The Goethe-Institut Wellington is proud to host New Zealand’s leading chamber ensemble in a concert of works by Beethoven on 24 November 2017. Celebrating its 30th season in 2017, the NZSQ has established an international reputation for its insightful interpretations, compelling communication and dynamic performing style.
Beethoven’s string quartets are regarded as the pinnacle of the chamber music repertoire and in this exclusive concert, the Quartet will play two of his works, offering insights into their composition and their significance in the history of classical music.
© NZSQ
The NZ String Quartet are: Helene Pohl (1st violin), Monique Lapins (2nd violin), Gillian Ansell (viola), Rolf Gjelsten (cello)
Since 1987 the New Zealand String Quartet has been New Zealand’s leading chamber ensemble, with a distinguished record of international touring success and a body of acclaimed recordings. Much-loved by audiences at home and around the world, the Quartet performs over eighty concerts to popular and critical acclaim each year.
Career highlights have included highly-praised performances in London at the Wigmore Hall, in New York at the prestigious Frick Collection and in Washington’s Library of Congress. In recent years the group has toured to Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom on a regular basis as well as performing in Mexico, Curaçao, Korea, Australia, Germany, Poland, the Czech Republic, the Netherlands, Sweden and China.
The Quartet’s extensive discography includes the complete Mendelssohn, Bartok and Berg string quartets, works by Ravel, Debussy, Beethoven, Schubert, Dvorak and Wolf, as well as the premiere recording of the remarkable Zoltan Szekely quartet. Their latest CD release features the complete chamber works for strings by Douglas Lilburn and they are currently engaged in recording a three-CD Brahms set for Naxos.
The ensemble has been Quartet-in-Residence at the New Zealand School of Music at Victoria University since 1991, where three of the members are Associate Professors. Violinist Helene Pohl and violist Gillian Ansell are co-artistic directors of the biennial Adam Chamber Music Festival in Nelson, regarded as one of the foremost festivals of its kind in the southern hemisphere, and the three long-serving members have each been awarded the MNZM honour for services to music in New Zealand.
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