Ensō String Quartet Concert Features New Works

Ensō String Quartet Concert Features New Works by Young NZ Composer Alex Taylor

Two new works by Auckland composer Alex Taylor will be performed by exciting American ensembleEnsō String Quartet in a concert in Wellington in May as part of Chamber Music New Zealand’s 2016 Kaleidoscopes season and celebrating New Zealand Music Month.

Ensō String Quartet performs at the Michael Fowler Centre, Wellington on Friday 20 May as part of the 10-centre tour which opens in Invercargill and heading to Dunedin, Christchurch, Nelson, New Plymouth, Palmerston North, Napier, Hamilton and Auckland.

Established at Yale University in 1999, Ensō String Quartet is known as one of the United States of America’s most accomplished and inventive young ensembles. They were described by Strad magazine as “thrilling” and praised by The Washington Post for their “glorious sonorities”.

The Wellington concert will feature Beethoven’s famed Quartet in E flat ‘Harp’, Ravel's String Quartet and Dutilleux’s masterpiece Ainsi La Nuit (Vision of the Night).

A highlight of the concert will be special performances of Auckland-based composer Alex Taylor’s a coincidence of surfaces I and a coincidence of surfaces II.

Taylor was commissioned by Chamber Music New Zealand to write the two miniatures for the Ensō String Quartet tour and he says it was a very different experience to write music for musicians he had never met.

“It’s been very stimulating to write for a visiting group of the quality of Ensō String Quartet. I’ve listened to some of their recordings online, and they are absolutely immaculate, but play with real energy and musicality.

This must be one of the first times I’ve been commissioned on reputation alone rather than knowing the performers directly, so it will be fascinating to see how it comes together in rehearsal.”

Taylor says the two works have been written to stand alone or can be performed simultaneously by an octet with one movement performed over the top of the other. “The collision of the two I’m hoping will be really interesting whether side by side or superimposed.”

Wellington audiences will experience both options with the Aroha Quartet performing a coincidence of surfaces II as part of the pre-concert talk, Ensō String Quartet performing a coincidence of surfaces I as part of the concert and immediately after the concert, Aroha Quartet will join Ensō String Quartet on stage and together the two quartets will perform the octet version of a coincidence of surfaces I and II.

Ensō String Quartet performs at the Michael Fowler Centre in Wellington on Friday 20 May at 7.30pm. Tickets are available through Ticketek www.ticketek.co.nz or phone 0800 TICKETEK (842 538). For further information visit www.chambermusic.co.nz/enso

ENDS

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