Argyle Trio Update

COVID-19 has again necessitated changes in our programme. The pianist from the Argyle Trio, Laurence Matheson, cannot enter New Zealand under the current restrictions. Michael Houstoun has agreed to perform with the other two members of the Trio, Wilma Smith and Matthias Balzat, for our concert. The programme for this concert will now be

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”
 

Our Next Concert

Thursday 12 August - Vieux Amis​

Justine Cormack (violin)
James Bush (cello)
Sarah Watkins (piano)

Arvo Pärt - Für Alina (Solo Piano) 
J.S. Bach - Viola de Gamba Sonata in D Major (cello and piano) 
Arvo Pärt - Mozart Adagio for violin, cello and piano 
J.S. Bach - Sonata in E major for violin with continuo, BWV1016
Shostakovich - Prelude and Fugue in E minor, Op. 87 No. 4
Shostakovich - Piano Trio No. 2 in E minor, Op. 67

Tickets
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This concert replaces the Les Voisins concert. Please use your Les Voisins tickets for this concert.

• “Old Friends” reuniting to perform as a trio for the first time in over 20 years
• A carefully crafted programme that draws equally on the varied expertise of three of Aotearoa’s most accomplished chamber musicians: James’s exquisite baroque practice and Sarah and Justine’s shared experiences with NZTrio’s modern outlook
• A first half focussed on J.S.Bach and Arvo Pärt, followed by Shostakovich’s muscular, invigorating second piano trio. A Shostakovich prelude and fugue stitch the two halves together.

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Christopher's Classics 22 July 2021
Lixin Zhang (Piano)

Reviewed by Tony Ryan 

A few minutes-or-so into Chopin’s Ballade No. 1 in G minor with which Lixin Zhang opened his recital tonight, I had a sudden feeling of déjà vu – of having heard him play it once before, a few years ago. Later, a quick check revealed that, on that previous occasion, it had been the fourth Ballade. What I remembered in particular, alongside undoubtedly outstanding pianism, was an impression of a rather episodic approach to the piece’s structure – a young player indulging his sense of youthful discovery in every spontaneous moment of Chopin’s inspiration. Listening again now on Tidal to his recording of the piece, which must have been made around the same time at the age of about fifteen, that episodic impression is still present if less problematic than I remember from the live performance.

But tonight, in this first of the composer’s four Ballades, there remains no hint of any such structural compromise; the talented student prodigy has graduated from technical wizardry and expressive indulgence to mature musician – an artist who can renew the listener’s fading appreciation of a long-familiar masterpiece. 

That musicianship was confirmed in a truly wondrous performance of the same composer’s great B minor Sonata that followed. The sense of an overarching structure played as much of a part in Lixin Zhang’s expressive armoury as his technical mastery and endlessly beguiling phrasing. And if, tonight, Chopin’s written dynamics were sometimes treated as a guide rather than gospel, I’m sure that Chopin did the same in his own well-documented improvisatory style of playing.

In the final movement of the sonata Lixin Zhang’s dramatic playing of the introductory leaping octaves led into an almost subdued statement of the main subject, but this soon proved to be an ideal strategy that enabled the music to progress seemingly inevitably, even relentlessly towards its triumphantly climactic end.  A performance to savour and rejoice in, certainly.

After the displays of drama and virtuosity in that first part of tonight’s programme, the far less technically demanding Mozart Sonata in C Major K330 which opened part two revealed the real musician. Sometimes described as “too easy for children and too difficult for adults”, Mozart’s piano sonatas are usually placed at the start of a recital as a warm-up to enable the player to get the feel of their form as well as of the audience and venue. Not so here! This sonata has passed under my own fingers many times but, much as I’ve always enjoyed Mozart’s captivating rhythmic and harmonic nods and winks in the piece, sitting back hearing it in the hands of a player such as Lixin Zhang highlighted so many delights that only a musician of genuine insight can unveil. Just one example – in the middle of the Andante Cantabile second movement, the sudden change from F major to F minor and, later, back again, was quite magical, no matter how often I’ve heard and played it before.

Another Chopin piece followed; this time one of the shorter works for which the composer is so popular. The Nocturne in C minor Op. 48 No. 1 is one of those pieces that justly confirms Chopin as the ‘master of the miniature’, especially when the player before us tonight turns its mere six-and-a-half minutes into such a deeply expressive and, at times, dramatic tone poem. 

Liszt’s Vallée d’Obermann may not be among that composer-pianist-showman’s most popular show-stopping hits, but if Lixin Zhang chose it to demonstrate his musical coming of age, he could not have chosen better. Here Liszt, the deeply thinking intellectual artist, disguises his consummate virtuosity behind a profoundly expressive tone painting that requires a combination of technique, varying tone colour, inner control and formal understanding that only a true artist should dare attempt. Tonight the young man on stage before us seemed to have mastered it all.
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Then, the introduction of two tiny children, apparently pupils of the pianist, onto the stage to play a duet, initially seemed just a bit too cute as a segue from what we had just experienced. But as their tiny legs dangled high above the pedals of what suddenly looked like an unusually enormous concert grand piano, their well-schooled, accurate and full-toned playing became a reminder that their teacher, once a talented student himself, has become the mentor who passes his experience on to the next generation, and who then played us his own meltingly beautiful encore to end this inaugural Christopher’s Classics Concert for Stars of the Future.

Lixin Zhang has won the Silver Medal in the 2021 Gina Bachauer Young Artist Competition.

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.
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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.
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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;
Christopher Marshall 
Email: cc.ohoka@gmail.com

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.

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