Disarming Ease
The New Zealand String Quartet impresses HOWARD SMITH
Springtime's Salon/Series 2014 has brought the superlative New Zealand String Quartet (NZSQ) to eight nationwide centres as unalike as Geraldine, population 2,301 and Auckland, population 1.5 million.
In doing so it had devised Salon 2, a programme cemented with solo J S Bach movements interleaved by complete works of Franz Joseph Haydn (1732-1809), Hugo Wolf (1860-1903), Edvard Grieg (1843-1907) and Pulitzer-prize-winning Chinese/American composer Zhou Long (born Beijing, 1953).
By turns the NZSQ personnel presented items with disarming ease.
Bach items (in order) were presented by Gillian Ansell (viola) — Suite No 1 in G major BWV 1007, Prelude; Helene Pohl (violin 1) — Partita No 3 in E major, BWV 1006, Gavotte en rondeau; Douglas Beilman (violin 2) — Sonata No 1 in G minor, BWV 1001, Presto; and Rolf Gjelsten (cello) — Suite No 6 in D major, BWV 1012, Allemande...
Copyright © 25 September 2014
Howard Smith, Masterton, New Zealand
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