Feast of chamber music ahead

Press, 5 April 1989, Page 25

Feast of chamber music ahead

Christchurch audiences are in for a feast of chamber music this month. Following on the first of the “Masterpieces of Chamber Music” subscription series with Maurice Till and Jan Tawrosewicz on Monday, and recitals by them and Michael Houstoun at the School of Music, the Kammerensemble Cologne, a group of German baroque musicians, is coming to Christchurch next week on its first tour of New Zealand and Australia. The ensemble was founded in 1981. Its members take time off from their regular employment in orchestras and opera groups to travel and play with other orchestras. They often tour five times a year.

They will play 10 concerts in New Zealand and 20 in Australia, performing concertos for strings and solo instruments, including flute, oboe, trum-

pet and violin. Their repertoire includes works by Bach, Handel, Vivaldi and Telemann. Their Christchurch concerts on April 14 and 17 at the Cathedral in the Square will include J. S. Bach’s Concerto for Flute and Strings in G minor, his Double Concerto for Oboe, Violin and Strings in D minor or his Concerto for Violin and Orchestra in A minor. Also on the programme will be "Summer” from Vivaldi’s “The Four Seasons,” and his Concerto Grosso (“L’Estro Armonico”) in D minor; Handel’s Concerto for Trumpet and Orchestra in G minor and Concerto Grosso No. 1; and Telemann’s Concerto for Trumpet and Orchestra in D major, and Concerto for Flute and Strings in E major.

The concerts begin at 8 p.m.

The New Zealand String Quartet will open the Music Federation’s chamber music season in Christchurch on April 24 in the Town Hall at 8 p.m. New Zealand’s only fulltime string quartet, the group has just had its position as Quartet-in-Residence at Victoria University renewed through a donation from the Turnovsky Endowment Trust. It is at present in Canada competing in the Banff International String Quartet Competition.

Other concerts in the Music Federation season will be given by the Shostakovich Quartet from the Soviet Union, on June 27; by Michael Houstoun and Diedre Irons playing works for two pianos on July 17; and on November 4 by the Villiers Piano Quartet from London, making their first tour outside Britain. The Christchurch-born violinist, Belinda Bunt

joins the New Zealand Chamber Orchestra in the first of its two national series on April 30 in the James Hay Theatre.

She will play Vivaldi’s "The Four Seasons,” and the programme also features the world premier of “The Pumpkin Massacre” by Lyell Cresswell, a New Zealand composer who lives in Edinburgh. The inspiration for the piece is a feast which included the newly introduced food, the pumpkin. This event turned into a masacre of the Rangitane chief, Mahuri, and his people at Waimea.

Other works in the first series are Corelli’s Concerto Grosso in D major and Grieg’s “Holberg Suite.” The second series, which starts in Christchurch on September 17, will include works by Bach’s Harpsichord Concerto and Tchaikovsky’s “Serenade in C.”

The American saxophone and flute virtuoso, Gordon Brisker, returns to Christchurch for a concert with the Rodger Fox Quintet and Mary Yandall at the State Trinity Centre on April 6 at 8 p.m. Brisker, from Cincin-

nati, has played with some of the immortal jazz musicians, recorded three albums under his own name and performed with musicians ranging from the Boston Symphony Orchestra to Woody Herman and Lionel Hampton.