https://middle-c.org/2012/05/interesting-assortment-of-arrangements-for-viola-ensembles-from-the-new-zealand-school-of-music/ Classical Music Reviews, Wellington, New Zealand Fri, 11 May 2012 07:29:34 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.1.4 https://middle-c.org/2012/05/interesting-assortment-of-arrangements-for-viola-ensembles-from-the-new-zealand-school-of-music/comment-page-1/#comment-54777 Fri, 11 May 2012 07:29:34 +0000 https://middle-c.org/?p=5701#comment-54777 I arranged the Intradas of Johann Groh for five violas. There’s nothing especially “strange” about the coincidence of my having the same surname as the composer, any more than the coincidence of having a violist named Andrew Filmer performing on a concert at St. Andrew’s on the Terrace. Old Johann may have been a relative of mine, or he may not; I can’t prove it, and I can’t rule it out. My earliest known Groh ancestor was my great-great-great-great-great-great-grandfather, also named Johann, who lived about a century after the composer, just across the border from Saxony in Upper Franconia. Most earlier church records in that part of Germany no longer exist, having been destroyed in the Thirty Years’ War — which was indeed a terrible war, but it began with the Defenestration of Prague in 1618 and had long been under way by the time Johann Groh died in 1627. Having had the pleasure of hearing these talented musicians perform in Sydney last March, I suspect that many of the comments in this review (“rather odd-ball,” “a few minor smudges,” “unexciting,” “could have been more effective,” “didn’t leave an especially deep impression,” “cannot tell whether this might have been a good rendering,” “rather pedestrian,” “not hugely entertaining”) are likewise at variance with the facts.

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