The Greytown Music Group’s 2025 concert series opens on 30 March with the Amici Ensemble, led by NZSO associate concertmaster Donald Armstrong. Donald has a long list of favourite compositions that he wants to perform, and this year he is joined by fellow NZSO members Alexander McFarlane on viola and Andrew Joyce on cello, together with Jian Liu on piano.
Jian is an internationally celebrated concert pianist who has performed, won prizes, adjudicated for music competitions, and played in many chamber music groups around the world. Currently he is the Programme Director of Classical Performance and Head of Piano Studies at the NZ School of Music, Victoria University of Wellington.
First on the programme will be Jean Françaix’s String Trio. Françaix, the son of a professional singer and the director of a music Conservatoire, learned the piano and was encouraged to compose from an early age. His String Trio, composed when he was 21, has a strong connection to the ballet music he was writing at the same time for the Russian Ballet of Monte Carlo.
This will be followed by the Fáure Piano Quartet No.2. According to reviewers, the “Temperamental eruption of the opening is a genuine ear opener”, and the quartet “bristles with energy and bewitches with beauty!”
“Temperamental eruption of the opening is a genuine ear opener”, and the quartet “bristles with energy and bewitches with beauty!”
The final work will be the Brahms Piano Quartet No.3. The young Brahms began the quartet during composer Robert Schumann’s last illness, when Brahms was torn between despair for his friend, and love for his friend’s wife, Clara, but was not finished until 20 years later. It is sometimes known as the Werther Quartet – a reference to Goethe’s epistolary novel, The Sorrows of Young Werther, in which the Romantic hero commits suicide after falling in love with a married woman whose husband he admires. Keen listeners will detect the “Clara” theme, a sighing E flat, D,C,B,C descent, and the later ascent C, D, E flat, F, E flat.
Amici Ensemble – Françaix, Fáure and Brahms: 4pm Sunday 30 March at 57 Wood St, Greytown.
For bookings: Ed and Juliet Cooke – ph 06 304 9497 or efjacooke@gmail.com
