Legend | 2026 Storytellers Season Concludes
Presenting: Legend, the final programme in our 2026 Storytellers Season, exploring the art of storytelling.
Wellington | Wednesday 28 October
Auckland | Friday 30 October
Hamilton | Saturday 31 October
Whanganui | Friday 6 November
PROGRAMME NOTES
Sara Arain (NZ) (2004–)
The Internal Eclipse (2026)
Based on an ancient Persian mythical tale. At the heart of the tale is a paradox; a group of birds journey in search of something beyond themselves only to discover that what they had sought was reflected within themselves. This paradox forms the foundation of the three interconnected ideas explored throughout this work.
Theme I: The Tale of the Simurg, Theme II: The Observer, and Theme III: The Crossing.
The paradox of the tale extends into my exploration of consciousness and the idea of “The Observer” which is a self beyond the physical that is able to witness our thoughts and experiences. Yet I came to realise that the observer presents its own paradox…The moment it is recognised; it becomes something being observed and is once again placed beyond reach.
The Crossing considers how identity, imagination and creative practice are shaped by what we inherit and carry between worlds. Through my Persian, Turkish and Islamic heritage, my connection to Aotearoa New Zealand and the musical legacy of my great-grandfather Abdülkadir Töre; I explore how ideas, traditions and identities travel across cultures and how their colours may change over time.
Together, these three themes form a meditation on the relationship between the inner and outer self.
By Sara Arain
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)
String Quartet No. 11 in F minor, Op. 95 ‘Serioso’ (1810)
Dedicated to Baron Zmeskall von Domanovetz
I. Allegro con brio
II. Allegretto ma non troppo
III. Allegro assai vivace ma serioso
IV. Larghetto; Allegretto agitato
Beethoven’s poor health, frustration in love, and ongoing money problems led to the increasing despondency reflected in the mood and subtitle he gave this quartet. Its four movements are highly integrated and cover a wide emotional range, often pointing towards the language and profoundness of the Late Quartets.
Melvin Berger described the short first movement as “lashing out with an angry, laconic phrase, played in unison by the entire quartet”. The second movement takes over with the opening cello phrase and the viola introduces a fugato theme which eventually stretches the limits of tonal stability. The third movement continues without break and the finale’s slow introduction transforms into the Allegretto agitato - the first part nervous and restless, the second more languid. The mood remains tense until just before the end, when Beethoven skips from minor to major in confirmation of the indomitability of the human spirit over the most desperate odds.
By Joy Aberdein
Interval
Benjamin Britten (1913-1976)
String Quartet No. 3 in G major, Op. 94 (1975)
Dedicated to Hans Keller
I. Duets. With moderate movement
II. Ostinato. Very fast
III. Solo. Very calm
IV. Burlesque. Fast – con fuoco
V. Recitative and Passacaglia (La Serenissima). Slow
Britten had a powerfully creative outpouring towards the end of his life, as he battled ill health, composing mostly vocal works, while needing coaxing by player friends to write for their instruments- in the case of his third quartet, by the Amadeus Quartet. Coming 30 years after his previous quartet, it was his last major work, written between October and November 1975. He died two weeks before the official premiere in December 1976 in Snape Maltings, on what must have been a very poignant occasion.
Its five movements form an arch, with the second and fourth fast movements being enclosed by three slow movements and each movement itself being a smaller arch – in ABA form.
In Duets Britten explores various combinations of twosomes inside the quartet, whether single duos or double duos for all four instruments.
Ostinato features a set of four jagged 7ths, repeated throughout, with other rather manic themes dancing around it. Even in the gentler middle section, the ostinato theme still bubbles along behind the scenes.
Solo seems to reference Shostakovich with a very high lonely first violin line in a sparse and cold landscape, an astonishing outbreak of birdsong interrupting the reverie midway through.
We are jolted back to reality in the wildly energetic Burlesque, an outburst of parody and musical jokes, with even “squeaky” playing behind the bridge being called for.
In the extraordinary last movement, Britten quotes liberally from his final opera, Death in Venice, based on the Thomas Mann novella. He went to “La Serenissima” (the historic name for Venice), to write this fifth movement, in order to capture some of the atmosphere and sounds of the floating city - e.g. the Passacaglia’s repeated cello notes represent the tolling bells audible from his hotel room. Dealing with themes of sadness, serenity and the search for beauty, this movement ‘‘ends with a question” (Britten’s own words).
Musicologist Ben Hogwood writes: “A handful of works would follow, but this is the moment where he gives up his soul, in music of affecting beauty. The last movement ensures he leaves with his head held high, innovating and captivating to the very end”. (Listening to Britten – String Quartet no. 3, Op.94, 2014)
By Gillian Ansell
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
Claire Cowan (NZ) (1983-)
Sweet Suite: Hansel and Gretel Highlights for String Quartet (2020)
Dedicated to the Jade Quartet
King and Queen Fairy Tango
The Food People
The Witch’s Charleston
In 2019, the Royal New Zealand Ballet invited Claire Cowan to conjure a new musical world for Hansel and Gretel, making her the first New Zealand woman to compose a full-length ballet. Her score cast its spell over nearly 30,000 ballet fans during a sold-out five-week national tour, before reaching close to 150,000 households online during the Covid-19 lockdowns and was recorded by the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra. Cowan later adapted some of the ballet’s most memorable moments into Sweet Suite, a vivid work for string quartet, originally arranged and gifted to the Jade Quartet to celebrate the orchestral album’s release. Its three movements glitter with dark humour, theatrical colour and the restless energy of the 1920s.
In Act I’s King and Queen Fairy Tango, Hansel and Gretel meet the Sandman who scatters them with his magic dust, and as they sink into a deep sleep, the fairies steal out to dance beneath the moon. The royal pair steps forward in a tango poised between balletic grace and a sly, sassy swagger.
The Food People emerges from Act II, as Hansel and Gretel give themselves over to the Witch’s extravagant feast. Pleasure curdles into nausea and hallucination as duplicate witches and pink-iced gingerbread men flicker into view. With ever-larger trays arriving, the food itself turns into life-sized ice-cream-covered people, rousing the children from their greed-induced nausea.
The finale, The Witch’s Baking Charleston, finds the Witch at her bowl, gleefully flinging in flour, old shoes and even a rat! Its irrepressible Charleston springs from the ballet’s larger world: a shadowy confection inspired by German Expressionist silent cinema and the first stirrings of the swing era.
MUSICIANS
New Zealand String Quartet
Peter Clark – Violin
Martin Riseley – Guest Violin
Gillian Ansell – Viola
Martin Smith – Cello
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