Chamber Music New Zealand Presents
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Kelemen Quartet 1 Welcome Programme A warm, summer welcome to our 2014 season, and the first of our stellar line-up of string quartets, which will bring you works from the heart of the repertoire during the year. I am particularly excited about hearing the Kelemen Quartet again, having been bowled over by their passion and concentrated energy in 2011 when they won the Audience Prize at the Melbourne International Competition. Since then, they have built up a busy international career, and we are fortunate to have persuaded them to visit and share their music-making with all ten Kaleidoscopes centres in association with the 2014 New Zealand Festival. Please join me in welcoming Barnabás, Katalin, Gábor and Ákos to New Zealand. Euan Murdoch Chief Executive Chamber Music New Zealand Mozart Kodály INTERVAL Haydn String Quartet in C K465 Dissonance 5 Serenade for two violins and viola Opus 12 6 String Quartet in D Opus 20 No 4 7 Bartók String Quartet No 4 8 Dunedin Invercargill Nelson Wellington* Palmerston North Napier Hamilton Auckland New Plymouth Christchurch 9 March 10 March 12 March 14 March 15 March 16 March 18 March 19 March 21 March 22 March *In association with the New Zealand Festival The Auckland and Wellington concerts 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.
2 Chamber Music New Zealand Kelemen Quartet Barnabás Kelemen Katalin Kokas Gábor Homoki Ákos Takács violin violin/viola violin/viola cello (guest) The Kelemen Quartet has quickly gained an international reputation for its exciting performances, and been hailed for its highly inflected and vividly interactive musicmaking. The group had been performing for just over a year when it was awarded the Musica Viva Australia Prize as well as overall Second Prize and Audience Prize at the 2011 Melbourne International Chamber Music Competition. Later that year they won the Beijing International Competition and the following year were placed first equal at the International Sándor Végh String Quartet Competition in Budapest. Since then, the Kelemen Quartet has toured throughout Europe, returned to perform in America, made its debut at London s Wigmore Hall, and featured at the West Cork Chamber Music Festival. They have recently toured India, and come to New Zealand fresh from a tour of Australia for Musica Viva. Each member of the Quartet is a prizewinning soloist in their own right, and all have studied at the Franz Liszt Academy in Budapest, where Barnabás Kelemen and Katalin Kokas have both taught for ten years. Barnabás has several acclaimed solo
Kelemen Quartet 3 recordings to his name, and in 2013 received a Gramophone Award for his recital CD of music by Bartók, with pianist Zoltán Kocsis. In addition to performing as a soloist on both violin and viola, Katalin is the founder and Artistic Director of the annual international chamber music festival Kaposfest, in her home town of Kaposvar. The Kelemen Quartet s debut recording was issued in 2010, and features the Dissonance Quartet by Mozart and Bartók s Fifth Quartet. Guest cellist Ákos Takács began playing the cello at the age of 7, and later studied at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest. He was a member of the Budapest Strings Chamber Orchestra for two years, and in 1996 joined the Auer Quartet, which won the Seventh London String Quartet Competition in 1997. As a member of the Auer Quartet, he has had a busy international career, and in 2000 the Quartet was awarded the coveted Lizst Prize by the Hungarian Government.
4 Chamber Music New Zealand String Quartets and the Hungarian Tradition Hungary has a strong claim to being the birthplace of the string quartet. Haydn, often described as the Father of the String Quartet, was employed for most of his life by a family of Hungarian noblemen, the Princes of Esterhazy, to manage their court music and musicians, mainly at their country estate. Although he was not the first to write for a group of two violins, viola and cello, Haydn elevated the combination to the status of a classic chamber ensemble, giving each instrument a role in the musical texture. Joseph Haydn was the Budapest Quartet, which performed here in 1937 and returned in 1963 to tour for Chamber Music New Zealand. The Hungarian Quartet, noted for its virtuoso leader Zoltán Székely, toured three times in the early 1960s, and included all six Bartók quartets in their concerts, as well as delivering a full Beethoven quartet cycle in 1962. The Vegh Quartet, led by Sándor Végh, performed throughout the country in 1967, and the Bartók Quartet s first visit in 1970 was notable for them giving Chamber Music New Zealand s first schools concert. They returned twice during that decade, which also saw the Kodaly Quartet performing in 1975. Béla Bartók More recent contributions by Hungarian composers to the repertoire have been made by Dohnányi (1877-1960), Bartók (1881-1945), Kodály (1882-1967), Miklós Rósza (1907-1995), Ligeti (1923-2006), and Kurtág (born 1926). The legendary Hungarian violinist Joseph Joachim (1831-1907) had a significant influence on the German composer Brahms (1833-1907) and inspired many of his chamber works. In the 20 th century, performers from Hungary have also made an enormous contribution to the genre, and many of those have visited New Zealand. One of the earliest groups In 1993 the Keller Quartet visited, but an enduring favourite with New Zealand audiences is the Takács Quartet, which has toured seven times between 1985 and 2012, and which still retains two of its original Hungarian members despite being based in America. This first visit by the Kelemen Quartet continues a fine tradition.
Kelemen Quartet 5 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Born Salzburg, 27 January 1756 Died Vienna, 5 December 1791 String Quartet in No 19 in C K465 Dissonance Adagio - Allegro Andante cantabile Menuetto: Allegretto - Trio Allegro molto Mozart s life had undergone a series of upheavals in the period immediately before he began writing his third set of six string quartets. He had been dismissed from the court of the Archbishop of Salzburg in 1781, and had married Constanze Weber - despite his father Leopold s opposition, Musically, he was becoming more influenced by the compositional techniques of Bach, after attending regular concerts of Bach and Handel s music during 1782. Mozart s interest in counterpoint, with the instrumental parts operating as individual lines rather than tuneand-accompaniment, is increasingly visible in this set of quartets. The Dissonance Quartet is the last of the six quartets dedicated to Haydn, who Mozart admired deeply. Of the 23 quartets Mozart wrote, this is only one with slow introduction. It created a stir in 1785, due to the startling dissonances at the opening, and some musicians returned the quartet parts to the publisher for correction thinking there had been a mistake. But Mozart was probably not deliberately challenging audiences - it is more likely that he was testing his own compositional abilities. This is not the only quartet in the set that pushes harmonic boundaries: the slow movement of the Quartet in E flat K428 has been likened to the opening of Wagner s opera Tristan and Isolde. Mozart finished writing the Dissonance Quartet on 14 January 1785, and it was performed the following day. The opening 22 bars, which bewildered audiences at the time, still sound unusual and slightly disconcerting. Each instrument enters in turn, with the first violin s A natural seeming to clash with the A flat that the viola has just left. However, the logic of each note becomes clear as the dissonances resolve, and the tension dissipates as quickly as it arises. This concentrated introduction leads into a sunny and uncomplicated Allegro. The following Andante cantabile is one of Mozart s most beautiful slow movements. There are three main elements: a memorable opening melody, the inexorable repeatednote accompaniments, and a little four-note cell picked up from the end of the opening melody by the first violin and cello, which provides conversational material for all instruments during the movement. The third movement is in a standard minuet and trio form, and the Finale is in sonatarondo form. Three repeated notes reappear throughout in various guises, notably in the second main theme, and as accompaniment to the more serious following theme in played in octaves by the two violins.
6 Chamber Music New Zealand Zoltán Kodály Born Kecskemét, Hungary, 16 December 1882 Died Budapest, 6 March 1967 Serenade for two violins and viola Opus 12 Allegramente Sostenuto ma non troppo Lento ma non troppo Vivo Today Kodály is celebrated equally as a composer, educationalist and musicologist, but is perhaps most remarkable for his part in developing the musical identity of Hungary. In 1910 he introduced Béla Bartók to the world of folk music, and together they collected and transcribed many thousands of songs and dances, with the intention of lifting Hungarian folk music to a central place in a new, modernist style of composition. Having had a childhood steeped in both Western chamber music and Hungarian gypsy music, Kodály became proficient on a variety of instruments. Not surprisingly, many of his earliest compositions were for small instrumental groups, but whereas vocal composition occupied him throughout his long career, all his chamber music was completed before he turned 40. The years 1908-1920 were particularly fruitful, and the major works he wrote during those years include the two cello sonatas, duo for violin and cello, and two string quartets. Serenade Opus 12 dates from the end of that period, being completed in 1920 and premièred in April that year in Budapest. The work impressed Bartók, who felt that it reflected modern Hungarian culture and described it as: extraordinarily rich in melodies with exotic characteristics influenced by the strong rubato of old peasant music. The first movement begins with a classical simplicity, reflecting Kodály s deep respect for Mozart and Haydn, but the music quickly takes on a Hungarian folk tradition flavour, albeit in a restrained manner. In the atmospheric second movement, he draws on the sounds of the nocturnal environment that also influenced Bartók s writing. Extended melodic passages for solo instruments are a strong reminder that Kodály had a particular interest in vocal music. The final movement is an exuberant romp through a variety of folk-music inspired passages, full of tempo changes and the occasional moment of melancholic reflection.
Kelemen Quartet 7 Joseph Haydn Born Rohrau, Lower Austria, 31 March 1732 Died Vienna, 31 May 1809 Quartet in D Opus 20 No 4 Allegro di molto Un poco adagio e affettuoso Menuetto: Allegretto alla zingarese Presto e scherzando Although Haydn did not invent the string quartet, he was largely responsible for developing and popularising the genre in the late 18th century. His string quartets were written over a span of nearly 50 years of his creative life, and demonstrate Haydn s extraordinary growth as a composer and his influence in the musical world. By 1772, when the six Opus 20 Quartets were completed, Haydn had been in the service of the imperial Esterhazy family for more than ten years. As Kapellmeister, he was responsible for the music and instruments of the household, and for composing whatever his employer Prince Nikolaus might require. This was mostly orchestral works, operas and oratorios, and there is no record of string quartets actually being performed at the court. The terms of Haydn s contract forbade him from composing for other patrons or publishing music without permission, but despite these limitations his international reputation blossomed from the late 1760s. The Opus 20 set became known as the Sun quartets due to a picture on the front of the first publication, and they are in many ways the dawn of a new era in string quartet composition. Haydn departs from the convention of the time by giving each instrument a relatively equal role in the texture, demonstrated vividly in the second movement of the Quartet in D. He was also influenced by the new Sturm und Drang [storm and stress] movement, which sought to portray extremes of emotion through music and literature, in contrast to the rational approach typical of the late Baroque and early Classical period. Haydn s experience writing operas seems to come to the fore in the first movement, where the melodic gestures take on an almost declamatory style. The centre of this Quartet is the somewhat doleful theme of the second movement. An initial exposition is followed by three variations, each of which features a different instrument, before the theme returns a final time in a simplified form. The very short Minuet, with its off-beat rhythm and its cello-dominated central trio section, and the final mercurial Presto, make an exciting and energising conclusion to this gem of the repertoire.
8 Chamber Music New Zealand Béla Bartók Born Nagyszentmiklós, Hungary (now Sînnicolau Mare, Romania), 25 March 1881 Died New York, 26 September 1945 String Quartet No 4 Allegro Prestissimo, con sordino Non troppo lento Allegretto pizzicato Allegro molto In addition to being a composer, ethnomusicologist and teacher, Bartók was also a concert pianist and in 1927-28 he made a successful tour of America, performing some newly-written works including his First Piano Concerto. While there, he entered his String Quartet No 3 in a competition sponsored by the Musical Society Fund of Philadelphia, and was awarded joint first prize. Encouraged by this success, Bartók set to work on his fourth string quartet, and completed it during the summer of 1928. The first performances were given in 1929 by the Hungarian Quartet, though the work was dedicated to the Pro Arte Quartet, a Belgian group that was visiting America at the same time as Bartók. The fourth quartet contributed to Bartók s growing reputation at the time as a leading cutting edge composer, and has since become one of his most thoroughly analysed works. In 1930 Bartók himself described the structure of the Quartet. The work is in five movements, their character corresponding to Classical sonata form. The slow movement is the kernel of the work, the other movements being arranged, as it were, in layers around it. Movement IV is a free variation of II, and I and V have the same thematic material. In other words, around the kernel (movement III), metaphorically speaking I and V are the outer, II and IV the inner layers. The symmetrical nature of the work is most obvious in the similarity of endings in the first and last movements, though the music has undergone a transformation from a brooding, dark mood to a more positive, open one. The point of change, in keeping with many other of Bartók s works, is in the central section of the middle movement, where sounds of nature sometimes described as Bartók s night music style hover in an ever-moving stasis. Many other characteristic elements appear throughout, most notably the influence of folk music. As a pioneer in the recording of traditional music, Bartók and his colleague Kodály collected more than 16,000 performances by folk musicians. Many were in Hungary and surrounding countries, but he also worked in Algeria and later Turkey. This ethnomusicology work became a major focus for Bartók during the period from 1911-16, when he became disillusioned by the negative reactions to his original compositions. By the time he wrote the String Quartets No 3 and 4, he had developed a style of writing in which he melded western art music with some of the essential elements of the folk music he had studied, such as asymmetrical rhythms, chromatic melodies, strong dissonances, and the harsh tone qualities of folk instruments.
Board Chair, Roger King; Paul Baines, Peter Diessl, Gretchen La Roche, Helen Philpott, Michelle van Gaalen, Peter Walls, Lloyd Williams. Staff Chief Executive, Euan Murdoch Business Manager, Jenni Hall Business Support Co-ordinator, Sue Jane Operations Co-ordinator, Jessica Lightfoot Office Administrator, Anna Edgington Artist Development Manager, Catherine Gibson Programme Co-ordinator (Contest), Pip Want Programme Writer, Jane Dawson Audience Development Manager, Victoria Dadd Marketing & Communications Co-ordinator, 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, Virginia Warbrick 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 2014 Blenheim, Cromwell, Gisborne, Gore, Hutt Valley, Kaitaia, Kerikeri, Motueka, Rotorua, Tauranga, Waikanae, Waimakariri, Wanaka, Wanganui, Warkworth, Wellington, Whakatane and Whangarei. Regional Concerts & Other Events Rangitoto Trio (piano trio) Gore, 9 March Cromwell, 11 March Blenheim, 14 March Rotorua, 18 March Warkworth, 22 March Kerikeri, 23 March The Troubles ( jazz band) Gisborne, 6 April Buz Bryant-Greene (piano) Kaitaia, 18 May Blenheim, 23 May Cromwell, 25 May Level 4, 75 Ghuznee Street PO Box 6238, Wellington Tel (04) 384 6133 Fax (04) 384 3773 info@chambermusic.co.nz www.chambermusic.co.nz /ChamberMusicNZ For all Concerts Managers phone 0800 CONCERT (266 2378) Chamber Music New Zealand 2014 No part of this programme may be reproduced without the prior permission of Chamber Music New Zealand.
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