Robert Masters Quartet Has Played In Exotic Surroundings

Press, Volume XCIV, Issue 28053, 22 August 1956, Page 9

Robert Masters Quartet Has Played In Exotic Surroundings

Concert artists do not always travel sedately to their theatre by taxi or private car; sometimes much more unorthodox means of transport have to be used. When the Robert Masters Quartet was visiting Sumatra recently, they had the unusual experience of going to an engagement up a jungle river by launch. “Along the banks, monkevs were swinging from branch to branch, and the squeak of flying foxes could be heard above the throb of the launch’s engine.” said Mr Masters in an interview in Christchurch yesterday. “There mav have been crocodiles lurking in the river, too. “Another night, at a sugar plantation in Java, we were set upon by a swarm of flying ants,” he said. “We had noticed, during rehearsal, insects busily flying round the lights above the stage, and bv the time we had started the concert, these things were dropping on to the flnnr and all over the niano and chairs like a swarm of black rain. By half time, our pianist was squashing them by the dozen on the keyboard as he ran his fingers up and down.” Indonesian Humidity The humidity of Indonesia they found rather trying, said Mr Masters “If you felt somethin** moving at the back of our neck, you could not be certain if it w?s a b ead of perspiration or something alive. If it moved upwards, you could be sure it was an insect.” he said. Chamber music had widened its public appeal tremendously in Britain since th® Second World War. when artists visited small towns, factories and camps and introduced this medium to audiences who not heard it before, said Mr Masters. Qpartet-nlaying was much like anv other kind of team work, he said There were no stars. Each musician contributed eouallv to the whole performance, even though one artist might plav more notes at any given moment. “The individualitv must be there but welded into a whole,” Mr Masters said. “The four players must come to an agreement about interpretation while studying works, and individual ideas are discussed. Our interpretation of what we play is actually an amalgamation of ideas from the four of us.” “In an orchestra an artist is a much smaller cog in the musical wheel than one who plays in a quartet. The symphonic interpretation comes from the mind of the conductor, and this may not be the idea of the indi-

viduni musician under his baton,” said Mr Masters. “Tn a small group you have the ooportunity of putting forward your views, and discussing them with the other musicians. That is why I like playing in a quartet better than in an orchestra.” Modern music is included in the repertoire of the Robert Masters Quartet, as well as the older classics. A piano quartet which they play was composed bv Benjamin Frankel in 1953 for the Masters Quartet, which gave it its first oerformance at a London concert during Coronation week. Franke] has written a great deal of music for contemporary festivals and for films. And film music is not to be snubbed, according to Mr Masters. As he finished nutting a new D string into his violin yesterday afternoon. Mr Masters told something of the violin’s history. It must be more than 325 years old. fnr its ma v er, an Italian named Maggini, who did not date his violins, died in 1631. Mr Masters known of the instrument, and when he heard its previous owner, an elderly amateur player, wanted to sell it, he lost no time in buying the precious piece. Others members of the ensemble, now on a second world tour, are Kinloch Anderson (piano). Nannie Jamieson (viola), and Muriel Taylor (’cello) The - " are visiting the Dominion for the New Zealand Federation of Chamber Music Societies, and will give two concerts in Christchurch.