Lazarus String Quartet in Warkworth

Old Masonic Lodge, Warkworth
Friday 27 September 2013, 6pm
Adults $30; Students free; no eftpos available



From Lazarus String Quartet: Emma Yoon (1992), Julianne Song (1989), Lindsay McLay (1989) and Alice Gott (1990) are all graduates of the University of Canterbury and The Pettman Junior Music Academy in Christchurch, New Zealand, and started playing together in various ensembles at a young age. The quartet is currently studying at The University of Music, Drama and Media Hanover in Germany, under the tuition of Professor Oliver Wille (Kuss Quartet).

Since its official formation in 2009, the prize-winning quartet of 2010 ROSL Arts/Pettman Competition has had great success with performances throughout New Zealand, Germany, France, and Poland and across the UK. They have appeared in multiple concert series, including at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, the Budleigh Salterton Festival, Musikwoche Hitzacker, and Solec nad Wisla in Europe, as well as at the International Akaroa Summer Festival in New Zealand. [Read more ...]

From Chamber Music NZ:
Programme
Haydn: String Quartet Op 20 No 2
Beethoven: String Quartet Op 18 No 2
Brahms: String Quartet Op 51/1

The six quartets of Haydn’s Opus 20, the so-called “sun” quartets for the picture of the sun that was on the cover of the published score, mark a turning point in the genre and were the ones that made his name as “the father of the string quartet”. No 2 is the glorious C major, beginning with one of Haydn’s loveliest melodies and ending on a fun-filled fugue.

Beethoven studied with Haydn, on his arrival in Vienna in 1792, and embarked upon his own set of string quartets six years later – waiting until he was confident of being able to hold his head high beside his teacher. Published as Opus 18, no 2 is the most cheerful of the lot, in G major, brimming over with youthful energy and charm.

Finally, the programme is completed by Brahms’s first quartet, the great C minor Op 51 no 1. Brahms in his turn was overawed by the example of Beethoven, and he would work on this quartet, perfecting it, for almost 20 years. The result one of the most intense, romantic and much-loved chamber works ever composed.