ASQ 2020 programmes announced

...Chamber music performances don’t come much better than this....
(Louis Pierard, The Hook review website)

14 November 2019 - We are excited about our two programmes for 2020. In the first half of the year, our Flight programme takes wing with one of Haydn's most popular works, his 'Lark' Quartet in D Op 64 No 5. The second piece is String Quartet No 4 by Polish composer Grazyna Bacewicz. This passionate music won her first prize at an international competition for string quartets in 1951. We mark the 75th anniversary of the death of Anton Webern with his brief but exquisite Six Bagatelles Op 9. We finish with Tchaikovsky's String Quartet No 1 in D Op 11, a work full of soaring melodies and heartfelt emotion, famous for its Andante cantabile slow movement.

In our Phantasy programme, performed in the second half of 2020, we are joined by Robert Orr, NZSO Principal Oboe, for two British works by for oboe and strings: Britten's Phantasy Quartet Op 2, the first piece that brought him international recognition, and Bliss's gorgeous Oboe Quintet. In that programme we also celebrate the 250th anniversary of Beethoven's birth with his first 'Rasumovsky' quartet, the String Quartet No 7 in F Op 59 No 1. The fourth work in this programme is 'refrain' by award-winning New Zealand composer Alex Taylor.

Concert centres will include: Arrowtown, Auckland, Christchurch, Dunedin, Kerikeri, Motueka, Napier, Palmerston North, Rangiora, Warkworth, Wellington and Whakatane. Date and venue details will appear on our website later this year and in the next issue of our newsletter.