CHRISTOPHER'S CLASSICS

Our Next Concert

Thursday 29 April - Serenity Thurlow and Diedre Irons

Serenity Thurlow (viola)
Diedre Irons (piano)

Hindemith - Sonata for Viola & Piano, Op. 11 No. 4
Brahms - Sonata for Viola & Piano in F minor, Op. 120 No. 1
Shostakovich - Sonata for Viola & Piano, Op. 147

Tickets

In 2010, Serenity Thurlow was appointed Principal Viola of the CSO. In 2012 she was the Principal Viola of the Aldeburgh World Orchestra part of the Britten-Pears Festival. In 2016 she premiered Chris Cree-Brown’s Viola Concerto for the CSO.
Diedre Irons is one of New Zealand’s most distinguished performing musicians. She made her debut with the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra at the age of 12 playing the Schumann Piano concerto. Since moving to New Zealand in 1977 she has performed regularly with the NZSO, the Auckland Philharmonia and the CSO. She has toured many times under the auspices of Chamber Music New Zealand.

Review of the Trio Élan Concert
Donald Armstrong – Violin; Simon Brew – Saxophone; Sarah Watkins – Piano

Reviewed by Tony Ryan
This opening concert of the 2021 season of Christopher’s Classics proved a vibrant and uplifting start to the series.

Although the saxophone is still primarily associated with jazz, its inclusion in ‘classical’ music is certainly not unusual. It can be found in operas by Massenet and Puccini, among others, and in numerous orchestral works from Bizet to Rachmaninov, Shostakovich and beyond. Debussy wrote a very effective concertato work for the instrument, and the chamber music repertoire for saxophone is already vast. However, the available choice of works for tonight’s combination of saxophone, violin and piano is certainly limited and, dare I say, still awaits the vindication of a true masterwork in the way that Brahms’ Horn Trio validated the horn-violin-piano blend.

Tonight’s selection of music relied on two reasonably substantial works written specially for this combination of instruments, along with four shorter pieces arranged from differently scored originals and the inclusion of Debussy’s Sonata for Violin and Piano to round out the evening. But it all made for a beautifully designed programme in which the enjoyment of all three players was so infectious, technically brilliant and physically communicative, that the audience could hardly fail to share in their delight.

Apart from Debussy’s wonderfully evocative Violin Sonata, played with stylish flair, atmosphere and tangible rapport from Donald Armstrong and Sarah Watkins, there was nothing on the programme that I’d previously heard.

The concert began with American composer Russell Peterson’s Trio for Alto Saxophone, Violin and Piano. The two outer movements oozed rhythmic drive, energy and virtuosity, which Trio Élan attacked with such consummate technical mastery that they even had skills in reserve to enhance the music with expressive exuberance and not a little humour. The central Adagio provided ideal contrast with plenty of textural variety and a constantly evolving expressive flow. Part way through this movement I couldn’t help being reminded of the final section of Respighi’s Pines Near a Catacomb movement from The Pines of Rome as Sarah Watkins introduced a similarly ominous-sounding chordal motif. But, whether intentional or subconscious on the composer’s part, such resonances serve to enhance the richness of our musical experience. And if Peterson’s trio was the evening’s real highlight, it set us up for a sequence of similarly enjoyable works.

Twenty-three-year-old Wellington composer Peter Liley’s Deux Images (Hmm, – is English or Te Reo not sufficiently evocative? Or is it just that Debussy provided a benchmark title?) was adapted by substituting violin for flute for this performance. These two short movements engaged us with their deceptive simplicity and genuine craftmanship. Their brevity ensured that they didn’t outstay their welcome, and the musicians’ commitment ensured their effectiveness. The moto perpetuo first piece, Small Scurrying, ended with a fascinating visual effect as the music’s ‘fade-out’ left pianist Sarah Watkins’ fingers fluttering noiselessly on the keys for a few second before the performance actually stopped. The word ‘image’, after all, whether English or French, implies a visual element; something we often miss in the context of recorded, aural-only, performances and something, it occurs to me, that pre-twentieth century composers never image-ined!

Tonight’s concert featured three New Zealand pieces, with the remaining two by Gareth Farr, both of which were also very short. Meditation, adapted for saxophone and piano from its viola original, is a gently expressive and melodic piece with nothing in the way of harmonic or rhythmic surprise, clearly designed as an unchallenging and attractive miniature. And ending this very appealing concert, Farr’s second piece, Tango, Un Verano de Passion, was brilliantly arranged for Trio Élan by Keith Moss using Farr’s attractive original material in a way that made the very most of each of the three instruments (well, four, if you count Simon Brew’s change to tenor saxophone, to wonderfully seductive effect, part way through). Brew introduced the piece as having something of the tango’s popular “red rose” imagery in its expression, unlike Piazzolla’s more deeply soulful tango, Otoño Porteño, that preceded it.

But this second part of tonight’s programme began with the other of the two works that were originally scored for these instruments. Algerian-born Marc Eychenne’s Cantilène et Danse began with a gorgeously nostalgic melody for muted violin and had, as the programme note stated, “an unmistakeably French, ‘everyday’ sound – somewhat like Poulenc”. For me, it was also the same French sound that influenced Gershwin, who, in turn, influenced Poulenc. Cantilène had clear suggestions of the Gershwin of Porgy and Bess, while the lively Danse had more than a little of An American in Paris in its harmonic and rhythmic arsenal, particularly the street atmosphere of crowds and car horns, easily suggested by the timbres of the saxophone. Again, such resonances enhance the experiences we derive from music, and if such influences can contribute towards the blurring of borders that are such a problem in politics and economics, then music is playing its part in widening our tolerance and understanding, particularly in performances of such vitality and charisma as we were given by Trio Élan tonight

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;
Miranda Hales: 033136898
Cell : 0272683030
Email : ivanhoe_nz@xtra.co.nz
Works will not leave the gallery until paid for in full.

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.

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.