Want to hear more of the NZTrio?Try the other programme!

Erich Korngold Piano Trio Opus 1 Claire Cowan Subtle DancesBright Sheng Four movements for Piano Trio Dmitri Shostakovich Piano Trio No 2 in E minor Opus 67

Invercargill* 2 May | Christchurch 5 May | New Plymouth 11 MayWellington 15 May | Hamilton 16 May

Or listen out for the broadcast by Radio NZ Concert

*In association with the Southland Festival of the Arts

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1NZTrio – Old World : New World

The Auckland concert is being broadcast byby Radio NZ Concert

Welcome

Thank you for joining us for tonight’s concert, a kaleidoscopic look at the Old World and the New World. We are delighted to welcome NZTrio for their third national tour with Chamber Music New Zealand. There is always a freshness and vitality to NZTrio’s concerts, and we feel proud that they are doing so well on the international scene.

I am very much looking forward to the masterpieces they will be performing in the second half of each programme, but also to the new work by Auckland composer Claire Cowan, Subtle Dances, co-commissioned by Chamber Music New Zealand and NZTrio. We have always had a deep commitment to new music and delight in joint partnerships that enable us to present the best of New Zealand music and musicians - as well as the best of the old.

Please sit back and enjoy the journey.

Euan MurdochChief ExecutiveChamber Music New Zealand

Please respect the music, the musicians, and your fellow audience members, by switching off all cellphones, pagers and watches. Taking photographs, or sound or video recordings during the concert is strictly prohibited unless with the prior approval of Chamber Music New Zealand.

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Programme

Bright Sheng Four Movements for Piano Trio 4

Claire Cowan Subtle Dances 5

Ellen Zwilich Trio for Piano, Violin and Cello 6

INTERVAL

Tchaikovsky Trio in A minor Opus 50 7

Dunedin 3 MayNelson* 6 MayAuckland 8 MayPalmerston North 12 MayNapier 13 May

* In association with the Nelson School of Music Winter Festival

Photo: Kristian Frires

3NZTrio – Old World : New World

NZTrio

Formed in 2002, NZTrio has developed a reputation as an innovative and eclectic group through their performances of new music and collaborations with a wide variety of other artists. During their tenth anniversary year in 2012, NZTrio toured in Taiwan and China, presented the music of ten New Zealand composers at the Asian Composers’ Festival in Turkey, and performed an acclaimed concert with percussionists Lenny Sakofsky and Jeremy Fitzsimons at the NZ International Arts Festival. They also undertook the inaugural tour of their Art to the Power of 3 programme, celebrating visual artists alongside composers and instrumentalists in art galleries around New Zealand, and they collaborated with the newly-launched New Zealand Dance Company – a partnership that will be built on with a tour of the show Language of Living this year.

Members of NZTrio have a strong commitment to new music, and the group regularly performs commissioned works alongside existing contemporary pieces and standard repertoire. Their broad musical interests have seen them perform at diverse events such as the City of London Festival, WOMAD Taranaki, and Aurora Festival in Sydney, as well as for Chamber Music New Zealand’s Kaleidoscopes series.

NZTrio was Ensemble in Residence at the University of Auckland from 2004-2009 and during that time issued two CDs: Spark (2004) and Bright Tide Moving Between (2008). Since then, they have released three more recordings, the most recent being O Cambodia, in which NZTrio partnered with the Cambodian traditional music group Tray So to perform works by New Zealand and Cambodian composers.

Justine Cormack violinAshley Brown celloSarah Watkins piano

4 Chamber Music New Zealand

Composer, conductor and pianist Bright Sheng started learning the piano at the age of four, and during the Cultural Revolution was sent to Quinghai Province, near Tibet, to work for seven years. While there, he collected folk music of the region. On his return to Shanghai at the age of 22, he was one of the fi rst students to enrol in the Shanghai Conservatory. His family moved to New York in 1982 and he studied fi rst at City University, then at Columbia University. While at Tanglewood Music Center in 1985 he met Leonard Bernstein, who became his composition teacher, mentor and colleague. Since 1995 Sheng has been Professor of Music at the University of Michigan, and in 1998 he became Artistic Advisor to the ‘Silk Road Project’ developed by Yo-Yo Ma.

Sheng has received numerous prestigious awards, including fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship and the American Award in Music. As composer-in-residence he has worked with the Lyric Opera of Chicago, Seattle Symphony Orchestra and Tanglewood Music Center, and his music has been performed widely by leading artists.

Four Movements for Piano Trio was commissioned by the Naumburg Foundation for the Peabody Trio, and was fi rst performed by them in April 1990

Bright Shengborn shanghai, 1955

Four Movements for Piano Trio1. e = 542. q = 723. q = 1124. e = 66 (Nostalgia)

in New York. The movement titles refer to the metre of each, with the ‘e’ referring to ‘eighth notes’ (quavers) and ‘q’ referring to ‘quarter notes’ (crotchets).

The composer writes: Four Movements for Piano Trio is based on musical materials from My Song, a work for solo piano which I composed in 1988. In both works I sought to develop my own concept of ‘tonality’ by unifying my mother tongue (Oriental classical and folk music) and father tongue (Western classical music).

The folkloric style and prelude-like fi rst movement is constructed through the use of heterophony, a device typical of Oriental music. The second movement is based on a numerous and joyful folk song from Se-Tsuan. In the third movement – a savage dance – the melody grows through a series of ‘Chinese sequences’ (a term I use to describe a type of melodic development where each time a motive is repeated its duration is lengthened and its range is widened). The last movement evokes a lonely nostalgia.

5NZTrio – Old World : New World

Claire Cowan is a composer and performer with an eclectic range of credits to her name. Since graduating from Auckland University, where she studied with John Elmsly, Eve de Castro-Robinson, Peter Scholes and Victoria Kelly, she has had her music performed by groups that include the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra and Auckland Youth Orchestra, been composer-in-residence for the NZSO National Youth Orchestra, produced the sound tracks for fi lms and television programmes, collaborated on theatre productions, and created her own performance project ‘The Blackbird Ensemble’ to present the music of live composers in non-traditional settings.

In 2007 she received the NZSO/Todd Corporation Young Composer Award, and the following year moved to New York, where she worked in puppet theatre and began working with fi lm director David Michael Friend. On her return to New Zealand she set up an art collective called the Society of Brilliant Ideas, which brought together artists from a variety of disciplines.

Her work wood:strings:hammers:fl esh was performed by NZTrio at the Asian Composers Festival in Turkey last year, and she is currently working on the score for New Zealand’s fi rst full-length animated feature fi lm.

Claire Cowanborn auckland, 1983

Subtle Dancesi. subtle dancesii. be slow and lie lowiii. nerve lines

Subtle Dances was co-commissioned by Chamber Music New Zealand and NZTrio for this tour, and was completed in 2013.

The composer writes:Subtle Dances is a set of three short moods for piano trio. In writing, I have tried to approach the works as intuitively as possible. For me this creates the greatest connection between me as a composer, the performers, and the audience listening. Each work features one instrument more prominently - fi rstly cello, then piano, then violin. The music explores my continued fascination with the space created within the music, in which a listener can engage. Both hypnotic and meditative, the pieces present themselves as a contrasting set of interior landscapes. They are: passing thoughts, memories, unsolvable problems, and explorations of headspace.

Firstly - it begins with a dance; a rhythmical and passionate interlocking of playful lines, but not without an element of danger or risk.

Secondly - an elegy, the body in its slowest state.

Thirdly - a struggle, an unanswered question, a cycle - and ultimately, a transition; a bursting through, into a new light.

6 Chamber Music New Zealand

Ellen Taaff e Zwilich studied violin at Florida State University, and composition at the Juilliard School, where she was taught by Roger Sessions and Elliott Carter. She played the violin professionally for some time, and was a member of the American Symphony Orchestra under Leopold Stokowski.

A prolifi c composer, she has written in all media except opera and has been commissioned to write for leading ensembles such as the New York Philharmonic, The Cleveland Orchestra, Chicago Symphony, Scottish Chamber Orchestra and Emerson Quartet. In 1983 she became the fi rst woman to win the Pulitzer Prize in Music, awarded for her Symphony No 1. She has also held a Guggenheim Fellowship, received the Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge Chamber Music Prize, and four Grammy nominations, among other honours. She is now Professor of Music at Florida State University.

In the mid-1980s her musical style became simpler and more melodic, when she sought to connect more directly with audiences. As a result, she is one of the most popular and frequently-performed composers in America today.

Ellen Taaff e Zwilichborn miami, florida, 30 april 1939

Trio for Piano, Violin and CelloAllegro con brioLentoPresto

The Trio was commissioned by the Abe Fortas Memorial Fund, 92nd St Y and San Francisco Performances, for a group that has had a long relationship with Zwilich, the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio. They gave the première in San Francisco in 1988, and in their recording of the work the composer described the background to it.

“Many of my favorite works for piano trio are, in eff ect, duos in which the two strings together balance the piano. In the interest of formal and aesthetic balance, I took a similar approach. I also decided to exploit the diff erence in the essence of strings and keyboard, allowing some musical material to arise from the nature of the piano and some to be generated by the nature of the string instruments. Most often the material is then taken up and re-interpreted by the other family; sometimes the musical material is not exchanged, but forms the basis for the dialogue with the other. Ultimately, however, the piano, violin, and cello are partners, three equal voices of exploration.”

7NZTrio – Old World : New World

Although he learned music from an early age, Tchaikovsky graduated from a law school and took up a position with the Ministry of Justice for two years before he began professional music studies. He became one of the fi rst students at the St Petersburg Conservatory when it opened in 1862, and when he graduated three years later he was off ered a position at the Moscow Conservatory, which opened in 1866. There he came in contact with ‘the Mighty Five’, a group of leading composers who worked to revive an interest in Russian folk music.

Although Tchaikovsky’s music remained based in the traditional European symphonic style, he incorporated aspects of traditional melody and rhythm, developing a unique blend of the two. This was not always appreciated by either side of the Russian musical scene at the time, and Tchaikovsky suff ered many crises of confi dence.

One of his greatest supporters was the pianist Nikolay Rubinstein, who did an enormous amount to promote Tchaikovsky’s music but was also one of his sharpest critics. When Rubinstein died unexpectedly in 1881, Tchaikovsky wrote his only Piano Trio as a memorial, subtitling it ‘to the memory of

Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky born kamsko-votkinsk, 25 april 1840 | died st petersburg, 25 october 1893

Trio in A minor Opus 50Pezzo elegiacoTema con variazione - Variazione fi nale e coda

a great artist’. By that time he had left the Moscow Conservatory, and was living on an annuity from his wealthy patron Nadezhda von Meck and travelling extensively in Europe.

The work was originally only in two movements, and the performers who tried it out persuaded Tchaikovsky to make extensive revisions, including separating off the fi nal part of the second movement. It was fi rst performed in Moscow in 1882, and rapidly became popular with the public. Even the composer, who was notoriously self-critical, wrote to his patron: “I can say with some conviction that my work is not all bad”.

An elegy to his friend and mentor opens the Piano Trio, in a conventional sonata form movement that is full of richly romantic melodies and which incorporates a funeral march. The theme for the second movement is said to be inspired by the memory of Russian folk music played at a country picnic attended by both men. It is accompanied by a dazzling and diverse set of variations. The fi nal one, plus an extended coda, form the last movement, which also recalls the elegiac theme of the fi rst movement.

8 Chamber Music New Zealand

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For all Concerts Managers

phone 0800 CONCERT (266 2378)

BranchesAuckland: Chair, Victoria Silwood; Concert Manager, Ros Giff ney

Hamilton: Chair, Murray Hunt; Concert Manager, Gaye Duffi ll

New Plymouth: Chair, Joan Gaines; Concert Manager, Susan Case

Hawkes Bay: Chair, June Cliff ord; Concert Manager, Liff y Roberts

Manawatu: Chair, Graham Parsons; Concert Manager, Karen Carter

Wellington:Concert Manager, Jessica Lightfoot;

Nelson: Chair, Henrietta Hannah; Concert Manager, Clare Monti

Christchurch: Chair, Colin McLachlan; Concert Manager, Jody Keehan

Dunedin: Chair, Terence Dennis; Concert Manager, Richard Dingwall

Southland: Chair, Shona Thomson; Concert Manager, Jennifer Sinclair

Regional Presenters Blenheim, Cromwell, Gisborne, Gore, Hutt Valley, Kaitaia, Morrinsville, Motueka, Rotorua, Taihape, Tauranga, Te Awamutu, Tokoroa, Upper Hutt, Waikanae, Waimakariri, Waipukurau, Wanaka, Wanganui, Warkworth, Wellington, Whakatane and Whangarei.

Staff Chief Executive, Euan MurdochBusiness Manager, Jenni HallBusiness Support Co-ordinator, Sue JaneOperations Co-ordinator, Jessica LightfootOffi ce Administrator, Brooke SingerArtist Development Manager, Charlotte WilsonProgramme Co-ordinator (Contest), Anna SedcoleProgramme Co-ordinator (Contest), Pip WantProgramme Writer, Jane Dawson Audience Development Manager, Victoria DaddMarketing & Communications Assistant, Candice de VilliersTicketing & Database Co-ordinator, Laurel BruceDesign & Print, Chris McDonaldPublicist, Sally Woodfi eld

BoardChair, Peter Diessl, Paul Baines, Michelle van Gaalen, Roger King, Helen Philpott, Gretchen La Roche, Lloyd Williams.

/ChamberMusicNZ

© Chamber Music New Zealand 2013 No part of this programme may be reproduced without the prior permission of Chamber Music New Zealand.

Regional Concerts & Other EventsNew Zealand Guitar QuartetWaikanae, 19 MayWhangarei, 27 JulyKaitaia, 28 July

Tres Cordes (string trio)Blenheim, 10 MayRotorua, 19 MayAkaroa, 2 JuneAshburton, 9 June

Sergey Malov (violin/viola/cello da spalla)Whangarei, 28 MayUpper Hutt, 7 June

Auckland: THE EDGENew Plymouth: TSB Community TrustHawkes Bay: Eastern & Central Community Trust, Endeavour Community TrustManawatu: Eastern & Central Community TrustWellington: Positively Wellington VenuesChristchurch: Trust AorakiDunedin: Dunedin City Council

Chamber Music New Zealand acknowledges all donations and support at branch level:

Southland: Community Trust of Southland; Invercargill Licensing TrustAccommodation: Crowne Plaza Auckland, InterContinental WellingtonCoff ee supplier: Karajoz Coff ee CompanyChocolatier: de Spa ChocolatierFloral Supplier: Global Living

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