Chamber Music

Members of the Wellington and Hutt Valley Chamber Music Society are looking forward to an exciting season in 1971. The Society has provided chamber music of the highest calibre for more than 25 years, but never before have they presented a series of concerts of such variety as that being offered this season. Not only are the groups more varied, but the Society is also experimenting with new venues for some of its concerts in the hope of being able to stage some of them more informally.

The Iwamoto Quartet will provide the first concert of the year. This outstanding Japanese quartet is led by a woman violinist and is the first quartet from Japan to tour N.Z. Two concerts are to be staged at Old St. Paul's in April. The old cathedral will be a particularly appropriate setting for the Syntagma Musicum, an ensemble from Amsterdam who recreate the music of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance on the original instruments.

Behrend, the globe-trotting Berliner with a guitar will be familiar to many through his recordings. He can be heard in June in a live concert to be held at the new Teachers College in Karon. Behrend will be performing with his folk-singing partner Belina. There will also be a concert in which Behrend combines with the N.Z. Quartet. This will be the first time that a string quartet has toured with a guitar in this country. Programmes will include classical and modern works for this combination.

Last year, Music Players '70 played to packed houses with their outstandingly successful series of concerts of piano and percussion works of the twentieth century. These versatile and talented young N.Z. musicians can be heard again this year.

The most unusual concert of the season will be the last one, provided by Les Percussions de Strasbourg. This group, all graduates of the Paris Conservatoire of Music, travel with a total of 140 instruments in all the percussion categories - skins, woods and metals. They play in black polo-neck sweaters and have delighted audiences all over the world with their vital interpretations of twentieth century music.

The Society has vacancies for new members. For details see the advertisement on this page.