One Cello Good, Two Cellos Better

Aroha String Quartet
5 September 2012
www.arohaquartet.co.nz

MEDIA RELEASE - For immediate use

One Cello Good, Two Cellos Better

What's better than the sound of a cello? Audiences in six centres in NZ will have the opportunity to experience the sound of TWO cellos in one of the greatest chamber music works ever written. The Wellington-based Aroha String Quartet, together with New Zealand Symphony Orchestra Principal Cellist Andrew Joyce, will perform Schubert's String Quintet in C in concerts in Hamilton, Greytown, Auckland, Lower Hutt, Christchurch and Palmerston North in September and October.

Andrew Joyce said ""It's always such a joy to play this incredible piece and I look forward to performing it with friends and colleagues from the NZSO. I have performed Schubert's C major Quintet many times before and it feels like an old friend, although only once or twice have I played the second cello part, so in some ways this tour with the Aroha Quartet will be a voyage of discovery for me."

The concert includes a work written by a young Hungarian composer Peter Tornyai. The members of the Aroha Quartet met Peter at the International Summer Academy, a summer music course they attended in Austria in 2010. "Peter wrote his 'Streichquintett' for us to play. We performed his piece in a concert on a railway platform amongst huge steam locomotives in a railway museum in Mürzzuschlag." said Haihong Liu, the Quartets' first violinist.

Péter Tornyai's short quintet was written in homage to Schubert. It makes extensive use of scordatura (retuning), creating a fascinating and evocative sound world.

The programme begins with Haydn's lovely 'Sunrise' Quartet.

The concert venues and times are:

Hamilton - Thu 6 September, 7:30pm, Gallagher Academy of Performing Arts (Hamilton Chamber Music Society)
Greytown - Sun 23 September, 4pm, 57 Wood St (Greytown Music Group)
Auckland - Sat 29 September, 7:30pm, St George's Church, Takapuna
Lower Hutt - Sun 30 September, 3:30pm, St Mark's Church, Woburn Rd (Chamber Music Lower Hutt)
Christchurch - Tue 2 October, 8pm, St Michael & All Angels, Oxford Tce (Christopher's Classics)
Palmerston North - Thu 4 October, 7:30pm, St Peter's Church, Ruahine St

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