New Zealand String Quartet & Ashley Riches at Merchant Taylors' Hall - Monday 11 July
Time: 19:30
This concert places New Zealand music in an international context: three of the country’s foremost composers, John Psathas (of Greek extraction) and Lyell Cresswell (long-time resident in Scotland), are represented – in the case of the latter, with the world première of Kotetetete. Three folk song transcriptions from China, Madagascar and Bulgaria by the great New Zealand composer Jack Body precede Barber’s Dover Beach, sung by the award-winning British baritone Ashley Riches. Bartók’s renowned String Quartet No 4 concludes the programme.
New Zealand String Quartet
Ashley Riches baritone
John Psathas Kartsigar
Lyell Cresswell Kotetetete (World première)*
Jack Body Three Transcriptions for String Quartet: Long Gi Yi (China) Ramandriana (Madagascar) Rarschenita (Bulgaria)
Barber Dover Beach
Bartók String Quartet No 4
*Commissioned by Chamber Music New Zealand Trust with funds provided by Creative New Zealand
Three Transcriptions for String Quartet (1987)
Over recent years the New Zealand composer Jack Body has become fascinated by the transcription of a heard music into a playable form of written notation. He says: 'Inevitably, the resulting 'reconstituted' music is not a facsimile of the original but rather a kind of transformation, "filtered" through my perception of the original. I also allow myself some license to enhance what I consider to be important elements of the original. Three Transcriptions is a collection of three different musics from China, Madagascar and Bulgaria.
'The first movement Long Gi Yi is from a recording sent to me by a Chinese friend, featuring the long-ge, a multiple jew's harp of the Yi people in South West China. The instrument is tiny, comprising three or more metal blades. As with other jew's harps the melody appears in the overtones which are resonated in the mouth cavity of the player: the music texture is a charming two-part counterpoint. Movement two is a transcription of 'Betsimisaraka' music from Madagascar played on an 18-string valika, a tube zither. This beautiful instrument exists in various shapes and sizes, and is related to the bamboo tube zithers of Indonesia and the Philippines: the movement, with its engaging juxtaposition of simple and compound meters, is called Ramandriana. The third movement, Rarschenita, is a wild dance in 7/8 meter from the Shops region of Bulgaria.'
£10, £20 (a glass of wine is included in the ticket price)
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