Music Week
Music Week
by Fiona Rae
SATURDAY MAY 24
Music Alive, Radio New Zealand Concert, 8.20pm. RNZ Concert has organised a fantastic feast of New Zealand-made this week, and tonight’s concert is a 60th birthday dedication to composer Gillian Whitehead, featuring the premiere of her work the improbable ordered dance. In addition, a new generation of composers is represented by Aucklander Claire Cowan and her work my alphabet of light. Works by Cowan’s teacher, Eve de Castro-Robinson, and her mentor, John Psathas, are also performed. Finally, the night wouldn’t be complete without Douglas Lilburn’s Symphony No 2.
MONDAY MAY 26
Music Alive, Radio New Zealand Concert, 8.00pm. There are two concerts for NZ Music Week that celebrate composer Alfred Hill, who lived in New Zealand between 1872 and 1887. The Hills of Wellington tonight features Hill’s chamber music, and on Thursday at 8.00pm, a concert from last year includes Commemorative Ode, which Hill scholar and cataloguer Allan Stiles describes as highly significant, because it opened the first concert by the first professional orchestra in New Zealand.
Composers of the week
New Zealand Chamber Music
Sunday, May 25, 9.00am: Peter Mechen marks RNZ Concert’s New Zealand Music Week with a look at New Zealand Chamber Music (R Mon 7.00pm) (RNZ); J Ritchie: Partita for brass quintet, New Zealand Brass Quintet; Tremain: Tenera Juventa, Auckland University Festival Choir/Peter Godfrey, Alison Lander, Martin Ryman (pno duo); Carr: Dances from Electra, Music Players 70
Monday, May 26, 9.00am: Carr: Prelude & Aria, Jennifer Paull (ob d’amore), Read Gainsford (pno); Pruden: String Trio, Donald Armstrong (vln), Vyvyan Yendoll (vla), Farquhar Wilkinson (cello); Burch: Capriccio for four saxophones, Saxcess; Watson: String Quartet No 2, New Zealand String Quartet
Monday, May 26, 7.00pm: A repeat of Sunday’s programme; Harris: Three Rilke Songs, Susan Roper (sop), Patrick Barry (cl), Carolyn Mills (harp); Lilburn: String Trio, members of the New Zealand String Quartet
Tuesday, May 27, 9.00am: Whitehead: Hinetekakara, Aroha Yates-Smith (vocalist), Richard Nunns (taonga puoro), members of Tuhonohono; Blake: Sounds: An Evocation of Tahuahua, Queen Charlotte Sound, Auckland Wind Quintet; Hill: String Quartet No 1 in B flat, Maori, Dominion Quartet
Wednesday, May 28, 9.00am: Hamilton: Nix Olympica, David Guerin (pno), Auckland Wind Quartet; Holmes: Recitative II, Tim Deighton (vla), Dan Armstrong (perc); Norris: BADB, Bridget Douglas (fl), Rachel Thomson (pno); Speak: String Quartet, New Zealand String Quartet; Lilburn: Sonatina for clarinet & piano, Peter Scholes (cl), Michael Houstoun (pno)
Thursday, May 29, 9.00am: Body: Arum Manis, Kronos Quartet; Matthews: Placing the Feather, James Tennant (cello), Katherine Austin (pno); Buchanan: Flute Song for the Birds, Bridget Douglas (fl); Psathas: Piano Quintet, Stephen Gosling (pno), New Zealand String Quartet
Friday, May 30, 9.00am: Psathas: Calenture, Dan Poynton (pno), Neil Becker (gtr), Murray Hickman (perc); Chaulk: Seatoun Sketchbook, BonaNZa trombone quartet; Farr: Cadenza, CadeNZa; A Ritchie: Piano Trio Op 100, Yury Gezentsvey (vln), David Chickering (cello), Richard Mapp (pno)
