Sunday 29 June
Flinders Quartet with Michael Houstoun
Beethoven: String Quartet, Opus 95
Deborah Cheetham Fraillon: Bungaree (NZ premiere)
Dvořák: Piano Quintet, Opus 81
Wilma Smith (violin), Zoe Knighton (cello), Elizabeth Sellars (violin), Helen Ireland (viola) Inset: Michael Houstoun (piano)
We welcome to our shores the Flinders Quartet, one of Australia’s most respected chamber ensembles.
It is special to be hosting an Australian ensemble, but even more special to find that they bring with them two of our most popular and beloved New Zealand musicians – pianist Michael Houstoun and violinist Wilma Smith. Wilma joined the quartet in 2020 and writes about this tour: “I’m thrilled that the Flinders Quartet’s first-ever concert tour to New Zealand will include a collaboration with my long-time friend and musical partner, Michael Houstoun. We’ll be bringing you a programme of beloved masterpieces and the NZ premiere of a work by eminent Aboriginal composer/singer, Deborah Cheetham Fraillon, especially written for Flinders Quartet.”
The programme begins with Beethoven’s Opus 95 String Quartet. Written before he embarked on his “late quartets”, it is commonly titled “Serioso” and is one of the most compact of Beethoven’s quartets.
The major work on the programme will be Dvořák’s popular Piano Quintet and who better to play the brilliant piano part than Michael Houstoun. This concert promises to be one of the season’s highlights.