Exquisite music in store for piano quartet fans

Exquisite music in store for piano quartet fans

In October, expatriate New Zealand violinist Wilma Smith returns to these shores with three highly esteemed Australian colleagues and friends to perform piano quartets on an eight concert tour for Chamber Music New Zealand. Wilma will be accompanied by pianist Ian Munro, cellist David Berlin, and Brett Dean on the viola.

The quartet will perform works by Mozart, Copland and Schumann in Wellington at the Wellington Town Hall on Thursday 25 October at 8pm.

New Zealand audiences need little introduction to Wilma Smith, founding member of the New Zealand String Quartet, Concertmaster Emeritus of the NZSO, and currently Concertmaster of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. "I am aware of how much chamber music happens in NZ and I think that's something we can be very proud of. For a country with the population of Melbourne or a little more, the interest in and support for chamber music and the extent of the concert circuit is very impressive", says Wilma.

David Berlin has performed many times as soloist with the Adelaide and Melbourne Symphony Orchestras and is in demand as a chamber music partner. Ian Munro is one of Australia's most distinguished musicians, with a career that spans thirty countries. Guest violist Brett Dean is one of the most internationally performed composers of his generation, and recently premiered his Viola Concerto in London as soloist with the BBC Symphony Orchestra. Brett toured for CMNZ in 2005 with the Dean-Emmerson-Dean trio.

The Munro/Smith & Berlin trio toured on CMNZ's Associate Societies network in late 2006. "We enjoyed our trio tour around NZ last year so much that we were keen to make it happen again. It was actually Chamber Music NZ who suggested that we might like to play piano quartets with Brett Dean. Brett had been on a very successful CMNZ tour with a different group and piano quartet hadn't been toured for a while so the invitation was made and we leapt at the prospect", says Wilma.

On this tour, the group will perform Aaron Copland's Piano Quartet, written in an idyllic country setting in 1950, and his first composition using the 12 tone system, at all eight concerts. "I don't think it's a difficult 12-tone piece to listen to in the way that some are. His textures are quite clean and not muddy so it's relatively easy to follow the material around the various voices. I'll know what I really think of it after an 8-concert tour!", says Wilma, who last performed this work some 30 years ago.
The programme also features contrasting darkness and light in Mozart’s ‘fateful’ key of G Minor, and Schumann's Piano Quartet in E Flat.

The Principal Tour Sponsor for Munro/Smith/Berlin & Dean is the Turnovsky Endowment Trust. (Fred Turnovsky was a founder member of what is now CMNZ back in 1950). Chamber Music New Zealand acknowledges major funding from Creative New Zealand. For more information, visit www.chambermusic.co.nz, or phone 0800 CONCERT (266 2378).

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Programme Details

Programme One (New Plymouth, Auckland, Nelson, Christchurch, Dunedin)
Mozart: Piano Quartet in G Minor K478
Copland: Piano Quartet (1950)
Brahms: Piano Quartet in A Opus 26

Programme Two (Palmerston North, Wellington, Napier)
Mozart: Piano Quartet in G Minor K478
Copland: Piano Quartet (1950)
Schumann: Piano Quartet in E Flat Opus 47

Palmerston North
Tuesday 23 October, 8pm
Regent on Broadway
Tickets from Ticket Direct, ph (06) 357 9740 or 0800 4TICKET (484 253).
$40 / $15 Student Rush on the day (ID required). A transaction fee may apply.

New Plymouth
Wednesday 24 October, 8pm
Theatre Royal, TSB Showplace
Tickets from Ticketek, ph (06) 759 0021.
$45 / $15 Student Rush on the day (ID required). Service fees apply.

Wellington
Thursday 25 October, 8pm
Wellington Town Hall
Tickets from Ticketek, ph (04) 384 3840.
$50 A Res / $40 B Res / $35 C Res / $15 Student Rush on the day (ID required). Service fees apply.

Napier
Saturday 27 October, 8pm
Century Theatre
Tickets from Century Theatre, ph (06) 835 7781.
$45 / $15 Student Rush on the day (ID required). A transaction fee may apply.

Auckland
Monday 29 October, 8pm
Auckland Town Hall
Tickets from Ticketek, ph (09) 307 5000.
$50 A Res / $40 B Res / $35 C Res / $15 Student Rush on the day (ID required). Service fees apply.

Nelson
Tuesday 30 October, 8pm
Nelson School of Music
Tickets from Nelson School of Music, ph (03) 548 9477.
$45 / $15 Student Rush on the day (ID required). A transaction fee may apply.

Christchurch
Thursday 1 November, 8pm
James Hay Theatre
Tickets from Ticketek, ph (03) 377 8899.
$50 A Res / $40 B Res / $35 C Res / $15 Student Rush on the day (ID required). Service fees apply.

Dunedin
Friday 2 November, 8pm
Glenroy Auditorium
Tickets from Ticketek, ph (03) 477 8597.
$40 / $15 Student Rush on the day (ID required). Service fees apply.

ENDS

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