Houstoun and NZSQ panache and polish

This, the third concert in three days promoted by the Morrison Trust, featured the New Zealand String Quartet playing various works, many of which have been recorded by Trust Records.

It was a well balanced affair, allowing us to hear two contrasting works by the busy John Psathas plus the splendidly clever and witty String Quartet No 1 (1954) by great Hungarian Gyorgy Ligeti, the light and airy Mondo Rondo of Gareth Farr and Jack Body’s brilliant Three Transcriptions written for the Kronos Quartet and first heard at the International Festival of the Arts in 1986.

But the concert was also significant for the return, after some time, of Michael Houstoun playing on both hands. For a few years now he has been restricted to left hand repertoire and the return of the right hand was seemingly no problem in Psathas’ Piano Quintet, though his work does stretch the keyboard player unduly.

One could have few arguments with the performances on offer. With the possible exception of the Ligeti, the works are all familiar to the NZSQ and this showed in playing of enormous panache and polish.

I mean no disrespect to the New Zealand works on offer when I say the Ligeti quartet was the highlight. I had not heard it before and was constantly delighted by his wonderful use of limited thematic material to produce a myriad dazzling moods and affects. An introduction to the work by Helene Pohl was a help, and the playing was brilliant.