University Music

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31726, 9 July 1968, Page 6

University Music

The University of Canterbury School of Music will present three lunch-time concerts in the Ngaio Marsh Theatre, 11am, this month in addition to its usual lunchtime concerts in the University Hall.

John Cousins, a lecturer at the school, will be represented as a composer at the first concert in the Ngaio Marsh Theatre, on Wednesday at 1.10 p.m.

The Alberni Quartet will play his “Comments,” written last year.

“The techniques employed range from an obvious use of tonality in piece three, to the use of string sonorities in the second piece,” Mr Cousins said. “An overall attempt has been made at achieving strong motivic growth and consequent economy of utterance. This is largely responsible for the brevity of the pieces. The influence of specific contemporary composers is obvious in all the pieces—a fact of which the composer is unashamedly aware. However, It is hoped that among the images of other men there may be found a consistent, if embryonic, personality.”

The second item on this programme is String Quartet in D Minor, Op. 56, Voces intimae, by Sibelius. Voces intimae is the only published string quartet by Jean Sibelius, the Finnish composer, better known for his seven symphonies. This quartet in D minor appeared between the third and fourth symphonies and it seems to share with these two works some of their mood of tragic despair. Its style is more personal than dramatic, influenced by the lyricism of Russian and Czech composers, such as Tchaikovsky and Dvorak. The lunch-time concert in the University Hall on Thursday will consist of music for cello and piano, performed by Gregory Baron and Susan Baron. Pieces to be played are by Beethoven and Shostakovich. Beethoven's Seven Variations on “Bei Mannern, Welche Liebe Fuhlen,” from Mozart's opera (‘The Magic Flute”) (classified as Op. 158), was dedicated to Count von

Browne. These variations were written in 1801, the year in which Op. 18 string quartets were published, and just before the second symphony was completed. Four years earlier, Beethoven had written a set of twelve variations (Op. 66) on another aria from the opera. Shostakovich's Sonata for Cello and Piano was written in 1934. This shows the composer’s technique and lively imagination. Shostokovlch was trained at the Leningrad Conservatory and since 1925 he has composed a vast amount of music, which has included vnany fine works in almost all mediums.