Sunday 25th March at 2.30pm

Having celebrated their 30th Anniversary in 2017, the New Zealand String Quartet make a welcome return to our stage, this time with a new member. 2nd violinist Doug Beilman stepped down at the end of 2015 and has been replaced by Australian violinist Monique Lapins. The quartet presents a vast array of concerts throughout New Zealand each year as well as regularly touring overseas to the UK, Europe, North America, China and Japan. Frequent visits to Australia have included appearances at the Australian Festival of Chamber Music in Townsville and the Canberra International Music Festival.

Opus 127 is the first of Beethoven’s six “late quartets”. A somewhat tender and introverted work, it contains one of Beethoven’s most sublimely expressive slow movements. The Quartettsatz is one of the most popular and important works in Schubert’s chamber music repertoire, despite being just a single movement from a quartet that was never completed. To round off a concert of contrasts will be Debussy’s String Quartet, a brilliant work of stunning originality. In 1999 the NZSQ released a CD of the Debussy and Fauré Quartets. Amongst enthusiastic reviews, the Washington Post said: “The New Zealanders gave Debussy’s G minor quartet a dreamy, shivering elegance”.