Our Spring Concert Weekend is the fourth in our 2018 season that explores the human experience of sublime light and the darkest of shadows during times of war and in peace.
This 2018 season commemorates 100 years since the end of World War One.
We Will Remember Them.
CHORAL CONCERTS
Arvo Pärt: The Beatitudes
Morten Lauridsen: Lux Aeterna
Joseph Haydn: Mass in the Time of War Paukenmesse,Hob XXII:9
Friday 26 October - 7.30pm
Sunday 28 October - 2.30pm
Our contemplative choral programme explores the beauty and power that music can offer in the darkest of circumstances.
Morten Lauridsen composed his requiem, Lux Aeterna, in response to the death of his mother. Its five movements each reflect on biblical light, blending ancient, renaissance, romantic, and modern music styles into a deeply moving humanism. Haydn’s Paukenmesse, so-named for its dramatic use of timpani, dates from a time when Europe was shrouded in conflict and is one of his most popular mass settings.
ORCHESTRAL CONCERT
Richard Wagner: Siegfried Idyll
Felix Mendelssohn: Violin Concerto in E minor, Op. 64
Ludwig van Beethoven: Symphony No.2 in D major, Op.36
Saturday 27 October 7.30pm
This concert completes our long-running Beethoven symphony cycle with a performance of his delightful second symphony.
We are thrilled to welcome back Helene Pohl*, first violinist of the New Zealand String Quartet, for Mendelssohn’s ever-popular violin concerto.
Wagner’s Siegfried Idyll is one of his most intimate works. Scored for chamber orchestra, it was composed as a birthday present for his wife, Cosima, and provides a personal perspective on this great composer.
*Helene Pohl
Biography taken from the NZSQ website
Born in Ithaca, New York to German parents, Helene Pohl spent her childhood on both sides of the Atlantic. At 17 she was accepted for tertiary study at the Musikhochschule Cologne. She continued her studies with members of the Cleveland Quartet at the Eastman School of Music and at Indiana University with Josef Gingold.
As first violinist of the San Francisco based Fidelio String Quartet (1988-1993), Helene performed extensively in the USA, Germany, England, Italy and South America. The Fidelio Quartet was prizewinner in the 1991 London International String Quartet Competition and quartet in residence at both the Tanglewood and Aspen Music Festivals.
Helene joined the New Zealand String Quartet as first violinist in February 1994. In 2001 she became Artistic Director, with fellow quartet member Gillian Ansell, of the Adam Chamber Music Festival. In 2014 she was made a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit (MNZM) for her outstanding services to music in New Zealand.