Old musical friends returning

Press, 26 May 1981, Page 20

Old musical friends returning

Christchurch concert-goers < will soon be able to renew an acquaintance with some old friends — the members of the Alard Quartet. The four — the same players who were here in 1963 — will arrive in Christchurch today to begin a two-month spell as quartet-. in-residence at the Univer- > sity of Canterbury. During their stay the four . will take time off from their academic duties to prepare three Sunday recitals — on June 7 and 21, and July 5 — each of which will begin with a quartet by either Haydn or Mozart, and conclude with a quartet by one of three major British composers, Elgar, Walton, and Britten. The members of the quartet will also appear individually as sonata soloists during the regular university lunchtime concerts. At other times they will conduct master classes and work with the chamber orchestra at the university’s School of Music. On the road A group of American musicians who specialise in music for reed instruments

of the Renaissance period will give a concert in the James Hay Theatre next Wednesday during a brief visit to Christchurch. The group is the Double Reed Ensemble of the New York Kammermusiker, a wind-instrument ensemble founded in 1969 and renowned for its carefully researched repertoire and the informal atmosphere of its concerts.

The double-reed group has four members — Gerhard Yetter, Ulf Bjurenhed, and Henna Pederson, multiinstrumentalists who play the oboe, oboe d’amore, and English horn; and a bassoonist, Robert Barris. their format is based on the travelling shawm bands which went from town to town during the Renaissance period, entertaining the residents.

Shawms were made in a range of sizes from descant to bass, and though they have been obsolete for centuries, ih

much of the music written for them can be played on the contemporary aoublereed instruments used by the members of the group. Some of this music will be featured in the concert, along with works for more modern double-reed instruments by J. S. Bach and other composers of the baroque period, and by later composers, such as Mozart. The Kammermusiker ensemble has just completed a tour of Holland, and later in the year it is booked to play at a number of music festivals in both Europe and the United States during the northern summer. It gives

financial support from the United States Government through a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. Close to home Early music from closer to home will also be available to Christchurch enthusiasts next week. Ensemble Dufay, the Wellington group, will visit the city to give a recital in the State Trinity Centre. The group plays and sings music of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries in the style, and on the instruments, of the period. The members are Greer Garden (soprano and harp), Robert Oliver (tenor, rebec and viol), Andrea Oliver (recorder and flute), William Bower (lute), and Geoffrey Coker (countertenor). Their recital will be at 8 p.m. on June 5. Organ recital A French organist, Maurice Clerc, will give a recital in the Christchurch Cathedral on Sunday evening, as part of a week-end congress crammed with musical activities for visiting organists from many parts of New Zealand.

The congress is the twentieth held by the New Zealand organists, and the fourth in Christchurch. As well as their technical and business discussions, the organists will be able to attend onfe concert on Saturday and two on Sunday. All concerts will be open to the public as well. The Saturday concert will be in St Alban’s Methodist Church, Merivale, and will feature works by Beethoven and Faure, played by the Camerata Piano Quartet. Afterwards, Martin Setchell, the church’s organist, will give a demonstration recital on the recently' installed organ.

> On Sunday afternoon a • concert featuring organ concertos by Vanhal and Werner will be given in the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament. Alison Brown will be the organ soloist, and the accompaniment will be by the university orchestra, con- , ducted by Graham Hollobon. The concert will also feature Stanford’s “Four Biblical Songs," sung by Judy Bellingham, and Kodak’s “Missa Brevis,” sung by the University Singers, accompanied by Alison Brown. The evening recital by Maurice Clerc will begin in the Christchurch Cathedral about 8.30 p.m., after Evensong. The featured items on the programme are Cesar Franck’s Chorale No 3 and Vierne’s. Symphony No. 2. Clerc is the organist of Dijon Cathedral, which is notable for its eighteenthcentury organ, built by Riepp. He is also a recitalist who visits most European countries regularly, and has toured in North America also. His visit to New Zealand is being made on his way home from a tour of the United States.

Change of scene The Court Theatre will be shut for part of next week while producers and staff dismount its present production and set the scenes for a new series of plays, scheduled to open on June 6. Since May 2 the Court has been running a production of Ibsen’s “Hedda Gabler,” the final play in its first 1980 season, “Awakening Women.”

“Hedda Gabler” will close on Saturday, and a week later the first play in “Outcasts,” the Court’s winter season, will open. “Outcasts” is a group title for three plays about “outsiders,” the first of which will be a new comedy from Roger Hall, author of “Glide Time” and "Middle Age Spread.” This play, “Fifty-Fifty,” has been performed in Auck-

land and Wellington. It is about an insurance agent and his university-educated son, and how they cope with unemployment and domestic difficulties. Stuart Devenie is directing, and the television entertainer, David McPhail, will play the leading role. “Fifty-Fifty” will run from June 6 to July 11. The subsequent plays in the series will be “The Elephant Man,” by Bernard Pomeranee (July 18August 15) and “The Lady’s Not For Burning,” by Christopher Fry (August 22-Sep-tember 26).

Wind recital The Ham Wind Ensemble will give this month’s afternoon recital in the Robert McDougall Art Gallery on Sunday. The programme will include several short works (including Malcolm Arnold’s Three Sea Shanties) for wind quintet, and two longer works for larger groups. One of these is Beethoven’s Rondino for two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, and two horns, and Gounod’s lyrical Petite Symphony, for flute, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, and two horns. The ensemble will be conducted by John Patinson. Tough drama Elizabeth Moody is directing the latest production for the University Drama Society — Steve Gooch’s “Female Transport,” a hardhitting Australian play about female convicts in transit to the Australian colony. The play will open in the Ngaio Marsh Theatre on Saturday, and will run until June 6. The six women convicts are played by Janice Gray, Miranda Harcourt, Melissa Miles, Juliet Dowling, Carol Craymer, and Sarah Davidson: Their male “escorts” are played by Jeff Brown, of Wellington, and Andrew Stammer, Craig Hood, and Paul Bushnell. Smelter art

A Dunedin sculptress who has exhibited in Australia and the United States will lecture and perform in the Christchurch Arts Centre next week. She is Di ffrench, who has exhibited in numerous New Zealand galleries, and was a guest in the 1980 Hansells Sculpture Exhibition.

“Aramoana: tapu land” is the title of the lecture she will present in. the Upstairs Common Room on June 4. The controversy, over the Government’s decision to build an aluminium smelter at Aramoana has influenced

some Dunedin artists, and the lecture will detail ways in which this has been reflected in their work. On June 7, in the Music Room at the Peterborough Centre, Ms ffrench will present an evening of performance art entitled “Gut Reaction.” This work is based on the troubles in Ireland, and is said to convey, through lighting effects, paint, and rocks, the impression that politics and external appearances are deceptive, and that “only the essence of things, feelings, and people is important.”

All at sea The Halswell Players have chosen a nautical theme for their next production, “Ship Ahoy,” which is scheduled to open in the Halswell Hall on Friday evening. The show begins with pirate songs but comes up to date in steps, to end with contemporary disco music. It will be presented for an interrupted season of eight days, on four successive week-ends. The producers are Pat Harris and Dot Screen.

Ascension concert A concert to mark Ascen-

sion Day will be given in the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament on Thursday by the Skellerup Woolston Band, the cathedral choir and organist, and the boys of St Bede’s College. The band recently returned from the national championships in Wellington, where for the tenth time in 12 years it scored the highest points for over-all excellence. Its contributions to Thursday’s programme will be Dvorak’s “Carnaval” overture, “Oliver Cromwell,” by Geehl, and Walton’s march, “Crown Imperial.” About 600 pupils of St Bede’s will take part in two works for brass, organ, and massed choir, one of which is a Mass composed and arranged for the Skellerup Woolston Band by Professor John Ritchie.

Other items will be given by the cathedral choir and the organist Don Whelan.

Aid for orchestra The Auckland Regional Orchestra has been given a new lease of life.

The Queen Elizabeth II Arts Council has agreed to the orchestra’s application for funds, thus effectively

releasing $177,000 to the orchestra. This is about half its "planned 1981 budget.

The decision ended six months of uncertainty for the musicians who had stuck together since the demise of the Auckland Symphonia last year.

The funds comprise a core grant to the orchestra ol $30,000, and a $73,500 grant as a dollar-for-dollar subsidy to match local grants of $58,500 from the Auckland Regional Authority and $15,000 from the Auckland City Council.

The local-body grants had been conditional on support from the arts council.

Additional money will be available from the arts council to the orchestra as project subsidies when it performs for opera, ballet or choral groups.

The general manager of the orchestra, Mr Michael Maxwell, said the move recognised the artistic quality, serious, purpose and responsible management of the orchestra.

Mr Maxwell said strength was given to the argument for the existence of a professional orchestra in Auckland by the response of 50 players from all over New Zealand to the recent auditions for vacancies in the orchestra, and by the action of the National Opera in using musicians from the orchestra to support its Wellington season.

However, the battle to win community support for the orchestra was not over yet, he said. The orchestra now planned to make a broad appeal to the business community to help provide other funds.

Sales increase Subscriptions in Christchurch to the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra’s concert series have increased .30 per cent, the orchestra’s management has announced. The orchestra will give five concerts in Christchurch this year, with international performers such as the conductors Kurt Sanderling, Okko Kamu, and Piero Gamba. and the veteran Russian pianist, Shura Cherkassky.