Quartet’s ‘fifth member’ comes to N.Z. in style

Press, 26 June 1989, Page 8

Quartet’s ‘fifth member’ comes to N.Z. in style

By

MARITA VANDENBERG

When the Soviet Union’s prestigious Shostakovich Quartet flies abroad five seats are always booked. No, it’s not Soviet superstition, nor is it due to one member’s excessive size. The fifth member of the foursome, affectionately dubbed “Mr Cello,” just has to travel in style. So do the quartet’s other valuable instruments, their eighteenth century viola and violins, which are small enough to fit in the overhead flight racks. The Shostakovich Quartet flew in from Sydney last evening and will give its first New Zealand concert at the James Hay Theatre on Tuesday before travelling to five other New Zealand venues. The quartet’s first visit to New Zealand was in 1986 for the International Arts Festival in Wellington. Formed 20 years ago as the Moscow

Philharmonic Quartet, the group 10 years later took the name of the famous Russian composer who had been condemned by Stalin for producing revolutionary works. Three of its members have played together for 22 years. The violinist, Sergei Pishchugin, joined them 12 years ago. Practising and performing for six months of the year means the group is constantly together. It’s not so much a family as a foursfold marriage, they say, laughing. “Or just a madhouse,” someone adds. Glasnost (openness) has heralded many changes to the arts, says the cellist, Alexander Korchagin. It has influenced literature, theatre and cinema — the “concrete” arts — but it has not influenced music so much. “Music is abstract,” says Sergei Pishchugin, “Music is an international language. It has always been glasnost.”