At the end of the first movement of this performance of the Dvorak Piano Quintet I was flabbergasted - here was a group of musicians who had come together just for the occasion performing at a free lunchtime concert in Wellington, giving us playing and interpretation of a stature I was confident I'd not heard previously bettered in this music. I had heard the first violinist, violist and pianist... read more

A German violinist (and saxophone player) and an English guitarist both emigrated to New Zealand.  The result is, in part, this delightful duo.  Both players are highly skilled professional musicians, and their relaxed playing, with a few spoken introductions, revealed their enjoyment of music-making. Hearing a guitarist of this standard was quite a revelation. Their programme spanned the centuries, from the seventeenth (Loeillet de Gant’s charming Sonata) to the twentieth... read more

I’ve been familiar with the name Jaenecke for many years, first, I suppose, at the Adam Chamber Music Festival in Nelson, where Victoria lived before moving to Wellington. Her performances in the festival always seemed to put her in the forefront of indigenous Nelson players; most musicians at the festival, naturally, are from... read more

Geoffrey de Lautour: opera singer, teacher of music in schools, private singing teacher, raconteur, was remembered, ten years after his death. Fellow Dunedin-born singer Roger Wilson introduced the concert with a brief biography of de Lautour. The latter’s involvement in opera in New Zealand, following a career in Britain, has been outlined in his autobiography. Wilson emphasised the hands-on work of the old New... read more

Five string students, with the emphasis on the viola, performed a varied programme.  First up was Megan Ward, playing the Suite no. 1 in G for solo cello on viola.  Bach was well served by this performance.  Megan Ward, playing the seven movements from memory, produced a lovely rich tone, which seemed so well suited to the acoustics of the church. She had superb control, accurate intonation and brought out... read more

The performers were brave to tackle a difficult and unusual work such as this cycle of nine songs, and perhaps it was not only the recent bad weather that deterred some from attending the lunch-time concert. However, it proved to be an interesting and worthwhile recital. Messiaen’s songs were written in 1936 for his wife, violinist and composer Claire Delbos, whose nickname was Mi.  He wrote the words himself, with Biblical... read more

Here, throughout this lunchtime concert at St.Andrew's, was old-world charm and sensibility aplenty, a kind of "window in time" feeling, adding to the pleasure of it all. The music was delivered by three skilled musicians bringing varied instrumental voices and markedly different temperaments to play in their combinations, of the kind that nicely brought out that "baroque" sensibility of contrasting conversation and elaborate soliloquy. A sensitive, small-toned harpsichord threw... read more