A dance, a melody, a memory

Antonín Dvořák’s second piano trio opens our first concert 2023 Homeland series – Songs my mother taught me. One of the great nationalist composers, he was born in Nelahozeves, Bohemia, as revolution swept across Europe and nationalism became a dominant feature in European art. In 1864 he became a violist with the Prague National Theatre Orchestra, where the chief conductor, Bedřich Smetana, encouraged him to compose.

During his 11 years there Dvořák composed copiously, influenced by Wagner as were many of his contemporaries. Smetana suggested instead that he should draw on his native folk music for inspiration. Dvořák’s deep affection for his homeland became an integral part of his music and he went on to produce a lasting and much-loved body of work that spoke with a national voice and brought him recognition and success. 

Dvorak

The early Piano Trios No.s 1 and 2 date from the period when Dvořák began to create his individual musical style. The first trio, with its succession of attractively natural themes, and the often poignant second trio, written four months after the death of his baby daughter, reveal the composer’s emerging Czech national style. Grove suggests that the prominence of minor keys in the G minor Trio can be attributed to Dvořák’s distress at his daughter’s death even though Dvořák gave no indication of this.

The G minor Trio opens with two assertive chords leading into a motif of repeated turns on the piano which is then taken up by the violin. This ‘turning motif’ becomes a second theme played by the cello and is skilfully developed as the movement unfolds.

Similarly, the lovely Largo is fashioned simply from a poignant cello melody, at first poetic, until a persistent low drumbeat on the piano gives a hint of a funeral march. After a sudden stillness, the tenderly repetitive theme becomes reflective and chromatic harmonies in the strings add new nostalgia.

The Scherzo, full of nervous tension and rhythmic invention, is built on a five-bar phrase which is chased from instrument to instrument. It is briefly interrupted by a wistful cello melody, which has taken the opening motif and slowed it down. The ingenious central trio is built on an arpeggio of rising chords and has an improvisatory air.

As with the first movement, the finale announces itself with assertive chords, but now in G major. This leads to a piquant dance at first hesitant, and then bolder until it resembles a polka. As the movement develops, the tantalising dance interrupts twice – and eventually has the last word.

Joy Aberdein © 2012

LEGACY cocktails

Claire Filer specially created three signature cocktails for each of our 2022 LEGACY concerts inspired by the flavours of each programme. Based in the UK, soprano Claire Filer has also been a taster and judge for various spirit awards. You can find out more about Claire on her Instagram account: ​​@ginesthesia / instagram.com/ginesthesia

LEGACY 1 – New York Sour

The flavours of the jazz age and European sweets come together in visual counterpoint in this riff on a New York Sour; a floating plane of red wine suspended over a honey spiced whiskey sour, a harmony of sweet, dry, spiced and decadent.

2 shots whisky
1 shot lemon juice
1 shot honey syrup
Few dashes Chocolate Bitters
Red wine float

Shake the first 4 ingredients with ice and strain into an ice-filled rocks glass. Float red wine on top using the back of a spoon.

LEGACY 2 – Black Forest Martini

Smooth American bourbon, decadent cherry, spiced chocolate and whimsical coffee harmonise in this Black Forest gateau-inspired martini. Dark spirit layered in counterpoint with pale cream, peppered with miniature chocolate curls, provide a visual and potable representation of this programme blending Germanic, ragtime, and playful NZ influences.

2 shots bourbon
1/2 shot coffee liqueur
1/2 shot cherry brandy
Few dashes chocolate bitters
cream
chocolate shavings
maraschino cherry garnish

Stir the first 4 ingredients with ice and strain into a martini glass. Float cream on top and garnish with chocolate shavings and cherry

LEGACY 3 – Mountain Gin Blanc

Fresh, spacious mountain air is evoked by this herbaceous cocktail, where gimlet meets martini in a pleasing fugue of international spices. Jazz-era gin, with its botanicals evocative of the European forest, harmonises with cooling wild mint, native kawakawa and alpine black cardamom, balanced with crisply tart lime and classic NZ sauvignon blanc.

60ml gin
15ml sauvignon blanc
30ml lime cordial
few dashes Ballin’ Drinks Wild Mint Bitters

Shake all ingredients with ice and strain into a martini or coupe glass.

LEGACY 3

LEGACY 3

We’re excited to be performing the final saga of our LEGACY series at venues across Aotearoa. NZTrio is renowned for performances that combine musical excellence with low key Kiwi warmth. Whether it’s your first concert, or you’re a classical music devotee, come along for a live musical experience to remember.

The concert begins with Schumann weaving his love of Bach’s counterpoint with his own natural fountainhead of fantasy, presented in an arrangement by his friend and colleague Kirchner. The chromatic spectrum is explored further in Schuller’s trio, embodying his jazz roots with colleagues Dizzy Gillespie and Miles Davis, and acknowledging his place in American composers’ royalty. Gao Ping’s NZ legacy continues long after his return to China in this brand new commission. The journey concludes with the largest, most symphonic piano trio of all – Tchaikovsky’s expansive and magnificent work written in memory of Nikolai Rubinstein – “À la mémoir d’un grand artiste”

Our performance at the Auckland Town Hall’s Concert Chamber will be live-streamed. You can sign up to receive a reminder email here

Concert Chamber
Auckland Town Hall
17 November 7 pm

Whittaker’s Musical Museum
Waiheke Island
20 November 5 pm

Lawson Field Theatre
Gisborne
6 December 7 pm

Lodge at The Hills
Arrowtown
7 December 7.30 pm

Nelson Centre for Musical Arts
9 December 7 pm

What to expect

Would you like to know more about what to expect from our concerts? Check out our FAQ section: https://nztrio.com/faq/

Find out the stories behind the composers and there works in our programme notes

LEGACY 3 Playlist

Want to know what you’ll be hearing? Listen to recordings of the works in our LEGACY 3 programme to get an idea of what’s in store when you come along.

LEGACY 2

The story continues...

Join us for LEGACY 2 in person at one of our Auckland venues, or our free live stream on the 20th of July from the Concert Chamber of the Auckland Town Hall.

The story continues with the luscious trio arrangement of Schumann’s melodious miniatures dedicated to his music teacher Friedrich Wieck before we return home to the sounds of Aotearoa in Tabea Squire’s newest work. Bolcom’s trio celebrates the music of our time in a whirlwind journey, turbulent with autumnal and Hispanic-jazzy tones contrasted with other-worldly serenity. Finally, we experience Schubert at the height of his artistry in his marvellous E-flat trio, acclaimed by Schumann as ‘an angry meteor blazing forth and outshining everything in the musical atmosphere of the time’. Brace yourselves for this epic musical panorama – the whole gamut of human emotion is conveyed in just four movements.

The Programme

Schumann – Sechs Stücke in kanonischer Form, Op. 56 arr. for Piano Trio,  III & IV
Squire – “Der Tanz” (new commission)
William Bolcom – Trio
Schubert – Piano Trio No. 2 in E flat, Op. 100

Warkworth Town Hall
3 July 4 pm

Concert Chamber
Auckland Town Hall
20 July 7 pm

Nathan Homestead
Manurewa
23 July 5 pm

Our performance at the Concert Chamber, Auckland Town Hall will be live streamed. Sign up to our emails to receive information this and other upcoming events.

Schumann – Sechs Stucke

Love is in the air, catch it if you can! Schamann wrote these six pieces for his wife Clara, and they are filled with joy and more than a hint of Bach.

Schumann excelled at miniatures. He also revered Johann Sebastian Bach, and in the spring of 1845 he and Clara were engrossed in the study of fugue. They had just moved to Dresden, where Robert was taking up the position as conductor of the Dresden orchestra; and the first thing they acquired for their new home was a pedal piano – an instrument with an extra row of pedals for playing bass notes, the closest thing you could get to an organ at home. It was wildly popular during that nineteenth-century craze for the organ and for playing symphonies and concertos in piano reduction. Robert was also teaching Clara counterpoint, and wrote this delightful little cycle of pieces for her.

They’ve been arranged for many instruments – this version for piano trio was made by Theodor Kirchner, one of Schumann’s students during his brief tenure at the Leipzig Conservatory.

Programme notes by Charlotte Wilson

Beethoven’s Piano Trio in B-flat major, Op. 97 is part of our 2022 LEGACY 1 programme.

To find out what’s coming up near you, visit our upcoming events.

The Archduke

NZTrio will be playing Beethoven’s Piano Trio in B-flat major, Op. 97 in our LEGACY 1 programme. It’s dedicated to Archduke Rudolf and is one of many important works that Beethoven dedicated to his friend and patron. Our programme notes, written by Charlotte Wilson, give you some background on their friendship and this work in particular.

This incomparable piano trio was written for Archduke Rudolf, the youngest child of Emperor Leopold II and Beethoven’s lifelong friend and patron. Sickly, also unencumbered by affairs of state, he devoted himself to music and by the time he was sixteen had dumped his piano teacher – the official music teacher to the Hapsburg princes – in favour of the 34-year old Beethoven who was making such a splash in Vienna. They became fast friends, despite the gap in their ages, and Beethoven even accepted him for composition as well as piano – the only composition pupil Beethoven ever had.

And, of course, the Archduke’s position meant that he could introduce Beethoven to the cream of Viennese society just when he needed it. Not only that, when it seemed Beethoven might leave Vienna – he’d been offered a job in Westphalia in northern Germany – the Archduke lured him to stay by teaming up with Princes Lobkowitz and Kinsky to guarantee him an annual salary, 4,000 florins for life; and when one was killed in a fall from his horse and the other went bankrupt, he took over sole responsibility and continued to pay Beethoven himself, even increasing for inflation until he died. Beethoven repaid his friend by dedicating some fourteen works to him in total – all his most important works, including the Emperor piano concerto, the Hammerklavier sonata, the Missa Solemnis – and this. 

 

This is Beethoven at the height of his powers, completely the master of large-scale sonata form. The opening theme is one of great spaciousness, luxuriance, flowing serenely along into the more staccato second subject, masterfully developed in lush writing for both piano and strings. The scherzo is energetic and bouncy, wrapped around a trio that combines mysterious fugato with a brilliant waltz. Then, the heart of the work, a hymn-like set of variations “singing, but keeping the movement going” that seem to evolve from within, inexorable, crossing all the usual time boundaries – this is one of Beethoven’s later hallmarks – until a swift change in mood leads into the dazzling, dancing, gypsy-inspired finale. Subjected to constant development, displaying his incredible mastery of harmony and texture as well as rhythm and melody (that cello soaring above the piano tremolandos), it all leads to a thrilling presto coda.

Beethoven’s Piano Trio in B-flat major, Op. 97 is part of our 2022 LEGACY 1 programme. To find out what’s coming up near you, visit our upcoming events.

2022 Series Launch

Join us for our 2022 Series celebrating 20 years of NZTrio

We are celebrating our 20th Anniversary in 2022 with the LEGACY series – an opportunity to look to the past and to the future.

One of NZTrio’s greatest legacies from its first 20 years is the commissioning of over 75 new works and LEGACY heralds three new works fresh off the press from Michael Norris, Tabea Squire and Gao Ping. We’re teaming up these new works from Aotearoa with some of the mightiest masterpieces of the trio repertoire – Beethoven’s “Archduke”, Schubert’s E-flat trio and Tchaikovsky, plus some cheeky genre-busters from Kapustin, Bolcom and Schuller, and a lesser-known work from a familiar name – Schumann.

We’ll be performing our LEGACY series across Aotearoa and live streaming LEGACY 1 from the Auckland Town Hall Concert Chamber. Find more about what’s coming up near you and how to book below.

Season pass available for Auckland Town Hall Concert Chamber
Dates: 29 May, 20 July, 17 November

LEGACY 1

Schumann – Sechs Stücke in kanonischer Form arr. for piano trio by Kirchner, Op. 56, I & II
Michael Norris – Horizon Fields
Kapustin – Trio, Op. 86
Beethoven – Piano Trio in B-flat major, Op. 97 “Archduke”

The story begins with the first two of Schumann’s “Six Pieces in Canon” where he pays homage to the lasting resonance of Bach’s prodigious talents in polyphonic writing. Then we look simultaneously to the past and the future, marking NZTrio’s proud legacy of over 75 commissions by performing the latest creation from Michael Norris, who wrote NZTrio’s first ever commission back in 2003. Genre-busting repertoire is highlighted in Kapustin’s trio, a representation of the Soviet jazz scene – spicy and crisp. There’s a moment to catch your breath before the heavyweight champion appears. Beethoven’s Op.97 Bb Major trio is dedicated to his patron and friend Archduke Rudolph of Austria who would surely be delighted to know his name lives on attached to this majestic and profoundly affecting work.

Christopher’s Classics, Christchurch
21 April, 7:30pm
BOOK NOW

 

Greytown Music Society 
1 May, 4pm
Tickets by phone reservation (evenings)
Ed & Juliet 06 304 9497 or efjacooke@gmail.com

Public Trust Hall, Wellington
18 May, 7pm
BOOK NOW

Pah Homestead, Auckland
(1 hour short concert version)
19 May, 7pm
BOOK NOW

Auckland Town Hall Concert Chamber 
(This performance will be livestreamed)
29 May, 5pm
BOOK NOW

LEGACY 2

Schumann – Sechs Stücke in kanonischer Form, Op. 56 arr. for Piano Trio,  III & IV
Squire – Der Tanz
Bolcom – Trio
Schubert – Piano Trio No. 2 in E flat, Op. 100

The story continues with the luscious trio arrangement of Schumann’s melodious miniatures dedicated to his music teacher Friedrich Wieck before we return home to the sounds of Aotearoa in Tabea Squire’s newest work. Bolcom’s trio celebrates the music of our time in a whirlwind journey, turbulent with autumnal and Hispanic-jazzy tones contrasted with other-worldly serenity. Finally, we experience Schubert at the height of his artistry in his marvellous E-flat trio, acclaimed by Schumann as ‘an angry meteor blazing forth and outshining everything in the musical atmosphere of the time’. Brace yourselves for this epic musical panorama – the whole gamut of human emotion is conveyed in just four movements.

Warkworth Town Hall
3 July, 4pm
BOOK NOW

Auckland Town Hall Concert Chamber
20 July, 7pm
BOOK NOW

Nathan Homestead, Manurewa
(1 hour short concert version)
23 July, 5pm
BOOK NOW

LEGACY 3

Schumann – Sechs Stücke in kanonischer Form, Op. 56 arr. for Piano Trio,  V & VI
Gao Ping – 寻山 Searching for the Mountain*
Schuller – Piano Trio
Tchaikovsky – Piano Trio in A minor, Op 50

The final saga begins with Schumann weaving his love of Bach’s counterpoint with his own natural fountainhead of fantasy, presented in an arrangement by his friend and colleague Kirchner. The chromatic spectrum is explored further in Schuller’s trio, embodying his jazz roots with colleagues Dizzy Gillespie and Miles Davis, and acknowledging his place in American composers’ royalty. Gao Ping’s NZ legacy continues long after his return to China in this brand new commission. The journey concludes with the largest, most symphonic piano trio of all – Tchaikovsky’s expansive and magnificent work written in memory of Nikolai Rubinstein – “À la mémoir d’un grand artiste”

* Generously supported by the Nicholas Tarling Charitable Trust

Pah Homestead, Auckland 
(1 hour short concert version)
6 November, 7pm
BOOK NOW

Public Trust Hall, Wellington
9 November, 7pm
BOOK NOW

Auckland Town Hall Concert Chamber
17 November, 7pm
BOOK NOW

Whittaker’s Musical Museum, Waiheke Island
20 November, 5pm
Ticket enquiries: Sophie Perkins – info@musiclamuseum.org

International Women’s Day 2022

International Women’s day is a great chance to get to know some of the amazing composers who’ve written works for us recently.

Have a listen to works from leading New Zealand composers: Celeste Oram, Sarah Ballard, Salina Fisher, Jenny McLeod, and Dame Gillian Karawe Whitehead.

Celeste Oram - The Naming of the Waters

Sarah Ballard - Prema Lahari

Salina Fisher - Kintsugi

Jenny McLeod - Clouds

Dame Gillian Karawe Whitehead - Ka maranga ngā kapua (The cloud will lift)

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We’re looking forward to performing with Simon O’Neill – Heldentenor at the Wānaka Festival of Colour Featuring works by Mahler, and Strauss along with other special gems, this is a concert to make your heart soar.

🎟: https://www.festivalofcolour.co.nz/programme/simon-oneill-nztrio-in-concert

Music: Morgen! by Richard Strauss, arranged Alex Taylor Composer
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