Between the Lines: Obsession with New Zealand String Quartet

All Between the Lines events are FREE to attend, but booking in advance is encouraged.

This event will take place in Ngā Paiaka/ Bleachers on Te Papa Whenua/ Ground Floor of Te Matapihi.

Between the Lines is a monthly early-evening chamber music series and book club that brings music and literature into conversation. Presented in the beautiful setting of Ngā Pou Ruahine in Te Matapihi, the series invites audiences to listen, think, and chat. No prior knowledge of music or literature is required, just a curious mind.

Taking place monthly from April to October on the final Thursday of each month, Between the Lines has been co-created by New Zealand String Quartet, Orchestra Wellington, and New Zealand School of Music. Each month these organisations will take turns presenting a talented group of musicians to perform music and host discussion on a different literary theme. From devil's bargains to language games, the obsessive tortured artist to the intimate private lives of writers and composers, this book club will delve deep into themes that span across artforms.

Each session will feature carefully selected music and a reading list highlighting the theme of the month. So, arrive solo or bring your book club to Te Matapihi for a new kind of conversation.

The theme of our May musical book club is obsession.

Music to be performed:

Carlo Gesualdo | “Io parto' e non più dissi” (I am departing and I said no more…)

Erik Satie | Gymnopédies 1 & 3

Carlo Gesualdo | “Deh, come invan sospiro” (Ah, how in vain I sigh…)

Robert Schumann | String Quartet Op. 41/1

Carlo Gesualdo | “Moro Lasso” (I die, alas, in my suffering…)

The New Zealand String Quartet have brought together a programme of music that charts the intensity and drama of obsession. The sixteenth-century Italian composer, Carlo Gesualdo became infamous for murdering his wife, Donna Maria d'Avalos, and her lover, Fabrizo Carafa, Duke of Andria and Count of Ruvo in 1590. The most innovative and expressive Renaissance madrigalists, the chromatic intensity of Gesualdo’s music has long been imagined as a visceral expression of his guilt and fixation with the double killing. French composer Erik Satie, known for his odd personality quirks, obsessions and eccentricities (such as keeping 100 umbrellas and only eating white food), sowed the seeds of minimalism in his Gymnopédies, rediscovered by John Cage in the 1960s. Schumann’s ardent String Quartet in A minor, Op. 41/1 was dedicated to his friend Felix Mendelssoh but premiered as a gift to Schumann’s wife, the pianist Clara Wieck-Schumann on her 23rd birthday. The Quartet speaks of Schumann’s deep love for Clara, at a time when he grappled with the implications of her fame.

Explore the rest of the series:

Thursday 30 April, 5:30pm - Orchestra Wellington - The Art of Conversation (first & second sessions to take place on Ngā Paiaka/ Bleachers on Te Papa Whenua/ Ground Floor)

Thursday 28 May, 5:30pm - New Zealand String Quartet - Obsession (first & second sessions to take place on Ngā Paiaka/ Bleachers on Te Papa Whenua/ Ground Floor)

Thursday 25 June, 5:30pm - New Zealand String Quartet - Private Lives

Thursday 30 July, 5:30pm - Orchestra Wellington - The Devil's Bargain

Thursday 27 August, 5:30pm - New Zealand String Quartet - Outsider

Thursday 24 September, 5:30pm - NZSM - Te Kōkī - Theme to be announced

Thursday 29 October, 5:30pm - Orchestra Wellington - Language Games