Tokyo Quartet Performs Two NZ Concerts on Farewell Tour

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Supreme Chamber Music Ensemble Tokyo String Quartet Performs Two New Zealand Concerts on Farewell Tour

Acclaimed as one of the finest chamber music ensembles in the world, the Tokyo String Quartet performs two New Zealand concerts in July as part of its farewell tour.

The Tokyo String Quartet will perform in Auckland and Wellington as part of Chamber Music New Zealand’s 2013 Kaleidoscopes season.

“We are absolutely delighted that the Tokyo String Quartet has been able to fit two New Zealand concerts into their farewell tour,” says Chamber Music New Zealand chief executive Euan Murdoch.

“We know New Zealand audiences will enjoy having the opportunity to hear this superb ensemble for the very last time.”

Established in 1969 by four students at the Juilliard School of Music, the Tokyo String Quartet has been performing and touring for 44 years and still boasts two original members – violinist Kikuei Ikeda and Kazuhide Isomura on viola.

The Tokyo String Quartet has captivated audiences worldwide with the perfection of their sound and technique and building up a catalogue of more than 40 landmark recordings, but with the retirement of Kikuei and Kazuhide, the quartet decided to disband.

“We've had no shortage of fine applicants auditioning for the positions of second violin and viola, but after a great deal of thought, we decided that after an extraordinary 44-year history, the Tokyo String Quartet will officially come to an end in July 2013,” said violinist Martin Beaver, adding that in this last season as a quartet “we feel that we have never played better.

“It is a difficult prospect to replace one long-standing quartet member. To replace two of them simultaneously is a Herculean task. With the retirement of our colleagues in our minds, we increasingly felt over the last few months that the most fitting way we could honour and celebrate our quartet's long and illustrious career was to bring it to a graceful close.”

The programme for the New Zealand concerts features three masterpieces from three very different centuries – Mozart’s Hoffmeister quartet, the epitome of classical beauty and elegance, is paired with one of the masterpieces of the 20th century – Bartók’s sixth string quartet, the last and most moving of his great string quartet cycle, which looks back to the folksong of his beloved Hungary and which he finished just before he died. Finally, the programme concludes with Brahms’ expansive C minor quartet, the passionate outpourings of a young man who would work for 20 years on one of the most intense, romantic and much-loved chamber works ever composed.

“Our concerts in New Zealand will be among our last as a string quartet, the central piece of our programme is a quartet full of meaning and one which will surely capture our state of mind as we bid farewell to the world,” Martin said.

The Tokyo String Quartet performs on the renowned ‘Paganini Quartet’, a group of Stradivarius instruments named for legendary virtuoso Niccolò Paganini, who acquired and played them during the 19th century. The instruments have been on loan to the quartet from the Nippon Music Foundation since 1995.

The Tokyo String Quartet performs at Auckland Town Hall on Friday 14 June and at Wellington Town Hall on Saturday 15 June. Tickets for the Auckland concert are available by phoning 0800 BUY TICKETS (289 842) or www.buytickets.co.nz, and for the Wellington concert through Ticketek phoning 0800 TICKETEK (842 538) or www.ticketek.co.nz  For more information visit www.chambermusic.co.nz

Chamber Music New Zealand acknowledges major funding from Creative New Zealand.

CHAMBER MUSIC NEW ZEALAND 2013 ‘KALEIDOSCOPES’ SEASON: TOKYO STRING QUARTET

Kikuei Ikeda (violin)
Martin Beaver (violin)
Kazuhide Isomura (viola)
Clive Greensmith (cello)

AUCKLAND: Auckland Town Hall, THE EDGE | Friday 14 June 8pm | Book at 0800 BUY TICKETS (289 842) www.buytickets.co.nz
WELLINGTON: Wellington Town Hall | Saturday 15 June 7.30pm | Book at Ticketek 0800 TICKETEK (842 538) www.ticketek.co.nz
www.chambermusic.co.nz

ENDS

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