NZTrio’s ‘voyage’ delights
FULL REVIEW: This was simply an outstanding evening of music. We were taken on a rich cultural musical tour from composers as far ranging as Russia in 1881 to New Zealand in 2013. In between were China and America in the 1980. The young and lively members of NZTrio imbued this diverse repertoire with their […]
Rapturous applause for brilliant programme
FULL REVIEW: A brilliant programme was vigorously applauded by a capacity audience at the newly refurbished Glenroy Auditorium yesterday. True to their reputation, the NZTrio represented works from the 20th and 21st centuries balanced as it were by one work from the late 19th century. While this might suggest that the second half smoothed the […]
Convergence by NZTrio
FULL REVIEW: NZTrio could easily, un-facetiously be dubbed the rockstars of the New Zealand classical music scene. It’s not just that Justine Cormack (violin), Ashley Brown (cello) and Sarah Watkins (piano) are eminently marketable bright young things dressed by World that earns them this plaudit: they are one of New Zealand’s top chamber groups that […]
Memorial to Pol Pot victims – Ian Dando, The Listener
Of these four memorials to those two million tortured and killed in Pol Pot’s horrendous Khmer Rouge genocide, Jack Body’s eight-movement suite of transcriptions, O Cambodia, is the most uncompromising. It delves the deepest into Cambodian folk music, meaning many may flinch at the unfamiliarity of the sounds. Folklore is the deepest musical core of a […]
Highlight of the festival
FULL REVIEW: I’m a completely biased fan of these three musicians. Biased because I’ve had the pleasure of working with them before, and have spent the last month writing a new work for them. But nonetheless, I’m going to spend the next few paragraphs singing their praises for their last concert – Convergence, featuring two […]
Collaboration produces exquisite results
FULL REVIEW: Narrative works combining Maori and Western instruments bookend lively Asian offerings. There was more than one tale to be told in NZTrio’s Convergence concert on Sunday, particularly by the featured New Zealand composers. A new version of Gareth Farr’s 2009 Nga Kete e Toru enlisted Horomona Horo to add a second strand of […]
bright tide moving between – CD excerpts
Bright Sheng (China/USA): Four Movements for Piano Trio I (exc.) II (exc.) III (exc.) IV (exc.) Ross Edwards (Australia): Piano Trio Allegretto (exc.) Poco adagio e mesto, quasi recitativo (exc.) Allegro assai (exc.) Toru Takemitsu (Japan): Between Tides (exc.) Gillian Whitehead (NZ): Piano Trio 1st movement (exc.) 2nd movement (exc.)
NZTrio perform with passion – and fun
FULL REVIEW: Thoroughly enjoyed by a good-size audience, light and lovely music was served up at lunchtime this sunny festival day. It was to be a fun concert, the dress of the NZ Trio, Watkins wearing her trademark boots and a shirt featuring a huge pair of lips, Cormack a tshirt emblazoned with an enormous […]
O Cambodia
This recording documents an extraordinary collaborative project initiated by NZ composer and Asian specialist Jack Body and launched for the 2011 Auckland Arts Festival. NZTrio performs alongside 3 Cambodian musicians, premiering 4 new and incredibly unique works from NZ and Cambodian composers. This CD is a wonderful record of these works from composers Jack Body, […]
Spark CD excerpts
John Psathas (NZ): Island Songs I (exc.) II (exc.) III (exc.) Victoria Kelly (NZ): Sono (exc.) Michael Norris (NZ): dirty pixels (exc.) Maria Grenfell (NZ): A Feather of Blue (exc.) Penelope Axtens (NZ): For Violin, Violincello and Piano (exc.) Gareth Farr (NZ): Ahi Trio Scherzo Interlude Finale (exc.)
