New Zealand String Quartet

The New Zealand String Quartet began its eight-centre tour of the country with a programme perfectly chosen for its audience and aptitudes.

Classicists will be gratified with its disciplined but always passionate rendition of Schubert’s String Quartet in C, performed with Christchurch cellist Edith Salzmann, and given room to breathe by having it take up the whole second half.

Romantics will love its just as disciplined but gorgeously coloured Andante con moto in F minor by Dvorak, which opened the programme. Lovers of 20th-century music will appreciate the stringencies of Metamorphoses nocturnes (String Quartet No 1) by contemporary Romanian composer Ligeti. And patriots and internationalists alike will be proud of the extraordinary achievement of Jack Body in his specially commissioned Spanish-influenced Saetas for String Quartet, enjoying its world premiere.

I was struck by the unquenchable energy the works have in common – with each other and with all five participants: it was the same vigorous youthfulness the quartet has always displayed since it began. Indeed, the Schubert, Dvorak and Ligeti works were all written when their creators were in their early 30s.

From the eerie invitation of its opening to its refined, considered and pacific end, the Ligeti is, as violinist Helene Pohl described it, “a wild ride”, winding up huge tensions through creative dissonance leavened with humour and satire. The players’ introductions to the modern (or in Body’s case, eclectically postmodern) pieces – violist Gillian Ansell for instance, explaining the origins of Body’s Saetas or penitential songs – were extremely helpful to those of us who’d never heard them before. The introductions allowed the players to share their personal enthusiasm for the works, pointing out bits that excited them and fired up the ensemble.

The Body, like each of the other works, is a highly charged form of serious play. Expect wild variations of sound, from medieval drones and drumming to snatched, abrasive snorts, to chords flying skywards on a sliding scale. Above all, expect the unexpected.

This is both a piece and a programme you’ll never forget; it was one of my best experiences ever in a concert hall.