Festival Programme

Adam Chamber Music Festival always begins with a Gala Dinner – a chance to gather for an evening of delicious food and fine wine and indulge in a sampler of selected Festival musical gems.

This year, the Gala features the Takács Quartet, Sergey Malov, New Zealand String Quartet, clarinetist James Campbell and contrabass virtuoso Hiroshi Ikematsu.

Our special guests the Takács Quartet open the Festival with one of Haydn’s sunniest quartets. Next, James Campbell (clarinet), Sergey Malov (viola) and Izabella Simon (piano) present Schumann’s set of four fairy tales. Written late in his life, the works show his mastery of whimsy and emotion. Clara Schumann remarked in her diary, ‘Today Robert completed four pieces for piano, clarinet and viola and was very happy about it. He thinks that this compilation will appear highly romantic’. And finally, the brilliant 18-year-old Dohnányi’s first chamber music work, this piano quintet, performed by Dénes Várjon and the New Zealand String Quartet. This work launched Dohnányi onto the international stage and earned Brahms’s comment, ‘I could not have done it better myself’.

Haydn – ‘Sunrise’ Quartet – Takács Quartet

Schumann – Märchenerzählungen – James Campbell (clarinet), Sergey Malov (viola), Dénes Várjon (piano)

Dohnányi – Piano Quintet No 1 in C minor – Dénes Várjon, New Zealand String Quartet

Co-Artistic Director Helene Pohl chats to Edward Dusinberre, Harumi Rhodes and Richard O’Neill from the Takács Quartet about their lives and careers. Formed in 1975, the Takács are one of the world’s great string quartets. As well as performing together, each of the musicians have impressive careers as soloists and chamber musicians. In addition, Edward is also recognised as a critically-acclaimed author.

1919 links two of this concert’s works with Rebecca Clarke’s sumptuous viola sonata and Arnold Bax’s elegiac quintet for harp and strings both written in that same year. Between these two works, we hear a brand-new Festival commission by New Zealand’s Claire Cowan.

Clarke – Viola Sonata – Richard O’Neill (viola), Dénes Várjon (piano)

Cowan – String Quartet  – New Zealand String Quartet – world premiere

Bax – Harp Quintet – Helen Webby (harp), New Zealand String Quartet

All three pieces in the programme were written far from their composers’ place of birth. Dvořák’s ebullient and joyful quintet was written in America, the same year as his symphony ‘From the New World’. For this performance, the New Zealand String Quartet are joined by violist Richard O’Neill from Takács Quartet. The second piece is from Efraín Oscher, who was born in Venezuela and educated in the life-changing Sistema music programme before moving to Germany. His virtuosic, Latin-inflected duo is sure to be a showstopper in the hands of Sergey Malov (viola) and Hiroshi Ikematsu (contrabass). To finish, the Takács Quartet presents one of Beethoven’s great Rasumovsky quartets, written in Vienna, far from the composer’s native Bonn, and dedicated to the Russian Ambassador to Vienna.

Dvořák – Viola Quintet in E flat major op. 97 – Richard O’Neill (viola), New Zealand String Quartet

Oscher – Escenas del Sur – Sergey Malov (viola), Hiroshi Ikematsu (contrabass)

Beethoven – Rasumovsky String Quartet in E minor op.59/2 – Takács Quartet

Bartók’s edgy and folk-inspired fourth quartet, probably the most-played of his six quartets, will be sure to mesmerise in the hands of the Takács Quartet. 

he concert begins with three movements from Bruch’s most famous chamber music work, the highly romantic Eight Pieces, performed by James Campbell (clarinet), Gillian Ansell (viola) and Dénes Várjon (piano). This is Bruch’s most famous chamber music work, written for his clarinet-playing son. Next up is a new Festival commission – Gillian Whitehead’s third quintet for the New Zealand String Quartet and taonga pūoro, this time premiered with Bob Bickerton, well-known to Festival audiences. 

Bruch – Three movements from Eight Pieces for Clarinet, Viola and Piano – James Campbell (clarinet), Gillian Ansell (viola), Dénes Várjon (piano)

Whitehead – Quintet – New Zealand String Quartet, Bob Bickerton (taonga pūoro) – world premiere

Bartók – String Quartet No 4 – Takács Quartet

Listen to two old friends, cellists András Fejér from the Takács Quartet and Rolf Gjelsten from the New Zealand String Quartet, discuss the early days of the Takács, Hungarian influences in their approach to music, and share stories from past meetings.

András is the last original member of Takács, having formed at the Franz Liszt Academy in Budapest in 1975. Within their first few years, the quartet garnered international recognition, winning a slew of prizes and awards. Rolf has had a truly international career, performing extensively in Europe and North America with orchestras and ensembles, before joining the New Zealand String Quartet in 1994.

Audiences of Adam Chamber Music Festival know the astounding talent of ‘poet on the piano’ Dénes Várjon. Don’t miss this wonderful chance to hear him performing a programme of Bartók from his Hungarian homeland, as well as Beethoven’s beloved Sonata Pathétique, Chopin’s monumental Sonata in B minor, and Liszt’ dramatically passionate Sonetto 104 del Petracha.

Beethoven – Sonata Pathétique

Liszt – Sonetto 104 del Petracha

Bartók – 1st Romanian Dance 

Bartók – Three Burlesques – Quarrel, A little tipsy, Molto vivo

Chopin – Piano Sonata in B minor

This fascinating and colourful collaboration between New Zealand harpist Helen Webby and Russian/Hungarian violinist Sergey Malov includes duos and solos, loop and delay pedals, New Zealand compositions, the humorous side of classical music, a world premiere, and the delicious Saint-Saëns’ Fantaisie.

Anthony Ritchie – Whales for violin and harp – Sergey Malov (violin), Helen Webby (harp)

Mary Kouyoumdjian – Patiently Shouting for violin and loop – Sergey Malov – world premiere

Eugène Ysaÿe – Sonata No 4 for solo violin – Sergey Malov

Mark Smythe – Moto Mojo for solo pedal harp with delay – Helen Webby

Deborah Henson-Conant – Baroque Flamenco for solo harp – Helen Webby

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart/Fazil Say – Alla Turca – Helen Webby

Camille Saint-Saëns – Fantaisie for Violin and Harp – Sergey Malov (violin), Helen Webby (harp)

Come and watch the 2023/24 Adam Troubadours get expert coaching from NZSQ cellist Rolf Gjelsten, assisting them in enhancing their expressivity and bringing the music to life. 

Free to attend.

Dénes Várjon and Izabella Simon play one of their favourite two-piano works to open this colourful and highly emotional concert, also featuring star turns from violinist Harumi Rhodes of the Takács Quartet and contrabassist Hiroshi Ikematsu. And finally, we are delighted to present the New Zealand premiere of the Florence Price Piano Quintet, a work that was almost lost but has had a revival in the past few years. Written in 1935, the work hearkens back to the Late Romantic style with impressionist touches and a ragtime-inspired scherzo.

Schumann/Debussy 6 Pedalflügel Studies Two-Piano Works – Dénes Várjon, Izabella Simon (piano)

Janáček – Violin Sonata – Harumi Rhodes (violin), Dénes Várjon (piano)

Piazzolla – Kicho – Hiroshi Ikematsu (contrabass), Izabella Simon (piano)

Price – Piano Quintet – Izabella Simon (piano), Takács Quartet

Find out more about the music and lives of three Festival artists – Russian/Hungarian violinist Sergey Malov, New Zealand harpist Helen Webby and Japanese contrabassist Hiroshi Ikematsu – in conversation with co-artistic director, Gillian Ansell.

Celebrate Waitangi Day with the world premiere of Jenny McLeod’s song cycle Under Southern Skies set to poems by Anne Powell, presented by Jenny Wollerman (soprano) and Jian Liu (piano). Harpist Helen Webby performs Helen Fisher’s evocative solo work, Otari.

Fisher – Otari – Helen Webby (harp)

McLeod – Under Southern Skies – Jenny Wollerman (soprano), Jian Liu (piano) – world premiere

Come and watch the 2023/24 Adam Troubadours get expert coaching from Takács Quartet first violinist Ed Dusinberre, assisting them in enhancing their expressivity and bringing the music to life. 

Free to attend.

We welcome our first work by exciting American composer, Nokuthula Ngwenyama, of Ndebele and Japanese descent, in a specially commissioned work by the Takács Quartet. Flow is inspired by aspects of the natural world as diverse as starling murmurations, black hole collisions, and Madagascar lemur song and rhythms.

The concert opens with Manaaki, a musical enactment of the welcome journey onto a marae, and closes with Messiaen’s epic Quartet for the End of Time, written in 1941 in the Stalag VIII – a prisoner-of-war camp near Görlitz, for the instrumentalists available and performed to the prisoners. Messiaen later recalled, ‘Never was I listened to with such rapt attention and comprehension.’

Brownlee/Tikao – Manaaki for Quartet and Taonga Pūoro – New Zealand String Quartet, Bob Bickerton (taonga pūoro)

Nokuthula Ngwenyama – Flow – Takács Quartet – New Zealand premiere

Olivier Messiaen – Quartet for the End of Time – Dénes Várjon (piano), Helene Pohl (violin), James Campbell (clarinet), Rolf Gjelsten (cello)

Over the past 20 years, James Campbell and the New Zealand String Quartet have performed together around the world. Enjoy their warm collaboration as they return to a perennial favourite, Mozart’s Clarinet Quintet. Shostakovich’s stirring second quartet, with its searing Klezmer Adagio and ghostly third movement waltz, will provide the perfect contrast.

Mozart – Clarinet Quintet in A major – James Campbell (clarinet), New Zealand String Quartet

Shostakovich – String Quartet No 2 in A major – New Zealand String Quartet

For their final performance at the festival, the Takács Quartet have chosen some of their favourite works to share. Wolf’s light-hearted pictorial Italian Serenade forms a perfect foil for Bartók’s deeply felt and powerfully compelling final quartet. In the second half, Gillian Ansell and Rolf Gjelsten join the stage for Brahms’ luminous sextet.

Wolf – Italian Serenade – Takács Quartet

Bartók – String Quartet No 6 – Takács Quartet

Brahms – String Sextet No 2 in G major – Takács Quartet, Gillian Ansell (viola), Rolf Gjelsten (cello)

Hear Justin DeHart chat with Co-Artistic Director Helene Pohl about his epic solo percussion projects and the works he will perform in his recital. Originally from California, and now based in Christchurch, Justin is a Grammy-nominated performer of contemporary musical styles from classical to pop, and from world music to electronic.

Percussionist extraordinaire Justin DeHart will surprise, delight and entertain in his varied programme featuring predominately all New Zealand music. Originally from California, and now based in Christchurch, Justin is a Grammy-nominated performer of contemporary musical styles from classical to pop, and from world music to electronic.

Andrew Staniland – Orion Constellation Theory 

Rosa Elliott – Landfall 

Phil Bownlee – Catchpool valley, early autumn (world premiere)

Mark Menzies – Scales & Taonga 

John Psathas – Infinite Mind  (world premiere)

John Bergamo – Three Pieces for the Winter Solstice 

Gareth Farr – Macet  

An impressive line-up of festival artists will gather for a sumptuous evening of Bach in various instrumentations and guises, including a rendition of a Gamba sonata with violin, cello and double bass, lively soprano arias, a noble organ prelude and fugue, cello suites on both the contrabass and violoncello da spalla, and finishing with Bach’s glorious E major violin concerto.

As a special treat, Sergey Malov will present a New Zealand premiere of a work written for him as a response to Bach’s Suite No 6.

Bach –Sonata for Viola da Gamba in D major – Sergey Malov (violin), Rolf Gjelsten (cello), Hiroshi Ikematsu (contrabass)

Bach – Arias from Cantatas 204 and 208  – Jenny Wollerman (soprano), Rolf Gjelsten (cello), Hiroshi Ikematsu (contrabass), Helene Pohl (violin), Rachael Griffiths-Hughes (harpsicord)

Bach – Cello Suite No 6 – Sergey Malov (violoncello da spalla)

Hendy – Metamorphic – Sergey Malov (violoncello da spalla)

Bach –  Prelude, Largo and Fugue in C major, BWV 545 – Rachael Griffiths-Hughes (organ)

Bach – Cello Suite No 1 in G major – Hiroshi Ikematsu (contrabass)

Bach – Aria for soprano with obbligato cello “Die Welt wird wieder neu… Phoebus eilt” from the Wedding Cantata (BWV 202)– Jenny Wollerman (soprano), Hiroshi Ikematsu (contrabass), Rolf Gjelsten (cello),Rachael Griffiths-Hughes (harpsicord)

Bach – Violin Concerto in E major – Sergey Malov, Helene Pohl, Monique Lapins, Peter Gjelsten, Lucas Baker (violins), Gillian Ansell, Lauren Jack (violas), Rolf Gjelsten (cello), Vincent Chen (cellos), Hiroshi Ikematsu (contrabass), Rachael Griffiths-Hughes (harpsicord)

In Monique Lapins’ specially curated programme, she has invited the two violinists of the 2024 Troubadours, Lucas Baker and Peter Gjelsten, both prize-winning former students of New Zealand School of Music Te Kōkī, to join her in Leonie Holmes’ quirky violin trio, originally commissioned by the festival in 2019. Next, You will never hear Mozart sound more bittersweet than in his E minor Sonata, performed by Monique and pianist Gabriela Glapska. We then have three festival firsts – poetic Kaia Saariaho, minimalist John Adams and fiery Karol Szymanowski, performed by Monique and Gabriela.

Holmes – Murmuration for violin trio – Monique Lapins, Peter Gjelsten, Lucas Baker (violins)

Mozart – Violin Sonata in E minor – Monique Lapins (violin), Gabriela Glapska (piano)

Saariaho – Calice No 1 – Monique Lapins (violin), Gabriela Glapska (piano)

Adams – Road Movies – Monique Lapins (violin), Gabriela Glapska (piano)

Szymanowski – Violin Sonata in D minor – Monique Lapins (violin), Gabriela Glapska (piano)

Featuring our wonderful 2024 Adam Troubadour Quartet, performing the first concert of selected works. 

The Adam Troubadours is a career development experience offered to four of New Zealand’s most promising young string players. The Programme includes learning and performance opportunities provided by Adam Chamber Music Festival and Adam Summer School.

The members of the Quartet change every two years, with the 2024 ensemble being Lucas Baker (violin), Peter Gjelsten (violin), Lauren Jack (viola) and Vincent Chen (cello).

Claude Debussy– Quartet opus 10 in g minor

This performance is free to attend.

The joyful, light-hearted and communicative spirits of clarinetist James Campbell, cellist Rolf Gjelsten and pianist Izabella Simon find their perfect expression in the uplifting Beethoven trio, and provide a beautiful contrast to the deeply moving late work of Richard Strauss, written as a sort of requiem for himself and European culture after World War II. 

This concert also celebrates the Adam Summer School – the 30^th iteration of which commences straight after the Festival – and features some of the many wonderful musicians we have been privileged to tutor at the School. All of the performers in the quintet as well as the composer Tabea Squire, are former students at the School and are now professional artists making their mark on the music world.

Ludwig van Beethoven – Piano Trio in B-flat major – James Campbell (clarinet), Rolf Gjelsten (cello), Izabella Simon (piano)

Tabea Squire – Behind the Stars, a Dark Sky Piano Quintet – Simeon Broom (violin), Arna Morton (violin), Alex McFarlane (viola), Heather Lewis (cello), Justin Bird (piano)

Richard Strauss – Metamorphosen – New Zealand String Quartet, Sergey Malov (viola), Rolf Gjelsten (cello), Heather Lewis (cello), Hiroshi Ikematsu (contrabass),

Hungarian pianist Dénes Várjon and New Zealand String Quartet present Bartók’s early piano quintet in a dramatic and powerful work super-charged with expressivity, showing the influences of Brahms, Debussy, Liszt and Strauss and the beginnings of Bartók’s fascination with folk music. To the best of our knowledge this is a New Zealand premiere. 

But first up is Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsody ‘Héroïde-élégiaque’, setting the heady tone for the delights to come.

Liszt – Hungarian Rhapsody No 5 ‘Héroïde-élégiaque’ – Izabella Simon 

Bartók – Piano Quintet in C major – Dénes Várjon (piano), New Zealand String Quartet

Come and hear Sergey Malov work with young violinists/violists to get behind the notes and help lift the music off the page.

Featuring our wonderful 2024 Adam Troubadour Quartet, performing the first concert of selected works. 

The Adam Troubadours is a career development experience offered to four of New Zealand’s most promising young string players. The Programme includes learning and performance opportunities provided by Adam Chamber Music Festival and Adam Summer School.

The members of the Quartet change every two years, with the 2024 ensemble being Lucas Baker (violin), Peter Gjelsten (violin), Lauren Jack (viola) and Vincent Chen (cello).

Joseph Haydn – Quartet in C Major opus 74/1

Gareth Farr – Mondo Rondo 

This performance is free to attend.

The festival’s final concert opens with a family affair – pianists Dénes Várjon and Izabella Simon perform Ravel’s ‘Mother Goose Suite’, narrated by their daughter Liána Izabella Várjon. We experience Paganini fireworks in the hands of virtuoso Sergey Malov followed by Armenian Khachaturian’s rhapsodic trio, filled with striking East Eurasian folk elements. French composer and pianist Louise Farrenc, banned from studying composition at the Paris Conservatoire, later became the only woman to hold the position of Professor of Piano at the Paris Conservatoire during the 19^th century. Her powerful music is receiving a resurgence of interest round the world, and we are delighted that her piano quintet, with the unusual inclusion of contrabass, will round off our festival.

Ravel – Ma Mere L’Oye (Mother Goose) – Dénes Várjon, Izabella Simon (piano), Liána Izabella Várjon (narrator)

Paganini – Paganini Plus – Sergey Malov (violin)

Khachaturian – Trio for Clarinet, Violin and Piano – James Campbell (clarinet), Monique Lapins (violin), Gabriela Glapska (piano)

Farrenc – Piano Quintet No 2 in E major – Helene Pohl (violin), Gillian Ansell (viola), Rolf Gjelsten (cello), Hiroshi Ikematsu (contrabass), Dénes Várjon (piano)