Music: Maurice Till To Tour

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31247, 20 December 1966, Page 15

Music: Maurice Till To Tour

Maurice Till, the Christchurch pianist, will make his first New Zealand solo concert tour next year for the Kerridge Organisation. Playing an all-Chopin programme, he will open his nine-concert tour in Christchurch on March 2. Maurice Till has toured New Zealand many times as an accompanist to international singers, and chamber musicians. He has toured Australia three times for the Australian Broadcasting Commission, and has appeared regularly as a soloist with the N.Z.B.C. Symphony Orchestra and occasionally with Australian orchestras.

This year he was named by the New Zealand Jaycees as one of the “Three outstanding young men,” the others being Wilson Whineray and James Bull. The other centres included in the tour are Nelson, Invercargill, Dunedin, Timaru, Wellington, Palmerston North, Auckland, and Hamilton, CHAMBER MUSIC

A famous Czech string quartet, the Smetana Quartet, is among the musicians to give concerts next year for the Christchurch Chamber Music Society. The Smetana Quartet established itself as a favourite with New Zealand audiences by its performances on its previous tours in 1957 and 1962. The Czech’s concert in March will be followed by a return visit from the Deller Consort, led by the English counter-tenor, Alfred Deller, in May. The concert will present works from the Elizabethan period of madrigals and part songs, Italian and French pieces, and, as a special tribute to mark the 400th anniversary of the birth of Monteverdi, that composer’s four-part Mass might be performed.

Three distinguished artists are forming the Trio Concertante especially for the coming season in New Zealand and Australia. They are the Australian violinist Charmian Gadd, who has made several appearances in Christchurch, the cellist Laszlo Vargas and the pianist Istvan Nadas.

As a change from the limited repertoire for piano trio, their programmes will include a number of the more

rarely-heard works for string instrument and piano. Varga is aranging to come to New Zealand a week or two ahead of the others and will join three leading New Zealand players in the formation of a cello quartet an unusual combination for which there are a number of original works. It is not certain yet whether the cello quartet will give a concert in Christchurch. After this there will be a concert by the noted Hungarian group, the Vegh Quartet. The Vegh Quartet is one of the very few leading quartets which has not previously toured this country. It is

particularly known for its performances of the Bartok quartets, and one of these could be included in its Christchurch programme. October will bring the Camerata Berne, a Swiss string orchestra of a dozen players from Berne, all of whom have been pupils of Max Rostal. The pianist, Use von Alpenheim, who toured New Zealand some years ago, will join the orchestra in piano concertos. A sixth concert has still to be arranged. MUSIC SCHOOL For the first time the annual Cambridge Music School will be held in Auckland next month.

For many years the school has been quartered at St. Peter’s School, two miles from Cambridge, and for the last two years it has been held at Ardmore Teachers’ College. From January 4 to 14, it will be held at Auckland Teachers’ College. Organised by the Auckland University’s department of university extension and directed by Ronald Dellow, the programme will include rehearsals of choral, orchestra and chamber music, plus a master class in piano and a composers’ workshop. The panel of tutors will inclue Larry Pruden, David Farquhar, and Ronald Woodcock.