Anthology | 2026 Storytellers Season Cont.
- New Zealand String Quartet
- Aug 3
- 7 min read
Presenting: Anthology, a broad collection of wonderful music in our 2026 Storytellers Season, exploring the art of storytelling.
Paeroa | Thursday 6 August
Taupō | Friday 7 August
Te Pahū | Saturday 8 August
Hanmer Springs | Saturday 29 August
Granity | Sunday 30 August
Kaikoura | Firday 18 September
To read programme notes for our concerts in Tauranga (9 August), Wellington (12 August), Nelson (28 August) or Blenheim (19 September), click here and for the concert in Christchurch with Ariana Tikao click here
PROGRAMME NOTES
Henry Purcell (1659 – 1695)
Chacony in G minor Z.730 (c. 1680) (arranged by Britten 1947, revised 1963)
This year, marking the 50th anniversary of Benjamin Britten's death, it is fitting that we open our concert with his arrangement of Henry Purcell's Chacony in G minor. We hear two musical voices at once: the unmistakable elegance of Purcell's seventeenth-century Baroque style, reimagined through Britten's expressive twentieth-century musical language. Far more than a respectful transcription, Britten's arrangement allows Purcell's music to speak with a fresh, modern voice, revealing the profound admiration one composer held for another across nearly three centuries.
The chaconne is a form built on repetition and transformation, in which a recurring harmonic pattern provides the foundation for continual variation. Perhaps its most celebrated example is J.S. Bach's monumental Chaconne from the Partita in D minor for solo violin, where this simple structural principle becomes the basis for extraordinary invention and emotional depth. Britten approaches Purcell's work in a similarly expansive spirit, enriching the original with a broader palette of colour and inviting performers to explore a more Romantic sound-world.
Hearing Purcell's Chacony through Britten's lens also provides an illuminating prelude to Britten's own Chacony, the final movement of his Second String Quartet. Together, the two works reveal a compelling musical conversation between past and present, demonstrating how great music can be continually renewed while remaining deeply rooted in old traditions.
By Peter Clark
Anthony Ritchie (NZ) (1960-)
Perpetual Motion from String Quartet No.3, ‘In Time’ Op. 221 (2023)
The work is a meditation on the passing of time and explores the temporal nature of our existence; at the same time, it celebrates the joy of creating and performing music in time with each other.
This performance features one movement from the work. Perpetual Motion evokes the steady swing of a pendulum, creating an uneasy reflection on the brevity of our lives through constantly evolving rhythmic energy.
In Time was written for The Jade Quartet in Auckland: Miranda Adams and Liu-Yi Retallick on violins, Robert Ashworth on viola and James Yoo on cello. It was premiered at Ferndale House in Auckland, June 24, 2023.
Dedicated to Diana Gash
By Anthony Ritchie
Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel (1805-1847)
Movements from String Quartet in E flat major H.277 (1834)
It is difficult to imagine that Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel, a composer of extraordinary ability, saw so little of her music reach the public during her lifetime. Yet social conventions in early nineteenth-century Berlin left little room for women of her class to pursue public artistic careers. Her brother Felix’s reservations also shaped her path, leaving much of her music to be heard only in the family’s celebrated Sunday musicales.
Composed in 1834, her only string quartet is one of the first surviving examples of this genre written by a female composer. It received just one private performance during her lifetime and was not published until 1988. Reworking material from an unfinished piano sonata begun five years earlier, Fanny created a work of striking originality and emotional depth.
Beethoven’s influence, especially that of the “Harp” Quartet, Op. 74, is unmistakable, yet the quartet’s distinctive structure (slow, fast, slow, fast) and adventurous harmonic language reveal Fanny‘s unique musical voice. The opening movement sustains a remarkable sense of harmonic uncertainty before finally arriving at the tonic of E-flat major with an air of inevitability, while the scherzo remains both light and elusive. A lyrical slow movement forms the emotional heart of the work, and the energetic finale transforms earlier ideas into a triumphant conclusion.
Although Fanny sometimes doubted her ability to sustain large-scale musical forms, this quartet proves otherwise. It stands as an extraordinary achievement, remarkable for its originality, ambition, and expressive power.
By Martin Smith
Benjamin Britten (1913-1976)
Movements from String Quartet No. 2, in C major, Op. 36 (1945)
While still enjoying the success of Peter Grimes (1945), Benjamin Britten turned his attention to several new compositions, including his String Quartet No. 2. Written as part of the 250th anniversary commemorations of Henry Purcell’s death, the quartet reflects Britten’s deep admiration for the composer he revered above all others.
Rejecting the pastoral nationalism of Vaughan Williams and his contemporaries, Britten sought a modern English musical voice through Purcell’s example. Writing to Mary Behrend, he described the quartet as “the greatest advance I have yet made,” suggesting he had discovered a new compositional direction.
Completed after Britten returned from Germany, where he accompanied Yehudi Menuhin in concerts for survivors of Nazi concentration camps, the quartet carries a remarkable emotional intensity. Its three movements unfold on a symphonic scale: two expansive outer movements surround a tense and unsettling central scherzo.
Purcell’s influence is most clearly felt in Britten’s use of Baroque-inspired forms and gestures, culminating in the finale titled Chacony, using Purcell’s own spelling. Heard alongside Purcell’s Chacony earlier in tonight’s programme, Britten’s finale reveals the enduring influence of a composer who remained a constant source of inspiration throughout his life.
A Personal reflection
2026 marks the 50th anniversary of Benjamin Britten’s death, and the New Zealand String Quartet are commemorating this milestone by centring their season around performances of all three of his remarkable string quartets.
Around a decade ago, I had the privilege of being invited by the Britten–Pears Foundation to stay for a week in Britten’s home in Aldeburgh, on the east coast of England. It was a surreal experience to wake each morning in the very place that inspired so many of his most significant works. Aldeburgh has changed very little over the years, and I felt a vivid connection to the environment that shaped Britten’s creative life.
Britten was a committed pacifist—an outlook that profoundly informed both his life and his music, particularly works written during and after World War II. Experiencing his music today, in a world still marked by conflict and uncertainty, brings an added poignancy.
It is a special privilege to perform these extraordinary quartets across Aotearoa New Zealand as a member of our national string quartet, sharing music that speaks not only of its time, but also so eloquently to our own.
by Peter Clark
Antonín Dvořák (1841-1904)
String Quartet No. 12 in F major, Op. 96 (B.179) (The American Quartet) (1893)
I. Allegro ma non troppo
II. Lento
Nicknamed the ‘American Quartet’, Dvořák’s 12th string quartet was written in 1893, during the composer’s time in the United States. Infused with elements of folk music and inspired by the natural wonders of the New World, this beloved work invites listeners on a journey through untamed wilderness.
In the opening movement, Allegro ma non troppo, Dvořák’s sweeping melodies and expansive harmonies evoke the vastness of the American prairies, while in the second movement, Lento, the composer turns his gaze skyward with a tranquil and contemplative melody, leaving listeners uplifted and inspired by the world around them. One of the most frequently performed string quartets, Dvořák’s ‘American Quartet’ is a testament to the enduring power of music to evoke the wonders of the natural world, enabling us to find solace, joy, and sanctuary in the world around us.
Danish String Quartet
Excerpts from their album Last Leaf (2017)
Shore
(Fredrik Sjölin, 2017)
Shore is a little folk-fantasy written by Fredrik, simply inspired by the vast coastline and the many hundreds of islands that form Denmark. Just as the shore is the last thing you see when leaving, it is also the first thing you experience when returning. Opening the album, the idea was to create a musical resemblance of the landfall.
Polska from Dorotea
(Swedish traditional)
A famous polska, attributed to Swedish fiddler, teacher and cantor Johan August Andersson (1866-1902), who lived in the village Dorotea in Lapland. Andersson had quite a tragic life, losing his wife and daughter in childbirth, which resulted in a local scandal when he entered the church mid-service to publicly curse God. He was subsequently fired from his teaching position, but was allowed to stay as a cantor, because he was such a good fiddler. Later his mental derangement worsened until he was primarily known in Dorotea as “Crazy Andersson”, spending his last years alone in a small house in the middle of the village.
This tune has a natural sense of gravity and swing, and an almost la follia-like progression. And although the polska dance usually tends to be a tad slower, we like it when played with “sturm und drang”!
Now Found Is The Fairest Of Roses
(German traditional)
Published in 1732 by Danish theologist and poet H. A. Brorson, this is one of the most beautiful Danish hymns we know. It is written for Christmastime, but unlike many Christmas hymns, it is not just about Bethlehem and the holy infant - rather, it simply describes a fair rose, growing in a world of thorns and thistles. The hymn is set to a mysterious, somewhat dark melody, a melody that most people were familiar with in 1732. To the surprise of many, Brorson had chosen an old Lutheran funeral chorale to accompany his Christmas hymn, elegantly showing how life and death are always connected.
The Dromer
(Scottish/Danish traditional)
One of the most important collections of Danish tunes was assembled by the Bast Brothers from 1763 - 1782. The two brothers, Christian Frederik and Paul Danchel, grew up on the island of Lolland in the second half of the 18th century. Both of them studied theology in Copenhagen, making their way through their collegiate years by playing music at parties and social occasions. The Dromer is technically an English dance. In the final decades the 18th century, dances from the British Isles were very much in fashion in Denmark and naturally the Bast Brothers had several English dances in their repertoire. The peculiar title of this tune is probably a misspelling of The Drummer, which is a fairly well-known Scottish reel that is identical to the melody notated by the Bast Brothers. The Drummer started to appear in British tune collections around 1700 and it later morphed into the famous Scottish song The Piper o’Dundee, which was used to “stir up the chiefs and their clans” during the Jacobite rising.
By the Danish String Quartet
MUSICIANS
New Zealand String Quartet
Gillian Ansell – Viola
Peter Clark – Violin
Martin Smith – Cello
Peter Andreas Nielsen – Guest Violin
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