Virtuoso Performers combine for Rare Masterpieces in Concert

Chamber Music New Zealand Brings Together Virtuoso Performers for Rare Masterpieces in Concert in Wellington this month

The stage is set to burst with music rarely performed live in concert – two grand pianos and a glowing array of percussion feature in the Chamber Music New Zealand Rhythm and Resonance concert in five New Zealand centres with the opening concert taking place in Wellington.

Rhythm and Resonance: Music for two pianos and percussion explores three unique works by some of the instruments’ biggest fans: Bartók, Mozart and Ravel. The five-city tour opens in Wellington on Tuesday 26 August, before heading to Napier, Hamilton, Auckland and closing in Christchurch on Friday 5 September.

And to perform this special concert, Chamber Music New Zealand has brought together four virtuoso musicians: acclaimed New Zealand pianists Diedre Irons and Michael Endres with star percussionists Thomas Guldborg and Lenny Sakofsky from Stroma and the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra.

Opening with a masterpiece of classical perfection, four hands will leap across 176 keys as pianists Diedre Irons and Michael Endres perform Mozart’s Sonata in D for Two Pianos.

Ravel’s Le Tombeau de Couperin is a suite of baroque dances originally written for piano, however in this modern arrangement, the ivory keys make way for wooden bars and mallets and percussionists Lenny Sakofsky’s and Thomas Guldborg’s hands will dance across the marimbas.

Exuberant and visionary, Bartok’s Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion is the perfect synthesis of tradition and modernism and a musical love-letter to the composer’s favourite instruments.

Despite its undeniable beauty, the sonata is seldom performed, due to the difficulties of combining two grand pianos and an astonishing array of instruments: xylophone, bass drum, cymbals and no less than four timpani.
Paganini's famous and virtuosic work for solo violin has been performed and heard many times over. But not like this as the four musicians take the familiar and turn it on its head for a show-stopping finale of pure rhythm and resonance.

Rhythm and Resonance: Music for two pianos and percussion will be performed at the Michael Fowler Centre in wellington on Tuesday 26 August at 7.30pm. Tickets are available through Ticketek 0800 TICKETEK (842 538) or www.ticketek.co.nz A special package is also available for visually impaired patrons which includes a a pre-concert on stage Touch Tour as well as concert audio description by Nicola Owen from Audio Described Aotearoa.
Visit www.chambermusic.co.nz for more information

This tour is supported by the Deane Endowment Trust.

ends

© Scoop Media