Eggner Trio Chamber Music New Zealand Presents

We are very pleased to support our friends in the Eggner Trio again, 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.

Be one of the first to be in the know when we launch the season – sign up to get IN THE LOOP: www.chambermusic.co.nz/in-the-loop

Countdown to 2015 CONCERT SEASON LAUNCH!

1Eggner Trio with Amihai Grosz

Beethoven Piano Trio in D Opus 70 No 1 ‘Ghost’ 4

Gerrit Wunder Sequentia Miraculi 5

Interval

Schumann Piano Trio No 3 in G minor Opus 110 7

Invercargill 24 September Christchurch 25 September

ProgrammeWelcome

We are delighted to welcome back the Eggner Trio from Austria to our shores. These three brothers already enjoy a special relationship with audiences in our part of the world and are renowned for their warm and engaging music-making.

They will perform some of our favourite piano trios as well as a colourful new work by their compatriot and friend Gerrit Wunder from their recent Kaleidoskop recording.

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

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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.

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 violinFlorian Eggner celloChristoph Eggner piano

3Eggner Trio with Amihai Grosz

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 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.

4 Chamber Music New Zealand

Ludwig van BeethovenBaptised Bonn, 17 December 1770Died Vienna, 26 March 1827

Piano Trio in D Opus 70 No 1 ‘Ghost’Allegro vivace con brioLargo assai et espressivoPresto

Beethoven’s two Piano Trios Opus 70 were composed in the autumn of 1808, towards the end of what is known as his second period (1803-12). They belong amongst a group of Beethoven’s popular works, appearing after the 6th Symphony and Violin Concerto, and before the 5th Piano Concerto and his only opera Fidelio.

At the time, the composer was living in Vienna, in the apartments of Countess Anna Marie von Erdödy, a talented pianist whose salon was a leading performance venue for chamber music. According to some contemporaries Beethoven was attracted to her, and when the Trios were printed he insisted that the fingering he had notated for the Countess be preserved.

The first performance was given in her house in December 1808, with Beethoven himself on piano and his colleagues Ignaz Schuppanzigh and Joseph Linke, whose string quartet later gave the premiéres of his final string quartets, taking the string parts. One audience member wrote: “Beethoven himself played with great bravura and resolution an entirely new trio .... of great power and originality”.

Around the same time as he wrote the Piano Trio in D, Beethoven was also planning to compose an opera based on Shakespeare’s Macbeth. He set a few parts of text to music before deciding that the libretto, written by his friend Heinrich Collin, was “too gloomy” and not suitable. At the top of a page containing sketches for the music of the slow movement of the Trio in D he made reference to the ending of Macbeth, in which the ghost of the murdered Banquo appears. But the work did not acquire its nickname until 1842, when Beethoven’s pupil Czerny commented that the music reminded him of the ghost in Hamlet.

The central Largo is certainly one of the most unusual slow movements Beethoven wrote. It has an elusive quality – its thematic material is fragmentary, and the instrumental gestures seem to add colour rather than musical argument. The sudden outbursts, low piano rolls and tremolandi also point to Beethoven’s delight in the increased expressive capability of the pianoforte at that time.

In contrast to the D minor Largo, the D major outer movements seem almost carefree. The unison rhythmic figure that opens the Allegro leads seamlessly to a singing main theme, and both are featured during the development section. The final Presto is also written as a sonata form movement, enlivened with a few theatrical gestures.

5Eggner Trio with Amihai Grosz

Gerrit WunderBorn 1978

Sequentia MiraculiEffugiumDesideriumCongeriesOraculum

Austrian composer Gerrit Wunder studied classical and jazz composition, music technology and film music at the University of Music in Vienna, and graduated with a masters degree in composition. He has worked as a freelance composer for major film and television companies in both Europe and America, and since 2012 has lived in Los Angeles. Recent credits include Postman Pat – the Movie, and the documentary Wizard of the Desert, and he has also worked on the hit series Law and Order. In America, he has won the ASCAP Competition and in 2010 the BMI Foundation awarded him a Pete Carpenter Fellowship for aspiring film composers.

Sequentia Miraculi was written in early 2010 for the Eggner Trio and was recorded by them that year for their fourth CD ‘Kaleidoskop’. The four contrasting movements all have Latin titles: Effugium [escape], Desiderium [longing, desire], Congeries [a heap, collection], and Oraculum [a prophesy, oracle].

The composer writes:

“Professionally, I compose almost exclusively for media projects and not for the concert hall. Films automatically provide me with a source of inspiration for my usually richly instrumented orchestral works. Sequentia Miraculi posed me two major challenges: on the one hand, to retain my multi-faceted and colour-intensive musical style despite the small ensemble and, on the other, to write the composition without the usual visual sources of inspiration. Although this is normal for a concert composer, it represented a very difficult task for me to begin with.

My approach was finally to create my own, personal film in my head and to transcribe these moving fantasies into music. This was a rich experience which first showed me all the positive attributes of the unique instrumentation of a ‘piano trio’ and especially that of the Eggner Trio: precision, virtuosity, colourfulness, rhythmic perfection and a charge of energy. The Latin terms for my individual movements vaguely circumscribe my thoughts and should merely serve as a stimulus to create your own film in your own head.”

Chamber Music New Zealand Presents

BORODIN QUARTETDefinitive and incomparable, they return from Russia to perform the beating heart of the chamber music repertoire

Fri 17 Oct, 7.30pmCharles Luney AuditoriumSt. Margaret’s College, Christchurch

buy tickets: ticketek.co.nz | 0800 842 538

chambermusic.co.nz /ChamberMusicNZ | 0800 266 2378

Chamber Music New Zealand Presents

AROHASTRINGQUARTETShostakovich, Ravel, Beethoven and two Chinese folk tunes

Tues 14 Oct, 7.30pmCivic Theatre, Invercargill

buy tickets: ticketdirect.co.nz | 0800 484 253

chambermusic.co.nz /ChamberMusicNZ | 0800 266 2378

7Eggner 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.

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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