchestra, and in 2011 she returned to New Zealand to take up the position of Principal Viola with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra. She is a member of the Puertas Quartet, which reached the semi-finals of the Bordeaux International Competition in 2010, and which has toured for Chamber Music New Zealand. James Tennant studied at the University of Michigan and was a member of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and a recording artist for the Motown label. He moved to New Zealand in 1982 and has performed as a soloist with local orchestras around the country, and toured extensively as a chamber musician. He is currently teaching cello and chamber music at the University of Waikato, and is member of the New Zealand Chamber Soloists, the Tennant-Austin duo and the Ogen Trio. Andrew Joyce attended the Purcell School of Music in London, and then the Royal College of Music, before taking up a DAAD scholarship to study at the Musikhochschule Lübeck. He has been a freelance player with the London Symphony and London Philharmonic Orchestras, been Guest Principal with the Northern Sinfonia, Bournemouth Symphony and Royal Philharmonia Orchestras, and in 2010 was appointed Principal Cellist of the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra. He has performed regularly with pianist Simon Watterton, the Jigsaw Players, Bartholdy Trio and Puertas Quartet. James Tennant cello (Hamilton, Napier, Palmerston North) Andrew Joyce cello (Auckland, Wellington, New Plymouth, Nelson, Christchurch, Dunedin, Invercargill)

16 14 Chamber Music New Zealand Bohuslav Martinů born polička, bohemia, 8 december 1890 died liestal, switzerland, 28 august 1959 Madrigal Stanzas Moderato Poco allegretto Bohuslav Martinů was a largely self-taught composer. Expelled from the Prague Conservatory because he apparently didn t conform to the rather rigid form of learning there he preferred to read widely and attend concerts. He then worked for some years as a teacher and violinist, eventually joining the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra. He also had lessons with the composer Josef Suk, and continued composing prolifically. Martinů s style, though, was not appreciated in Prague, and in 1923 he moved to Paris to study composition with Roussel. Successful performances of works written in the late 1920s led to an increasing international reputation, and support from conductors such as Serge Koussevitsky. At the start of World War II, Martinů s support for refugees from the Nazi invasion of Czechoslovakia meant that he had to flee when the Germans reached Paris, and he eventually emigrated to the United States in He received several important commissions for new works, taught composition at the Tanglewood School, and in 1948 took up a teaching position at Princeton University, where he met and became friends with Albert Einstein. Martinů returned to Paris in 1953 on a Guggenheim fellowship, then taught in Italy for two years and eventually settled in Switzerland. From his early years, Martinů was influenced by a wide range of musical styles, most notably jazz and impressionism, as well as his colleagues Janaček and Dvořák, both of whom incorporated the sounds of the Czech language in their compositions. Martinů also developed an interest in Renaissance polyphony after hearing English madrigals in the early 1920s, and from the late 1930s began writing vocal and instrumental works with madrigal in the title. The Madrigal Stanzas were composed in 1943 for two fellow residents of Princeton, New Jersey: the physicist and amateur violinist Albert Einstein, and the French concert pianist Robert Casadesus. Five Stanzas were written altogether, of which two will be played tonight. The Madrigal reference is heard in the independent instrumental lines that weave together in a contrapuntal manner, and Martinů s Czech heritage can be detected in the characteristic cross-rhythms of the Poco allegretto. Recognition of the abilities of the performers also help to shape the work, with the piano providing a subtly virtuoso energy to complement the violin s simpler, singing melodies.

17 Einstein s Universe 15 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart born salzburg, 27 january 1756 died vienna, 5 december 1791 Violin Sonata in E minor K 304 Allegro Tempo di Minuetto As a prodigy on both the keyboard and violin, it is perhaps natural that Mozart should have written for the two instruments in combination. His violin sonatas fall into two distinct periods. The first sixteen were composed during a European concert tour when he was still a child, and were published in three different centres Paris, London and The Hague between 1764 and After a twelve-year gap Mozart returned to the violin sonata, publishing two further sets and four individual sonatas between 1778 and He also wrote two sets of variations for violin and piano, as well as a number of unfinished works. The Violin Sonata K304 is one of six published in Paris in 1778, and carries a dedication to Maria Elisabeth, Electress of the Palatinate. In a letter to his father, Mozart explained that he had taken six violin sonatas by a fellow composer, Joseph Schuster, as his model. Most of Mozart s Palatine sonatas follow the accepted two-movement format of the time. In his treatment of the violin, however, they herald a new direction for the duo sonata. During the mid-1700s, the accompanied sonata generally consisted of a selfsufficient keyboard part, accompanied by another instrument. Mozart s early violin sonatas follow this pattern, but the later sonatas including K304 give the violin a more independent line, and introduce genuine melodic interplay between the two instruments. This sonata is also unique among Mozart s violin sonatas in being the only one he wrote in a minor key. As if to recall the old style, the sonata begins with the violin and piano in unison. The violin soon asserts itself, though, developing its own version of the opening theme. Mozart s writing in the Allegro is alternately wistful and heroic, and when the violin and piano converge at key points the music takes on a more dramatic character. The Tempo di Minuetto has a poignancy underlying its surface elegance. A short Trio interlude introduces a note of simple lyricism before a return to the formal minuet music. Mozart s music is so pure and beautiful that I see it as a reflection of the inner beauty of the universe. Albert Einstein

18 16 Chamber Music New Zealand Ernest Bloch born geneva, 24 july 1880 died portland, oregon, 15 july 1959 Baal shem Vidui Nigun Simchas Torah By his mid-twenties, Bloch had studied violin and composition in Brussels (taking lessons with the virtuoso violinist Ysaÿe), Frankfurt, Munich and Paris and absorbed the leading styles of the time, including late- Romanticism and impressionism. He then spent ten years back in Geneva, working in his father s business, conducting, lecturing and composing. During this time he began to incorporate Jewish elements in his music, most notably in his Psalm settings, Israel Symphony, and cello piece Schelomo. While visiting the United States as a conductor for a ballet tour in 1916, he was offered a teaching post at the new Mannes College of Music, and his family moved to New York to live. He quickly established himself there as a leading composer, winning the Coolidge Prize in 1919 (with his Suite for viola and piano), conducting successful concerts of his own music, and signing a contract with the publisher Schirmer. At the age of 30 he became the founding Director of the Cleveland Institute of Music, and five years later moved to the San Francisco Conservatory of Music as their Director. During the 1930s a grant from the University of California and the Stern family enabled Bloch to live and work in Europe, but increasing anti-semitism there in the build-up to World War II persuaded him to return to America, and in 1940 he became a professor at Berkeley, California, where he remained until he retired. Baal shem was composed in 1920 and the title refers to the 18 th century Polish founder of the Hassidic movement, who was known as Baal Shem Tov [Master of the Good Name]. Bloch had attended a Hassidic service in New York in 1918 and the music he heard there affected him deeply, and inspired much of his later composing. The work is dedicated to his mother, and was written for the Swiss violinist André de Ribaupierre who was visiting the Cleveland Institute at the time. The first movement, Vidui [Contrition] was initially called meditation, and is an intensely personal prayer of repentance. Nigun [Improvisation] is often played on its own. The central stylised dance is framed by outer sections that feature passionate violin melodies. In the final Simchas Torah [Rejoicing in the Holy Scriptures] Bloch quotes from a Polish Yiddish song, and the two instruments bounce musical phrases back and forth in a festive manner.

19 Einstein s Universe 17 Samuel Holloway born pukekohe, 5 september 1981 Matter Currently the 2013 Mozart Fellow at Otago University, Samuel Holloway studied with John Elmsly and Eve de Castro-Robinson at Auckland University, and has taught both there and at Unitec in Auckland. In New Zealand he has received the Composers Association Trust Fund Award in 2006, held the position of composer-in-residence at the Lilburn Residence in Wellington in , and had an APRA Professional Development Award in He is the Artistic Director of the contemporary music ensemble 175 East. Samuel Holloway has also had success overseas, representing New Zealand at the International Society for Contemporary Music s 2007 World Music Days Festival in Hong Kong, where his piano trio Stapes won the ACL Young Composer Competition. His work has been selected for the 2014 World Music Days Festival in Poland. Matter, for piano quartet, was commissioned by Chamber Music New Zealand for this tour. The composer writes: During my research for this work, I was struck by the extremities of the scale of the phenomena considered by physics, from elementary particles to universes, the infinitesimally small to the unimaginably huge. I became fascinated too by the notion of a correspondence between the micro and the macro, an idea that has preoccupied many, from the Neo-Platonist philosophers and practitioners of Hermeticism, to William Blake ( To see a world in a grain of sand ) and perhaps even physicists in their ongoing search for a grand unifying theory. Recently I have also been thinking about Powers of Ten, the 1977 film by Charles and Ray Eames, an adventure of magnitudes from which my piece takes structural cues, and the speculative cosmology of Romanian artist Stefan Bertalan. This work is a modest reflection on these things. The mind is stretched, uncomfortably sometimes, but with a new fascination... to the thought of worlds that lie a million light-years away from us, to the worlds that recede in evolutionary time beneath the lens, to the thought even that they merge or that by some extraordinary trick of relativity the smaller may contain the large. There is an affinity between the telescope and microscope, between the discovery of stellar space and the discovery of the atom. William Gaunt, introducing W Watson-Baker s World Beneath the Microscope (1935)

20 18 Chamber Music New Zealand Johannes Brahms born hamburg, 7 may 1833 died vienna, 3 april 1897 Piano Quintet in F minor Allegro non troppo Andante, un poco adagio Scherzo. Allegro Trio Finale. Poco sostenuto Allegro non troppo Brahms grew up in Hamburg, where his father earned a precarious living playing the double bass and various other instruments. After initial instruction on the piano with his father, the young Brahms showed exceptional musical talent, and received free lessons by Hamburg s leading teacher, who gave him a thorough grounding in contrapuntal techniques and a love of Bach, Mozart and Beethoven. After leaving school he earned a living as a pianist and piano teacher. The Hungarian revolution in 1848 led to many refugees travelling to America via the port of Hamburg, and the music they brought with them made a lasting impression on Brahms. This influence was strengthened during a concert tour with the Hungarian violinist Eduard Reményi in During their travels Brahms was introduced to another virtuoso violinist, Joseph Joachim, and the two men became life-long friends and colleagues. Joachim encouraged Brahms to meet Robert and Clara Schumann, and at the age of 20 Brahms travelled to Düsseldorf where his visit to the Schumann household made him further significant, life-long friendships. The history of the Piano Quintet in F minor demonstrates the composer s penchant for self-criticism. The work was originally written in 1861 as a string quintet with two cellos, but the following year he produced a version for two pianos (later published as Opus 34b), and in 1865 he re-worked the music for publication as the Piano Quintet Opus 34. The Quintet is planned on a large scale, using small-scale motifs to create connections. The melodic shape of the strong opening statement reappears in the more urgent first theme, and pairs of percussive chords introduce a falling semitone idea that become an integral part of the reflective second theme, albeit in a very different character. A heavily modified recapitulation obscures the A-B-A form of the Andante, as does Brahms use of accompanying material from the opening to support the central section. In typical Brahms style, the Scherzo eschews undue lightness for an intense succession of ideas and metrical styles, relieved by the more reflective central Trio section. After a solemn introduction, the final movement settles into a folk-like passage that recurs in the manner of a rondo, although Brahms again typically uses the reiteration of thematic material as an opportunity for further development. A final Presto section rounds the Quintet off in a suitably grand manner.

21 Chamber Music New Zealand Presents GOLDNER STRING QUARTET with PIERS LANE (piano) Touring New Zealand 21 September 5 October Auckland 3 Oct Hamilton 2 Oct New Plymouth 5 Oct Napier 28 Sept Palmerston North 27 Sept Wellington 30 Sept Nelson 21 Sept Christchurch 22 Sept Dunedin 24 Sept Invercargill 25 Sept Featuring music by Schubert, Elgar, Mendelssohn, Franck and a new work by Gareth Farr Visit chambermusic.co.nz for concert details and how to buy tickets. /ChamberMusicNZ chambermusic.co.nz 0800 CONCERT ( ) a group of the highest international class The Guardian

22 20 Chamber Music New Zealand Board Chair, Peter Diessl, Paul Baines, Michelle van Gaalen, Roger King, Helen Philpott, Gretchen La Roche, Lloyd Williams. Staff Chief Executive, Euan Murdoch Business Manager, Jenni Hall Business Support Co-ordinator, Sue Jane Operations Co-ordinator, Jessica Lightfoot Office Administrator, Brooke Singer Artist Development Manager, Charlotte Wilson Programme Co-ordinator (Contest), Anna Sedcole Programme Co-ordinator (Contest), Pip Want Programme Writer, Jane Dawson Audience Development Manager, Victoria Dadd Marketing & Communications Assistant, Candice de Villiers Ticketing & Database Co-ordinator, Laurel Bruce Design & Print, Chris McDonald Publicist, Sally Woodfield Branches Auckland: Chair, Victoria Silwood; Concert Manager, Ros 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, Karen Carter Wellington: Concert Manager, Jessica Lightfoot; Nelson: Chair, Henrietta Hannah; 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, Morrinsville, Motueka, Rotorua, Taihape, Tauranga, Te Awamutu, Tokoroa, Upper Hutt, Waikanae, Waimakariri, Waipukurau, Wanaka, Wanganui, Warkworth, Wellington, Whakatane and Whangarei. Regional Concerts & Other Events New Zealand Guitar Quartet Whangarei, 27 July Kaitaia, 28 July Whanganui, 1 August Warkworth, 3 August Christchurch, 25 August Barocca (baroque ensemble) Christchurch, 8 September Antipodes String Trio Blenheim, 2 August Cromwell, 4 August Whangarei, 14 August Whanganui, 17 August Level 4, 75 Ghuznee Street PO Box 6238, Wellington Tel (04) Fax (04) info@chambermusic.co.nz For all Concerts Managers /ChamberMusicNZ phone 0800 CONCERT ( ) Chamber Music New Zealand 2013 No part of this programme may be reproduced without the prior permission of Chamber Music New Zealand.

23 A Special Thank You to all our Supporters Education: W & M BEAR CHARITABLE TRUST MARIE VANDEWART TRUST FARINA THOMPSON CHARITABLE TRUST Chamber Music New Zealand acknowledges all donations and support at branch level: Auckland: THE EDGE New Plymouth: TSB Community Trust Hawkes Bay: Eastern & Central Community Trust, Endeavour Community Trust, Infinity Foundation Manawatu: Eastern & Central Community Trust Wellington: Positively Wellington Venues Christchurch: Trust Aoraki, Mainland Foundation, Canterbury Community Trust Dunedin: Dunedin City Council, Otago Community Trust Southland: Community Trust of Southland; Invercargill Licensing Trust Accommodation: Crowne Plaza Auckland, InterContinental Wellington Coffee supplier: Karajoz Coffee Company Chocolatier: de Spa Chocolatier Floral Supplier: Global Living

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