NZ String Quartet

This concert will be presented by the NZ String Quartet. Two members of the quartet have resigned Helene Pohl (violin) and Rolf Gjelsten (cello). The NZSQ Trust has assured us of their full commitment to our concert and that they will update us at the earliest opportunity regarding the guest artists that they plan to engage to play with Peter Clark (violin) and Gillian Ansell (viola).

This concert includes works that have been an important part of Wellington Chamber Music history. The Shostakovich quartet was played in the year Wellington Chamber Music was formed in 1945. The Psathas work was commissioned by us for our 60th anniversary in 2005. The Grieg quartet was composed in 1877-78. The composer wrote in a letter to a friend “It strives towards breadth, soaring flight and above all resonance for the instruments for which it is written.”

John Psathas, Kartsigar (2005)
Dimitri Shostakovich, String Quartet No. 1 in C major Op 49
Edvard Grieg, String Quartet in G minor Op 27