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Chamber Music New Zealand Presents
Eggner Trio
with Amihai Grosz (viola)
We are very pleased to support our friends in the Eggner Trio again, especially with the addition of Amihai Grosz from the world-renowned Berlin Philharmonic, and to continue to foster cultural exchange between Austria and New Zealand.
Gute unterhaltung – Enjoy the concert!
Carolyn and Peter Diessl
As Honorary Consul-General of Austria, a former Chair and valued Life Member of Chamber Music New Zealand and a member of the NZSO Board, Peter Diessl combines his business expertise with political and diplomatic experience, and he and Carolyn are very generous supporters of the Arts in New Zealand.
From the Tour Supporters
Next year Chamber Music New Zealand marks the 50th Jubilee of the NZCT Chamber Music Contest.
Book-ended by two international ensembles, our Kaleidoscopes Concert Season will feature a star-studded line up of Contest Alumni.
It is a year of superb music and musicians crafted to celebrate the extraordinary impact the iconic chamber music contest has had on the lives of so many New Zealanders.
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Countdown to 2015 CONCERT SEASON LAUNCH!
1Eggner Trio with Amihai Grosz
Mozart Piano Quartet No 2 in E flat K493 4
Schumann Piano Trio No 3 in G minor Opus 110 5
Interval
Anthony Ritchie Oppositions 6
Dvořák Piano Quartet No 2 in E flat Opus 87 7
Wellington 14 September Hamilton 15 September New Plymouth 18 September Nelson 22 September
ProgrammeWelcome
We are delighted to welcome back the Eggner Trio from Austria, along with violist Amihai Grosz. These four dynamic musicians already enjoy a special relationship with audiences in our part of the world, although this is the first time that we have paired them together as a piano quartet.
They will perform some of our favourite piano trios and quartets as well as introducing us to a 21st century work by Dunedin composer Anthony Ritchie. It is great to know that Aotearoa New Zealand has music to offer these international performers, and it makes the collaboration even richer.
We acknowledge the very generous support of Carolyn and Peter Diessl who over the past decade have made all four tours by the Eggner Trio possible.
Thanks for joining us and prepare to be thrilled!
Euan MurdochChief Executive Chamber Music New Zealand
The Wellington concert will be recorded for broadcast
by Radio NZ Concert
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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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2 Chamber Music New Zealand
Founded in 1997, the Eggner Trio came to international attention by winning First Prize in the International Brahms Competition in Pőrtschach in 1999, then First Prize in the Melbourne International Chamber Music Competition in 2003. The Trio was selected for the European Concert Hall Organisation’s ‘Rising Stars’ programme for the 2005-06 season, enabling it to perform at major concert halls around Europe and make its American debut in New York’s Carnegie Hall. They are now invited to leading chamber music events such as the Schubertiade and Lockenhaus festivals, and regularly perform at the Wigmore Hall, London and the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam.
In 2013 their CD of music by Clara Schumann and Brahms was given an award by Radio Austria. Four earlier CDs include music by Shostakovich, Mendelssohn and Beethoven, as well as trios written for the group by contemporary Austrian composers.
Since 2006 the Eggner Trio has made regular concert tours of Australia and New Zealand, and members of the group have established themselves as audience favourites. They have just finished tutoring at the Australian Youth Orchestra Chamber Players programme in Melbourne.
Georg Eggner started violin lessons at the age of seven, then studied with Boris Kuschnir in Linz and Guenter Pichler in Vienna. He has won first prizes in the national competitions Jugend Musiziert and Prima la Musica (Austria), as well as the international competition Concorso Internationale di Musica per I Giovani, Stresa (Italy). Georg has given recitals in Austria, Belgium, Germany, Great Britain and Italy.
Florian Eggner began his cello studies at the age of seven. He studied with Wilfried Tachezi in Linz, then with Wolfgang Herzer
Georg Eggner violin
Florian Eggner cello
3Eggner Trio with Amihai Grosz
and Stefan Kropfitsch in Vienna, and with Clemens Hagen in Salzburg. He was first prize winner in the Austrian competition Prima la Musica in 1996, and has given concerts in the former Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Spain as well as Austria. He is a co-founder of the fusion ensemble ‘Table 6’ for which he also composes.
Christoph Eggner started piano lessons at the age of eight. He received a scholarship to the Bruckner Conservatory Linz, and gave his first solo piano recital at the age of sixteen. In Vienna he studied with Paul Badura-Skoda, Ludwig Hoffmann and Oleg Maisenberg and he has been Maisenberg’s assistant since 2000. He has also studied with Brigitte Engerer and Michel Béroff in Paris. Christoph has given recitals in Austria, Denmark, France, Germany, Great Britain, Hong Kong, Hungary, Indonesia, Japan, Luxembourg and Turkey and has been a prize winner in several competitions.
Amihai Grosz learned the violin from the age of five, and changed to the viola when he was eleven. He entered a programme for outstanding musical talents at the Jerusalem Music Center, and later studied with Tabea Zimmermann in Germany and Haim Taub in Tel Aviv. As a founding member of the Jerusalem Quartet he has toured New Zealand several times for Chamber Music New Zealand.
In 2010 he left the Quartet to take up the position of Principal Violist with the Berlin Philharmonic, and now performs as a soloist and chamber musician with leading artists such as Yefim Bronfman, Mitsuko Uchida, Janine Jansen, Julian Rachlin and David Geringas.
Christoph Eggner piano
Amihai Grosz viola
4 Chamber Music New Zealand
Wolfgang Amadeus MozartBorn Salzburg, 27 Jan 1756Died Vienna, 5 Dec 1791
Piano Quartet in E flat K493AllegroLarghettoAllegretto
The 1780s saw many changes in Mozart’s life. After being dismissed as a court musician in 1781 by the Archbishop of Salzburg, he settled in Vienna and married the singer Constanze Weber. His German language opera Die Entführung aus dem Serail brought him success and wide recognition as a composer, and he made a good living from writing and performing his own piano concertos. Between 1782 and 1785 he studied the music of Bach and Handel, developing his own abilities in writing counterpoint, and he produced a set of six string quartets that were dedicated to his friend Haydn.
During 1785 Mozart was particularly busy. Among other things, he worked on the opera The Marriage of Figaro, which was to be his next major success, published his ‘Haydn’ quartets and wrote two substantial piano concertos (No 20 in D minor and No 21 in C). A commission from the publisher Hoffmeister to write three piano quartets was less successful, however.
There was a flourishing market among the Viennese public for chamber works suited to amateur musicians, and the piano trio
was especially popular. Hoffmeister saw an opportunity to create a new ensemble by adding a viola part, but was disappointed by the complexity of the first one written, the Piano Quartet in G minor. When it failed to sell, he cancelled the commission, though apparently allowed Mozart to keep the advance payment. By then, Mozart had written the second work, the Piano Quartet in E flat, and Hoffmeister even allowed him to have both Quartets issued by another publisher.
After a bold opening statement, the violin introduces a lyrical second theme that is cunningly anticipated by the piano. The characteristic turned motif at the beginning of this theme becomes an important element in the development section and coda.
A poised and graceful Larghetto, full of echo-like gestures, forms the serious heart of the work and finishes on a meditative note. The light-hearted mood returns in the Allegretto, a rondo, in which a plethora of melodic ideas are batted back and forth between the piano and strings.
5Eggner Trio with Amihai Grosz
Robert SchumannBorn Zwickau, Saxony, 8 June 1810Died Endenich, near Bonn, 29 July 1856
Piano Trio No 3 in G minor Opus 110Bewegt, doch nicht zu raschZiemlich langsamRaschKräftig, mit Humor
Robert Schumann grew up in a literary family and was an outstanding student at school, but was largely self-taught as a musician. He initially wanted to be a pianist, and studied with one of the leading teachers of the day until he became unable to play due to what was probably a form of occupational overuse syndrome.
After much unpleasantness and a court case with her father, Schumann and the virtuoso pianist Clara Wieck – daughter of Schumann’s teacher Friedrich – married. Robert and Clara’s partnership was both domestic and musical. In addition to raising eight children, they studied the works of earlier composers together and had close associations with other musicians, such as the violinist Joseph Joachim and composer Johannes Brahms. In 1944, the couple moved to Dresden, hoping that Schumann’s career would flourish, and in 1850 they settled in Düsseldorf, where he had been appointed Municipal Music Director. However, the relationship with the Düsseldorf orchestra had deteriorated by the following the year, and no doubt contributed to the
mental and physical ill-health that eventually saw Schumann commit himself to an asylum for his final years.
The Piano Trio No 3 was the fourth piece he had written for that ensemble, following the Phantasiestücke of 1842 and the Trios No 1 and No 2 of 1847. Written in 1851 in Düsseldorf during that difficult personal time, the Trio No 3 shows no sign of Schumann’s distress, and the music instead overflows with good humour, lightness and a sense of interconnection.
The first movement, marked ‘turbulent, but not too quick’, seems to epitomise the Romantic period in its restless searching, with its quiet ending leading naturally to the languorous passion of the opening of the second movement (marked ‘fairly slow’). The long, intertwining melodies of the two string instruments dance slowly around each other, interrupted by an agitated section that bubbles up briefly before serenity returns.
That agitation reappears in the third movement, Rasch [‘quick’], which is written as a shortened scherzo, with two brief trio-like episodes inserted between statements of the swirling main theme.
The final Kräftig, mit Humor [‘strong, but with a sense of humour’] opens in a sunny mood with the rondo theme that dominates the movement. Like the previous movement, characterful episodes appear between statements of the main theme, and links between the two are strengthened by the reappearance material from one of the third movement’s trios.
6 Chamber Music New Zealand
Anthony RitchieBorn Christchurch, 18 September 1960
Oppositions
Now one of New Zealand’s most experienced composers, Anthony Ritchie graduated from Canterbury University then went on to further composition studies at the Liszt Academy in Budapest. On his return he spent a year as Composer-in-Schools in Christchurch, before taking up the post of Mozart Fellow at Otago University for the years 1988-89. As Composer-in-Residence with the Dunedin Sinfonia, he produced his first symphony Boum, Flute Concerto, Viola Concerto and orchestral work Remember Parihaka. He spent twelve years as a freelance composer, writing commissioned pieces for leading ensembles such as the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra and Footnote Dance Company, and in 2000 he became a lecturer in composition at Otago University, where he is now Associate Professor.
In 2004 Anthony Ritchie’s opera The God Boy was premièred at the Otago Festival of the Arts, and the previous year the chamber opera Quartet appeared as part of the International Festival of Arts in Wellington. Many of his works have been performed overseas, and the most recent CD devoted to his music, A Bugle Will Do, was named as a ‘CD of the Year’ by Music Web International as well as ‘Classical Album of the Year’ by the NZ Listener.
He has written for a wide variety of genres, including songs, sonatas, solo piano, chamber music and school choirs.
Local literature frequently inspires his work, most obviously in the CD New Zealand Poets in Song, performed by Anna and Matthew Leese with Tom McGrath. Wind Quintet, written for the 2009 Chamber Music New Zealand tour by Zephyr, is based on poems by Brian Turner and James K Baxter, and his recent Symphony No 4 includes settings of poems by Bernadette Hall for soprano.
Oppositions was composed in 2005 for the New Zealand Piano Quartet, and was included in their 2006 recording of chamber music by Anthony Ritchie. The composer writes:
“It is in one movement, and is based around the idea of opposing forces, whether they be literal or imaginative. In musical terms, the piano is frequently pitted against the strings, while musical themes seem to jostle for supremacy. After a short and ominous introduction, the strident first theme is played on violin, accompanied by hammered chords.
A second theme has all three stringed instruments playing in ‘cluster’ harmonies. The cello announces a lyrical but turbulent idea, and this is played in counterpoint with the first theme.
The piano is to the fore in a third theme, which is stealthy and marked by sudden outbursts.
These themes are discussed in a middle section that gradually winds down to very soft, thudding chords, before building up to a vigorous return of the opening. In this final section themes are fragmented and tossed around violently, before a brief Coda in which the first theme appears dominant.”
7Eggner Trio with Amihai Grosz
Antonin DvorákBorn Nelahozeves, near Prague, 8 Sept 1841Died Prague, 1 May 1904
Piano Quartet No 2 in E flat Opus 87 Allegro con fuoco Lento Allegro moderato, grazioso Finale; Allegro ma non troppo
Dvořák demonstrated his musical gifts early, learning the violin at primary school and the piano and organ in his early teens. He graduated from the Prague Organ School in 1859 and spent the next few years as a freelance orchestral musician, organist and piano teacher, also producing his first significant compositions. Under the influence of his fellow composers Smetana and Janáček, Dvořák had begun introducing native Bohemian folk elements into his music in the 1870s, including the ‘dumka’ (song of lament) and ‘furiant’ (a wild dance).
In the late 1870s, his compositions started to become known outside the Czech nation. Johannes Brahms had introduced Dvořák to his own publisher Fritz Simrock, who rapidly published many of Dvořák’s works. As a result, friends and supporters encouraged him to move to the musical centre of Vienna, but Dvořák refused to turn his back on his homeland. He began to travel widely, performing and conducting around Europe, and in 1889 even declined the offer of a professorship at the Prague Conservatory due to his busy schedule of concerts and commissions.
The Piano Quartet Opus 87 was written in six weeks during the summer of that year, and was premiéred in Frankfurt the following year. His first Piano Quartet had been written in 1875, and his publisher was keen to have a second. On 10 August Dvořák reported that the second Quartet was nearly finished, saying: “as I expected, it came easily and the melodies just surged upon me”. The work displays a melodic invention, rhythmic vitality and instrumental colour typical of the nationalist Dvorák at his peak, though there is little evidence of overtly folk-like material.
A bold opening statement in the strings provides thematic material that reappears throughout the movement, even dominating the coda. The wistful second theme is given to Dvořák’s own instrument, the viola, and in an unusual move, Dvořák brings this back before the first theme in the recapitulation section.
In the beautiful Lento, no fewer than five separate themes lead from calmness to passion and back again, with the sequence repeated for the second half. The contrasting third movement, which is a scherzo in all but name, alternates a waltz-like melody with an oriental-sounding theme, and some people have likened the piano figuration to the beaten strings of the Eastern European cimbalom. Dotted rhythms give the central trio section an edgy energy.
The sonata form Finale is written in the unexpected key of E flat minor and is almost symphonic in its scope, building up to a brilliant conclusion in which the music finally returns to the home key of E flat major.
8 Chamber Music New Zealand
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BoardChair, Roger King; Peter Walls, Paul Baines, Gretchen La Roche, Sarah Sinclair, Lloyd Williams.
StaffChief Executive, Euan MurdochBusiness Manager, Jenni Hall Business Support Coordinator, Gemma RobinsonOperations Coordinator, Rachel HardieArtist Development Manager, Catherine Gibson Programme Coordinator (Contest), Pip WantProgramme Coordinator (Education and Outreach), Sue Jane Programme Writer, Jane Dawson Audience Development Manager, Victoria DaddMarketing & Communications Coordinator, Candice de VilliersTicketing & Database Coordinator, Laurel BruceDesign & Print, Chris McDonaldPublicist, Sally Woodfield
BranchesAuckland: Chair, Victoria Silwood; Concert Manager, Ros Giffney
Hamilton: Chair, Murray Hunt; Concert Manager, Gaye Duffill
New Plymouth: Chair, Joan Gaines; Concert Manager, Susan Case
Hawkes Bay: Chair, June Clifford; Concert Manager, Liffy Roberts
Manawatu: Chair, Graham Parsons; Concert Manager, Virginia Warbrick
Wellington: Concert Manager, Rachel Hardie
Nelson: Chair, Annette Monti; 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, Kerikeri, Morrinsville, Motueka, Rotorua, Taihape, Tauranga, Te Awamutu, Tokoroa, Upper Hutt, Waikanae, Waimakariri, Waipukurau, Wanaka, Wanganui, Warkworth, Wellington, Whakatane and Whangarei.
© Chamber Music New Zealand 2014 No part of this programme may be reproduced without the prior permission of Chamber Music New Zealand.
Regional Concerts & Other Events
The Troubles ( jazz band)Whakatane, 10 OctoberWarkworth, 12 OctoberWhangarei, 15 OctoberKaitaia, 18 October
Donizetti Trio (flute, bassoon, piano)Tauranga, 21 SeptemberRotorua, 6 OctoberWanganui, 8 OctoberGisborne, 10 OctoberGore, 19 OctoberWanaka, 21 OctoberCromwell, 22 OctoberMotueka, 24 October
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