Hamilton-based New Zealand Chamber Soloists create a few sparks in a concert of music by Mozart, de Castro-Robinson and Schumann.
New Zealand Chamber Soloists (l to r: Katherine Austin, James Tennant, Lara Hall) Photo: New Zealand Chamber Soloists
For this concert, the core trio of Lara Hall (violin), James Tennant (cello) and Katherine Austin (piano) were joined by Dimitri Atanassov for quartets by Mozart and Schumann and the ensemble continues its series of commissions 7x7 ... seven works of about seven minutes each from seven New Zealand women composers ... with a work by Eve de Castro-Robinson based on a poem by Pablo Neruda.
MOZART: Piano Quartet No 2 in Eb K493
In 1785, the Vienna music publisher, Franz Anton Hoffmeister commissioned Mozart to write three piano quartets.
When Mozart completed the first of them in G minor, Hoffmeister thought it was too difficult for the general public and that he wouldn’t be able to sell it, so he released Mozart from the commission.
Mozart went ahead and wrote another quartet anyway ... this one in E flat. Who knows what was going through Mozart’s mind at losing Hoffmeister’s commission. But this quartet is bright and breezy and may have been more along the lines of what Hoffmeister was looking for.
Dimitri Atanassov plays viola in this performance.
DE CASTRO-ROBINSON: The Night is Shattered
Eve de Castro-Robinsno has dedicated this new work to her artist husband Ken Robinson who died in 2021. He loved the work of Chilean poet Pablo Neruda and she’s based the work on Neruda’s ‘Poem 20’ from his collection Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair.
Several of the phrases from the poem are intoned by the musicians in the work and De Castro-Robinson also includes references to some of her earlier works: Tumbling Strains, Len Songs, Split the Lark and Clarion. Bells are rung to create a solemn, ceremonial mood.
This is the world premiere performance.
SCHUMANN: Piano Quartet in Eb Op 47
1842 was Schumann’s year of chamber music – 1839 was his year of the piano, 1840 was his year of song and 1841 his year for the orchestra.
He started off with the three string quartets of Op 41 and then he wrote the piano quintet Op 44. He followed that with this piano quartet. The quintet and quartet have been described as “creative doubles” ... they share the same key, they were both written with his beloved Clara in mind and they both display the more extroverted and exhuberant side of his creativity.
But while in the quintet, with the balance more toward the strings, the piano seems to be pitted against the strings somewhat, in the quartet the feeling is much more of a chamber work ... although the addition of viola does give a denser, slightly darker texture than we get in a piano trio.
The third of the four movements is a highlight, opening with a gorgeous cello melody – according to music writer James Keller, "perfect in its balance, soulfulness, and apparent simplicity".
Lara Hall plays viola and Dimitri Atanassov plays violin.
Recorded by RNZ Concert
Producer: Tim Dodd
Engineer: Adrian Hollay
