Memory-feat quartet on fifth visit to N.Z.'

Press, 10 July 1979, Page 13

Memory-feat quartet on fifth visit to N.Z.'

Four Czechoslovakian professors who commit all their string quartet music to memory, taking little written material on stage with them for a normal twp-hour performance, will present a concert in the James Hay Theatre on Thursday night. They are the Praguebased Smetana Quartet, which is regarded by many authorities as among the top five string quartets in the world.

The quartet is making its fifth tour of this country, having been brought here again by the Wellingtonbased Music Federation of New Zealand, of which the

Christchurch Chamber Music Society is a member. The society is promoting the local concert. This tour will be a cutdown version of previous ones; the quartet will play in only six centres, compared with as many as 16 on previous visits. The manager of the Music Federation (Miss Elisabeth Airey) said today that the shortened tour was because of demands placed on the quartet by other organisations around the world, and the higher fee structure under which inflation had dictated it must now work. The Smetana Quartet will play music by Beethoven,

Martinu, and Dvorak on Thursday. The only written music it will have on stage will be for reference purposes, in the same way as some speakers use lists of headings to get them through long addresses. The group is able to play complicated music without scores because its members have been together for a long time — more than 30 years — and long periods are spent in the off season, rehearsing. The members even take their holidays near each other in a remote Czech village, so that they can practise together daily. The quartet was estab-

lished in 1945, and its founder, the cellist, Antonin Kohout, is still with it. The other members are Jiri Novak (first violin), Lubomir Kostecky (second violin), and Milan Skampa (viola). All hold professorships in music at various Prague musical academies. The Smetana Quartet will come to New Zealand equipped with four priceless instruments which together represent an investment of probably about §500,000. On board aircraft, they carry their instruments with them for safekeeping. Frequently, this means that a separate seat has to be reserved for the cello.