NZTrio is an ensemble with a mission to champion New Zealand composition within a vast and vibrant repertoire. The group is committed to performing new commissions by both leading and emerging composers, and have engaged in many collaborations across media.
For its final performance series of 2017, 'Soar!', core NZTrio members cellist Ashley Brown and pianist Sarah Watkins are joined by violinist Manu Berkeljon.
Listen to an interview about the series by Kim Hill here, or hear the performance below:
John IRELAND: Phantasie Trio in A minor
John Ireland, by Herbert Lambert, bromide print, circa 1920 Photo: Public Domain/National Portrait Gallery, London
In the first concert of this 2017 Loft Series, the trio played the Phantasie by Frank Bridge. That work won the Cobbett Prize in 1907. Walter Willson Cobbett had set up the prize a couple of years earlier to stimulate the composition of shorter one-movement chamber music works in Britain. The inspiration for the works was to be the "Phantasy" based on the old viol consorts of Purcell and Byrd.
Well, this trio by John Ireland got the third prize in that same competition in 1907. Ireland was still pretty young at this stage – in his late 20s – and it was around this time that he started making a name for himself. He was devoted to the music of Debussy and Ravel and was one of the first to explore an English version of the sonorities of Impressionism. There’s a suggestion online that this trio originally had the title Sub Umbra, ‘Under the Shadow’. The title is absent from the published score but it may provide an emotional background to our reception of the work.
Performed by NZTrio at their concert, 'Soar', in the Loft at Q Theatre, Auckland, 14 November 2017.
Anthony RITCHIE: Childhood
Anthony Ritchie Photo: Gareth Watkins / Lilburn Trust / Wallace Arts Trust
Anthony Ritchie writes that this piece Childhood...
"reflects on different stages in life, and makes connections between our own childhood and that of our children, and indeed our grandchildren.
Observing and relating to children is like a renewal of hope and wonder that counterbalances the experiences and tribulations of adult life. Therefore, the style of the music is deliberately naïve and simple, while also containing undercurrents of complexity."
Performed by NZTrio at their concert, 'Soar', in the Loft at Q Theatre, Auckland, 14 November 2017.
Dorothy KER: Onaia
Dorothy Ker Photo: Moana Bianchin
New Zealand composer Dorothy Ker, currently teaching at the University of Sheffield in the UK, writes:
"Onaia Stream passes through a narrow gully, where it is possible to wade barefoot through the shallow waters, going deeper and deeper into the high banks and ancient foliage, for several hours. Onaia is not a depiction of that place (nor a journey through it) but a translation of its energies. The sounds are not from there but make a visceral connection to it, playing with patterns and resonances, and with various qualities of surface and touch. The piece falls in pitch from extreme height to the deepest available pitch, a musical journey that might be understood as the unraveling of a single stratified spectrum of texture and resonance."
There are some unusual sound-making techniques from the players in this piece including: bow-tips dragged across the ground, strumming the strings with guitar picks, brushing the strings with a silk scarf, dragging a chain across the piano, and dropping a set of chimes onto the piano strings.
Onaia Stream is just north of Lake Rotorua:
Franz SCHUBERT: Piano Trio No 2 in E flat, D929
Franz Schubert, about 1827 Photo: Franz Eybl, Public Domain
Schubert dated the score of this trio November 1827. He was 30, gravely ill with syphilis and depressed. A year later he was dead.
But, listening to this, you would hardly know. As Charlotte Wilson writes, "High drama combines with Schubert's unmatched and endless gift for melody, especially in the heart-rending slow movement. The Scherzo and trio are brilliantly impish and witty; and he excels even himself in the final movement of incomparable brilliance and beauty."
Performed by NZTrio at their concert, 'Soar', in the Loft at Q Theatre, Auckland, 14 November 2017.
