Behn Quartet. Core Funder. Chamber Music New Zealand presents. Behn Quartet. Touring NZ 14 April 1 May 2018

Transcription

1 Core Funder Behn Quartet 1 Chamber Music New Zealand presents Behn Quartet Touring NZ 14 April 1 May 2018

2 CHAMBER MUSIC NEW ZEALAND presents BEHN QUARTET DVOŘÁK String Quartet No. 12 in F Major, op. 96 ( American ) Pg 3 JACK BODY Three Transcriptions Pg 4 Interval RAVEL String Quartet in F Major Pg 5 Duration: 100 minutes including interval. Friday 20 April, 7.30pm Tuesday 24 April, 7.30pm Friday 27 April, 7.30pm Globe Theatre Palmerston North Nelson Centre for Musical Arts Civic Theatre Invercargill* For Regional Series tour information see page 8. * Presented in association with Southland Arts Festival 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 Kia ora tātou We are pleased to present the Behn Quartet (named after the 17th- century writer Aphra Behn) during the 125th anniversary year of women s suffrage in New Zealand. That s a happy coincidence, though. We didn t go looking for an all-women quartet. We did, though, take a special interest in these talented young musicians who all met at the Royal Academy of Music. Kate Oswin, the first violin, is a New Zealander who grew up in Christchurch and studied at the New Zealand School of Music before heading to London. She and her friends are making quite an impression. It was good to see them last year in a Wigmore Hall coaching session with the Takács Quartet. It will be even better to hear them live. During this tour, the Behn Quartet will give the opening concert in the newlyrefurbished Nelson School of Music Auditorium (part of the Nelson Centre of Musical Arts). We have been hanging out for this. For the past few years, while the Nelson School of Music was closed for earthquake strengthening, CMNZ concerts have been in Old St John s Church which is fine acoustically but challenging on cold nights. Audiences and artists alike will delight in once again being able to experience chamber music in such a beautiful, safe and comfortable space. And now it that superb concert venue is surrounded by new and upgraded facilities of an exceptional standard. I would like to congratulate and thank all of those in Nelson who have worked so hard to bring this about. Continuing down the country, we are also proud once again to be part of the vibrant Southland Arts Festival. Now supporting over 40 events, we've admired how much it's grown since Peter Walls Chief Executive Music Up Close Puoro Taupiri Chamber Music New Zealand

4 2 Chamber Music New Zealand BEHN QUARTET KATE OSWIN & ALICIA BERENDSE, violins LYDIA ABELL, viola GHISLAINE MCMULLIN, cello The Behn Quartet is formed of players from New Zealand, the Netherlands, England, and Wales. Winners of the Charles Hennen First Prize at the Orlando International Chamber Music Competition 2017, they currently hold the CAVATINA Chamber Music Fellowship at the Royal Academy of Music in London. They take their name from Aphra Behn, the seventeenth-century playwright, political activist, and philanthropist of the arts. Since their formation in 2015 the Behn Quartet have given recitals around Europe, including at the West Cork Chamber Music Festival, String Quartet Biennale Amsterdam, in association with Dimore del Quartetto, and at Wigmore Hall with thanks to the Maisie Lewis Young Artists' Award. They gave the world premiere of Sir Peter Maxwell Davies final work at his Memorial Concert in St John s Smith Square and live on BBC Radio 3, and have recorded chamber works by Maxwell Davies, Stravinsky and Birtwistle for Linn Records. The Behn Quartet were also part of the official 40th Anniversary celebrations of Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen, performing a specially-commissioned reimagination of the iconic song featured in news outlets worldwide, and praised by Rolling Stone Magazine as a sweeping performance as grand as the original. The Behn Quartet currently study with Christoph Richter and David Waterman on the ChamberStudio masterclass scheme at Kings Place London, and have performed for the Takács Quartet in a masterclass on Beethoven at Wigmore Hall. Future engagements include their Concertgebouw debut as part of the Orlando Competition Winner s Tour in the Netherlands, and a performance of Mendelssohn Octet as part of their Residency at the Wiltshire Music Centre with the Doric Quartet. The Behn Quartet are generously supported by Help Musicians UK, the De Lancey & De La Hanty Foundation, and the CAVATINA Chamber Music Trust. The Quartet plays instruments and bows kindly on loan by the Royal Academy of Music and Hurwitz Fine Instruments.

5 Behn Quartet 3 ANTONÍN DVOŘÁK ( ) String Quartet No. 12 in F Major, op. 96 ( American ) (1893) I. Allegro ma non troppo II. Lento III. Molto vivace IV. Finale: vivace ma non troppo For all the verve and theatricality of Dvořák s folk music melodies, an underlying sense of profundity makes String Quartet No.12 a work to which you can keep returning. Dvořák, with Smetana and Janáček, is considered a principal composer of the nationalist movement in what was to eventually become The Czech Republic. Of the three, Dvořák s music has had an enduring effect on synthesising traditional Czech folk traditions (and folk traditions Dvořák heard elsewhere) and western symphonic genres. After a thorough musical upbringing and study at the Prague Organ School, Dvořák spent nine years as an orchestral violist, performing a wide range of orchestral and operatic repertoire, mostly under Smetana s directorship. In 1873, Dvořák received the Austrian National Prize for his Third Symphony, impressing a panel that included Johannes Brahms. Dvořák won the prize a second time two years later, leading to several commissions among them a violin concerto for Brahms friend and virtuoso Joseph Joachim. In 1891 Dvořák became a professor at the Prague Conservatory, then a year later was invited to direct the National Conservatory of Music in New York. Dvořák s most notable works from the three years he spent in the USA are the Ninth Symphony ( From the New World ) and the String Quartet No. 12 ( American ). In these works, he draws on both the American folk traditions he had newly discovered and his intense feelings of homesickness. Despite modelling the opening theme on Smetana s first quartet, Dvořák s melody appears to also convey the ebullient freshness of the American folk tunes he adopted, blurring the colours of nationalistic material in this context. Some of the nostalgia-heavy second movement carries into the third movement, but retreats from the spontaneity of springing folk interludes. 27 minutes

6 4 Chamber Music New Zealand JACK BODY ( ) Three Transcriptions (1988) I. Long-ge (China) II. Ramandriana (Madagascar) III. Ratschenita (Bulgaria) Three Transcriptions illustrates Jack Body s interpretive intelligence as he transforms sound across genres, highlighting in equal measure the closeness and distance of diverse musical cultures. As a kind of musical translation, transcription inevitably invites interpretation and recreation of an original sound. Each movement of Three Transcriptions shares a dialogue between the distinct musical traditions Jack Body encountered around the world on one hand, and, on the other, the string quartet as part of the western art music tradition. He held a life-long fascination for Asian music and culture, particularly of China and Indonesia, and undertook fieldwork in both countries. Body s travels in China to record folk music in 1986 led him to compose the first movement of Three Transcriptions, Long-ge. The movement transforms music originally played on a Chinese Jew s (or jaws) harp in the Yi nationality of Southwest China. Ramandriana, the following movement, reimagines Maroranzana, from Madagascar playing bamboo tube zithers called valiha, in this setting for string quartet. The third movement, Ratschenita, brings to life an excited 7/8 dance by the Varna Folk dance Group from the Shops area of Bulgaria. After studies in Auckland, Cologne and Utrecht, Body spent a year as a guest lecturer in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. He returned to New Zealand in the late 1970s and, from 1980, taught and composed at Victoria University of Wellington s School of Music for thirty years. Here he built strong crosscultural connections not only in his teaching and compositions, but also by initiating programmes for traditional musicians to work collaboratively with staff and students. Body wrote Three Transcriptions for the Kronos Quartet in 1988, and credited the work as giving him his break. 15 minutes

7 Behn Quartet 5 MAURICE RAVEL ( ) String Quartet in F Major (1904) I. Allegro moderato très doux II. Assez vif très rythmé III. Très lent IV. Vif et agité Pairing Ravel s multiplicity of ideas and imaginative, yet controlled tonal language makes plain why this String Quartet has become a favourite in the repertoire. Perhaps surprisingly, Ravel dedicated his String Quartet to Gabriel Fauré, his teacher at the conservatoire who found fault with this work: Fauré had dismissed Ravel from his composition classes for failing to win a prize for the first movement, and believed the last movement too short and unbalanced. Allegedly, however, Ravel s near-contemporary Debussy, upon whose quartet Ravel modelled his own, provided reassurance and the encouragement such a self-confessed perfectionist probably needed. Critics were divided after the Heymann Quartet premiered the work in Paris in 1904, and noted the similarities to Debussy s music, which had itself received little critical attention at this point. Indeed, each composer uses their opening theme as a base from which to create cohesion within the work. They developed their thematic material differently, however. While Debussy connects his movements with a single theme, Ravel creates an elusive cyclical thread that can be identified through its contour, rather than by rhythmic or melodic patterns. In the first movement Ravel uses a whole tone scale and tritone to colour his pastoral soundscape. The second movement disruptively layers plucking and bowing, forcing you to focus on the textures rather than follow the linear form. The third movement provides the clearest reference to the initial thematic material as the tempo rushes and subsides. The rhythmic drive and melodic leaps of Vif et agité bring the String Quartet to a dazzling end. Ravel melds innovative tonality into traditional forms, crafting orchestral colours that reveal his interests spanned from the atmospheric timbres of Javanese Gamelan he heard at the 1889 Paris World Fair, to the clarity of such French Baroque masters as Rameau. 35 minutes

8 Photo: Andi Crown MUSIC UP CLOSE Help Share The Joy Pubs. Parks. Street corners, stages. New York, London. Tonight, here. Last month Anderson & Roe brought joy to thousands of concertgoers across Aotearoa with their dazzling performances. Now the inspirational women of Behn Quartet change up the tempo, their strings making hearts sing and setting toes tapping. We want to bring more New Zealanders up close to this music, close enough to touch, with another year of award-winning Touch Tours and Audio Described concerts personal encounters between musicians and the blind community who have not had the chance to experience music, quite like this. "The students really enjoyed being able to hear what was happening as it was happening and the explanations of who and what they were wearing and all the little things that they never get to`see' they were told they loved it." JUDE SHELLEY We need your support to present Music Up Close in Can you help share the joy? Visit: chambermusic.co.nz/donate Phone:

9 Thank You! To all of our generous donors who support CMNZ throughout the year. Behn Quartet 7 Founders' Circle Members Anonymous Graeme Edwards Arnold and Reka Solomons The Estate of Jenni Caldwell The Estate of Aileen Claridge The Estate of Walter Freitag The Estate of Chisne Gunn The Estate of Warwick Gordon Harris The Estate of Joan Kerr The Estate of Monica Taylor Ensemble ($10,000+) Anonymous Robin & Sue Harvey Kaye & Maurice Clark Gill and Peter Davenport Peter and Carolyn Diessl Professor Jack Richards Octet ($5,000+) M Hirschfeld Children's Trust Hylton LeGrice and Angela Lindsay The Lyons Family - in memory of Ian Lyons Kerrin and Noel Vautier Lloyd Williams and Cally McWha Quintet ($2,500+) Joy Clark John and Trish Gribben Ann Harden Jane Kominik Collin Post Arnold and Reka Solomons Peter and Kathryn Walls Quartet ($1,000+) Anonymous (2) Donald and Susan Best Roger and Joanna Booth Philip and Rosalind Burdon MD and MA Carr Rick and Lorraine Christie Roger Christmas The Cranfylde Charitable Trust Peter and Rae Fehl Finchley Trust Dame Jennifer Gibbs Patricia Gillion David and Heather Hutton Linda MacFarlane Elizabeth McLeay Roger and Jenny Mountfort Barbara Peddie Roger Reynolds Martin and Catherine Spencer Basil & Jenny Stanton Alison Thomson Ann Trotter Judith Trotter Anna Wilson Bruce Wilson and Jill White Ann Wylie David Zwartz Trio ($500+) Anonymous (5) Diane Baguley Philippa Bates Harry and Anne Bonning JD Cullington Jonathan Cweorth Graeme and Di Edwards Hanno Fairburn Tom and Kay Farrar John Farrell Anne French Consulting Ltd Belinda Galbraith Pat Gibson Laurie Greig Douglas and Barbara Holborow E Prof Les Holborow Michael Houstoun and Mike Nicolaidi Caroline List Fiona Macmillan and Briony Macmillan Margaret Malaghan Raymond and Helen Matias AE McAloon Andrew and Mary McEwen Shelley and Euan Murdoch Prue Olde Miles Rogers Sylvia Rosevear Peter and Juliet Rowe John and Kathryn Sinclair Ross Steele Priscilla Tobin David Tripp Patricia Unger Richard and Elaine Westlake Tim Wilkinson Every gift of $5 or more is eligible for tax purposes and provides you with a tax credit, a receipt will be issued for tax deduction purposes.

10 REGIONAL CONCERTS Board Lloyd Williams (Chair), Quentin Hay, Gretchen La Roche, Bruce Phillips, Matthew Savage, Vanessa Van den Broek, Kerrin Vautier Staff Chief Executive, Peter Walls Artistic Manager, Catherine Gibson Artistic Assistant, Jack Hobbs Education and Outreach Coordinator, Sue Jane Operations Coordinator, Rachel Hardie Development Manager, TBC Development Executive, Virginia Close Marketing Manager, Shelley Davis Design & Print Coordinator, Darcy Woods Marketing Executive, Alessandra Orsi Ticketing & Database Coordinator, Laurel Bruce Publicity & Communications Executive, Anna van der Leij Office Administrator, Becky Holmes BEHN QUARTET (violin, violin, viola, cello) Kerikeri Whangarei Rotorua Wellington Upper Hutt Cromwell Christchurch 14 April 15 April 18 April 22 April 23 April 28 April 1 May Branches Auckland: Chair, Victoria Silwood; Concert Manager, Bleau Bustenera Hamilton: Chair, Murray Hunt; Concert Manager, Gaye Duffill New Plymouth: Concert Manager, Catherine Martin Hawkes Bay: Chair, June Clifford; Concert Manager, Rhondda Poon Manawatu: Chair, Graham Parsons; Concert Manager, Virginia Warbrick Wellington: Concert Manager, Rachel Hardie Nelson: Chair, Annette Monti; Concert Manager, Clare Monti Christchurch: Concert Manager, Jody Keehan Dunedin: Chair, Terence Dennis; Concert Manager, Richard Dingwall Southland: Chair, Rosie Beattie; Concert Manager, Jennifer Sinclair TORU (flute, viola, harp) Motueka Gore Lower Hutt Wanganui 9 May 13 May 16 May 17 May Regional Presenters Marlborough Music Society Inc (Blenheim), Christopher's Classics (Christchurch), Cromwell & Districts Community Arts Council, Geraldine Academy of Performance & Arts, Musica Viva Gisborne, Music Society Eastern Southland (Gore) Arts Far North (Kaitaia), Aroha Music Society (Kerikeri), Chamber Music Hutt Valley, Motueka Music Group, Oamaru Opera House, South Waikato Music Society (Putaruru), Waimakariri Community Arts Council (Rangiora), Rotorua Music Federation, Taihape Music Group, Tauranga Musica Inc, Te Awamutu Music Federation, 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. Level 4, 75 Ghuznee Street PO Box 6238, Wellington 0800 CONCERT ( ) info@chambermusic.co.nz /ChamberMusicNZ Warkworth Tauranga Rotorua Gisborne MAZZOLI TRIO (violin, viola, cello) Kerikeri OL' KING COLE [piano, double bass, guitar] Touring 19 May 20 May 22 May 25 May 8 June June Chamber Music New Zealand 2018 No part of this programme may be reproduced without the prior permission of Chamber Music New Zealand.

11 THANK YOU A special thank you to all of our sponsors and funding partners. Core Funder Supporting Funder National Touring Partners National Business Partners Regional Partners Education & Community Partners Key Funding Partners CMNZ recognizes the following funders who generously support our work. Funding Partners Bendigo Valley Charitable Foundation Community Trust of Southland Dunedin City Council Eastern & Central Community Trust First Light Community Foundation Four Winds Foundation Invercargill Licensing Trust Judith Clark Memorial Fund Mt Wellington Foundation New Plymouth District Council Otago Community Trust Pelorus Trust Pub Charity Rātā Foundation Southern Trust The Adam Foundation Trust House Trust Waikato TSB Community Trust Turnovsky Endowment Trust Wellington City Council Wellington Community Trust Winton & Margaret Bear Charitable Trust

12 CHAMBER MUSIC NEW ZEALAND PRESENTS Phantasm Pearls of Polyphony: Miraculous counterpoint from William Byrd to Bach The playing is quite simply divine. Gramophone Editor s Choice Touring NZ: 30 April 6 May For booking information visit Scan code via Spotify: chambermusic.co.nz/phantasm 0800 CONCERT ( )