Sunday 14 February
Amici Ensemble with Jian Liu (Piano)
“The sheer brio and vibrancy of Debussy’s String Quartet in G Minor Op 10 was thrilling: its four movements wonderfully expressive and exuberantly played.” – Alison Boulton (Daily Info)
Programme
Liszt: Hungarian Rhapsody No 9 in E, Carnaval de Pest (piano trio)
Mozart: String Quintet in G minor, K516
Chausson: Concert for Violin, Piano and String Quartet, Opus 21
Malavika Gopal (violin), Jian Liu (piano), Donald Armstrong (violin), Andrew Joyce (cello), Andrew Thomson (violin/viola), Julia Joyce (viola)
What a perfect way to open the season. Our favourite ensemble – Donald Armstrong’s Amici – will be joined by brilliant pianist Jian Liu in a programme filled with classical and romantic delights. With Donald and Jian will be a top-class lineup of NZSO musicians: violinist Malavika Gopal, Andrew Thomson (violin and viola), Julia Joyce (viola) and cellist Andrew Joyce.
The programme will start with Liszt’s arrangement for piano trio of one of his delightfully tuneful and cheerful Hungarian Rhapsodies. Then we will be treated to one of Mozart’s String Quintets. This work, written for string quartet plus an extra viola and composed in the last years of Mozart’s life, is considered
to be one of the finest inspirations of Mozart’s chamber music output. The addition of the second viola seems to have lifted him to still greater heights.
After the interval we are treated to a seldom-performed work – Concert by the French composer Ernest Chausson. Chausson, best known for his beautiful Poème, died in an accident just as his career was blossoming. His music is dense, virtuosic and very romantic. The Concert is written for solo violin and piano set against a string quartet, sometimes a concerto and sometimes a sextet.