NZSQ Concert New Date
With the continuation of Level 2 for at least another week, the NZSQ concert will now be held on Tuesday 9th November at the Piano at 7:30PM. As we hope you can appreciate, it is not viable to hold a concert with the audience limited to 50. 

Tickets purchased will automatically transfer to this new date. If you have not purchased tickets, they will be available on Eventfinda. ​

Argyle Trio Concert New Date

With the current COVID-19 Alert Levels 3/4 in force, we have had to postpone the Argyle Trio Concert. If Alert Levels allow, this concert will now be on Tuesday 28 September. 

In view of the uncertainty of COVID-19 alert levels at the end of September, we have temporarily suspended further ticket sales for this concert. 

We trust that you will understand the situation that we are facing. We reschedule concerts if at all possible. 

Our Next Concert

 Tuesday 28 September - Argyle Trio with Michael Houstoun

Pl
Wilma Smith (violin)
​Matthias Balzat (cello)
Michael Houstoun (piano)

​Beethoven - Piano Trio in E flat major Op. 1 No. 1
Ravel - Piano Trio in A minor
Beethoven - Piano Trio in B flat major Op. 97 “Archduke”

Tickets
​
Programme


Since retiring from the MSO, Wilma Smith has prioritised her chamber music roots, enjoying old and new relationships in the US and New Zealand as well as Australia. Matthias Balzat is a New Zealand born cellist and is currently 20 years old. He began playing the cello at the age of 3, and has completed his NZ studies under James Tennant. He is currently doing his masters degree in Düsseldorf. For the background of the Argyle Trio please see www.argyletrio.com/about

---

Christopher's Classics 12 August 2021
Vieux Amis
Justine Cormack (Violin), James Bush (Cello) and Sarah Watkins (Piano).

Reviewed by Patrick Shepherd.

As the concert’s title suggests, these were old friends reuniting, and not just socially but for a feast of stunning music in the 26th season of Christopher’s Classics. It would have been quite different had one of the original performers not been trapped in Sydney following the recent Covid outbreak, necessitating a rapid rethink, but the end result was a thought-provoking collection of music that weaved together many common threads and ideas through widely differing composer voices. That the players all have friendships that go back years likely added to the musical cohesion, each understanding how the other works and revelling in being together again during these strange times. Needless to say, these are three performers at the top of their game; putting them together on the same stage, one is tempted to say that the whole was more than equal to the sum of its parts.

The programme comprised works by Pärt, Bach and Shostakovich, each work relating in some way to its neighbours, and the whole package all intelligently contextualised by informative programme notes and Justine Cormack’s commentary. The motto for the Christopher’s Classics concert series is that, “The busiest lives deserve beautiful music,” and I mention this because it so typified how I felt during the first half. Sarah Watkins’ account of Pärt’s ethereal Für Alina provided the ideal mental diuretic for the end of a working day, and to follow that with Bach, then the same pairing again, was just sublime and I loved every minute. With each of the Pärt works moving seamlessly into the two Bach pieces – insightful programming which created internal relationships between the works – that sense of space and clarity was maintained. In Bach’s Viola da Gamba Sonata in D, James Bush’s ‘cello playing was immaculate and he and Watkins ensured the elegant lines were well-defined throughout. The pathos of the third movement was well done through the building and release of tension within the phrases. The virtuosity inherent in both Allegros was handled deftly by both players, maintaining the busy with consummate ease.

Continuing the theme of connectedness, Pärt’s Mozart-Adagio is the equivalent of a deconstructed dessert, all the elements familiar but dissected in such a way that details are explored further, finding new textures and sonorities along the way. The trio got the balance spot on and I particularly enjoyed how Cormack and Bush judged the weighting of the heavy chords.

Concluding the first half, Bach’s Violin Sonata in E saw Cormack taking the reins but again an interesting decision by the trio to have Bush play the continuo part, not intruding but rather providing an extra colour above which the violin carries the melody and embellishment. The convention of the time was to do precisely that and I enjoyed that they did it here. It also made sense given that the third movement is a passacaglia. Interesting that this repeated bass line feature also provided a further link to the second half. Cormack’s rhapsodic playing captured the almost stream-of-consciousness quality of the opening Adagio and then proved very agile in the ensuing Allegro. The trio certainly brought out all the emotional qualities of the third movement, and the final Allegro set a cracking pace to finish.

If the first half was all about poise, restraint and grace, then what a contrast in the second with Shostakovich’s Prelude and Fugue in E minor, followed by the powerful and somewhat enigmatic Piano Trio no. 2 in E minor. Both works have the shadow of the Soviet regime hovering in the background (as do all of the composer’s works, any shred of humour barely covering the darkness beneath) and both make good use of musical conventions that have come before, cementing that connection with the Pärt earlier in the concert.

Watkins totally nailed the Prelude and Fugue. I loved her approach to the Bach and she brought that directness of communication straight across to Shostakovich’s meandering prelude that drifted from light to shade, before easing into the fugue. Here Watkins drew the threads together skilfully and built the texture up to a powerful conclusion. There was austerity but also fire, something absolutely Shostakovich.

The Piano Trio started where that left off with a fugue, the two strings providing a delicate counterweight to the solemn chorale texture in the piano. The pizzicato work by the strings later on was similarly well done.

The manicness of the Allegro con brio was accurately described in the programme and was done brilliantly, utterly aggressive and a flurry of notes, with dramatic surges as well as the ever-present irony in the more playful passages. The passacaglia structure reappeared again in the sombre Largo and the trio ensured this was a quite different beast this time around. Watkins’ opening monolithic chords were excellent and Cormack’s sorrowful playing was sustained and intense, both string players making good use of the Jewish idioms in the writing. The finale was uncompromising and direct, with unrelenting pressure, whether in the quiet passages or in the raw outpourings of feeling. This was a thrilling ride but Shostakovich constantly switches tack and the way the trio handled the dismantling of this potent material was perfect to bring it to its surprisingly subdued conclusion.

Of course, we weren’t left wondering – the trio cleansed our palette with a short Bach trio sonata movement. A perfect end to a perfect evening.

Christopher’s Classics 2021 – Series XXVI
Reviewer Tony Ryan looks forward to the innovative programming of the 2021 season.
If Beethoven was the thematic thread in the 2020 season of Christopher’s Classics which celebrated both the series’ twenty-fifth year and the 250th anniversary of Beethoven’s birth, the 2021 season’s line-up celebrates diversity and innovation . . . and with not a single work by Beethoven in sight!

THE CHRISTOPHER MARSHALL CONCERT FOR STARS OF THE FUTURE is an additional feature of the 2021 season in tribute to the series’ founder and his long-time support of New Zealand musicians. The inaugural concert in July will promote the already well-known talents of Lixin Zhang in an all-Chopin programme. As well as this, the 2021 season also expands the series to seven subscription concerts.

SIX WORKS BY NEW ZEALAND COMPOSERS are sprinkled through the upcoming series along with a work by Gao Ping whose past work in Christchurch makes him almost a local. Two works by Gareth Farr and one by Peter Liley are included in the Trio Élan’s programme which opens the new season in April. The inclusion of saxophone is a notable feature of this trio – not an instrument that’s often encountered in chamber music concerts – in an innovative programme that also contains music by Debussy and Piazzolla alongside a work by American saxophonist Russ Peterson. Other New Zealand composers in the new season include Alex Taylor, Dorothea Franchi and a young local composer whose identity and work are yet to be announced.
​
FRENCH MUSIC features in several programmes, including a reprise of one of the highlights of the 2020 season. Ravel’s Trio will be encored by a different group in 2021 when the Argyle Trio play it in their September concert as part of an all-French programme. French works are also a strong component in the programme of another trio, Les Voisins, in August. In this ensemble, Simon Martyn-Ellis (theorbo and guitars) joins two familiar Christopher’s Classics musicians, Justine Cormack (violin) and James Bush (cello), in a programme that includes more Ravel, works from the French Baroque, a New Zealand ‘reimagining’ of that era, and some “Hot Club de France” with four of Django Reinhardt’s best-known pieces. But top of my list for must-see French music is Les Bon Vivants’ inclusion of Ravel’s gorgeous Introduction and Allegro for Harp, Flute, Clarinet and String Quartet which ends this twenty-sixth season in October.

TWO WORKS BY THAT MASTER OF CHAMBER MUSIC, JOHANNES BRAHMS are included in two of the earlier concerts. In April Serenity Thurlow and Diedre Irons will play one of his very last compositions, the Sonata for Viola and Piano No. 1 in a programme that also includes Hindemith’s 1919 Sonata for Viola and Piano and Shostakovich’s very last work, his darkly austere Sonata for Viola and Piano. The other Brahms work is his Trio Op. 8 played by the Te Koki Trio in May, along with works by Kodaly and Bartok. Although new to Christopher’s Classics, the Te Koki Trio is led by a musician who is very familiar to Christchurch audiences as concertmaster of the Christchurch Symphony, violinist Martin Riseley. 

THE NEW ZEALAND STRING QUARTET returns in September 2021 – they are always welcome and regular visitors to the Christopher’s Classics series – with music by Purcell, Britten and Gao Ping, and a work that I look forward to hearing live in concert more than anything: Smetana’s colourful and original String Quartet No. 2.
​
With such a varied and innovative line-up of music and performers, the 2021 Season of Christopher’s Classics is certainly destined to make up for some of the difficulties of the last few months.

Roger Hickin Artworks 

A selection of Christopher and Jilly Marshall's artwork by the artist Roger Hickin will be presented for sale. This is a great opportunity to purchase artwork from a prominent New Zealand artist.
An essay on Roger Hickin by Sally Blundell may be found ​​here.

The catalogue of artworks for sale is here.
If you wish to purchase works from this exhibition please contact;
Rangiora Chamber Gallery

Acknowledgements:
  We thank The Rata Foundation, The Elizabeth Ball Charitable Trust,
Gloria Streat, Antonio Strings, Chamber Music New Zealand and private donors, ​whose patronage and sponsorship grants make these concerts possible.

---