Aroha Quartet programmes for 2019

...I very much enjoyed the freshness of the programme itself, and the musicality and professionalism of the playing itself. It was a great musical experience....
(Audience member, Palmerston North (Nov 2013))

21 November 2019 - We've put together two varied and exciting programmes for our 2019 concert series: one for string quartet only, to be performed throughout the year; the other for string quartet and piano in the second half of the year only.

Both programmes start with Mozart's String Quartet No 17 in B-flat K458. Nicknamed 'The Hunt', this is a high-spirited, joyful work, both rustic and sophisticated.

Our quartet-only programme continues with String Quartet No 1 'Métamorphoses nocturnes' by Hungarian composer Gyorgy Ligeti. Described by one writer as “Bartok's seventh string quartet”, this colourful work is written in seventeen wonderfully contrasting sections played as one continuous movement. The concert finishes with Beethoven's profound String Quartet No 13, a piece that explores the limits of what can be expressed in music.

Our piano quintet programme includes 'Unbound', an expressive, heartfelt work for string quartet written in 2011 by New Zealand composer Brigid Ursula Bisley. For the finale, we are delighted to be joined by Diedre Irons, one of New Zealand's finest pianists, for the sublime Piano Quintet in F minor by Brahms. Combining lyrical beauty and rhythmic muscularity, this is one of the best-loved chamber music works of all time.

Concert centres will include: Rotorua, Putaruru (South Waikato Music Society), Dunedin, Christchurch, New Plymouth, Hawkes Bay, Waikanae (Waikanae Music Society), Greytown (Greytown Music Group), Wellington, Palmerston North and Auckland. Date and venue details will appear on this website later this year and in the next issue of our newsletter (early 2019).