Andrew Joyce (cello),  Jian Liu (piano)

Both of these musicians are familiar faces on our stage, but this is the first time they have performed together as a duo.

In a far-reaching programme ranging from Bach to Hindemith, they draw on their various musical and cultural heritages with works by British, Chinese and New Zealand composers before embarking on one of the giants of the cello/piano repertoire – the Brahms Sonata in F Major. The second of his two Cello Sonatas, this was written in 1886 some 20 years after the first sonata.

Before joining the NZSO as Principal Cellist in 2010, UK born Andrew Joyce played regularly with the London Symphony and London Philharmonic Orchestras as well as performing as guest principal with other prominent UK orchestras. He is also an enthusiastic chamber musician.

Jian Liu, acclaimed internationally as a pianist, chamber musician and educator, studied in China and the USA and has performed widely throughout Europe, Asia and North America. He is currently the Programme Director of Classical Performance and Head of Piano Studies at the New Zealand School of Music Te Kōki.

It has been quite some time (2016 in fact) since our regular favourites the Amici Ensemble played a concert for strings only. It will probably be a welcome calming interlude for them after the huge resources – nineteen musicians on many varied instruments – that were required for 2023’s Brandenburg Concerto concert.

Two New Zealand compositions from different generations – Ronald Tremain’s 20th century String Trio and Salina Fisher’s 2017 ‘Yabo’ for violin and viola – will open this concert before we hear two of the greatest string quintets ever written.

The quintets in this concert are Viola Quintets, with an additional viola added to the standard string quartet combination. Mozart wrote a huge amount of music for strings, including six Viola Quintets. K515 is a late work in which he reached the peak of his chamber-music inspiration. The impressive String Quintet by Brahms is also a late work – he originally intended it to be his final composition. There is no doubt that this impressive masterpiece stands as a towering achievement by one of the greatest chamber music composers.

No musician is more popular in Waikanae than Michael Houstoun, so we are delighted to welcome him again with another of his appealing and well-crafted programmes.

The Fantasy and Fugue in G minor, one of the most magnificent of Bach’s organ works, will be heard here transcribed by Liszt for piano. Liszt, the leading musical figure of his generation, was very generous in transcribing and performing the works of other composers in order to promote their music, aiming to encourage appreciation and performance of music by composers who at that time were often under-appreciated. Liszt’s transcription is very faithful to Bach’s original, miraculously capturing the grandeur and richness of this magnificent work.

The programme continues with a selection of Liszt’s own works, displaying contrasted facets of this complex composer’s skill, ranging from the colourful and extroverted Concert Etudes to the deeply contemplative Bénédiction.

Chinese composer Gao Ping has very strong connections with New Zealand. His “Outside the Window”, a set of three short pieces, provides a charming interlude before we return to the music of the romantics with Chopin’s famous and very beautiful Sonata in B minor.

Dénes Várjon is one of the most exciting and highly respected Hungarian pianists of his generation. He and his highly talented pianist wife Izabella Simon, fresh from their starring roles at the Nelson Chamber Music Festival, make a welcome return to Waikanae with a fascinating programme.

The first part of the concert features Dénes playing solo. Those of us who were astounded by his formidable rendition of Beethoven’s ‘Hammerklavier’ Sonata in Waikanae in 2019 will be waiting eagerly to hear him perform Beethoven again – this time the ‘Pathétique’. Then he pays homage to the music of his homeland with two contrasting brief pieces, Liszt’s serenely romantic Petrarca Sonnet 104 and Bartok’s intensely rhythmic Romanian Dance.

The first part of the concert is relatively short because what follows in the second half is monumental. Mahler’s first Symphony, arranged for four hands by the famous conductor Bruno Walter (who was also Mahler’s close friend) has been described as “a deeply personal work that takes the listener on an emotional and philosophical journey.” This is a rare opportunity to experience such an unusual version of a very famous symphony.

Matthias Balzat (cello), Wilma Smith (violin), Laurence Matheson (piano)

The programme opens with one of Beethoven’s earliest chamber works, written when he first moved to Vienna hoping to make an impression on the city’s musical elite.

The trio by Smetana was written for a very different reason. Following the death of his infant daughter in 1855, Smetana immediately began writing this piano trio, dedicating it “in memory of our eldest child Bedřiška, whose rare musical talent gave us such delight”. There is no mistaking the serious mood of this work. All three movements are in G minor, and even the major sections do little to change the sombre mood.

In contrast, Dvorak’s “Dumky” Trio has a constant mix of emotions in its six movements. “Dumka” means “a fleeting thought” and the music constantly fluctuates between brooding melancholy and sharply contrasting interludes of lively dance-like exuberance.