Cello And Piano Concert

Husband and wife team cellist Caitlin Morris and pianist Andrew Atkins return on Sunday February 25 by popular demand to the Globe Sunday Matinee series.

Caitlin Morris began learning the cello aged 15 and went on to study at the New Zealand School of Music under the esteemed tuition of Inbal Megiddo and Rolf Gjelsten. Caitlin has performed as cello soloist with the Nelson Symphony Orchestra, The Marlborough Civic Orchestra, Tawa Orchestra and the Wairarapa Community Orchestra. Caitlin teaches string instruments throughout the Wairarapa and one of Caitlin and Andrew's combined projects was launching the Wairarapa Youth Orchestra in 2021.

Andrew Atkins was raised in Palmerston North and studied piano there with Guy Donaldson, and at the New Zealand School of Music under the esteemed tuition of Dr Jian Liu and Richard Mapp. He performed Beethoven’s Second Piano Concerto with the Manawatu Sinfonia in 2013, Grieg’s Piano Concerto with Tawa Orchestra in 2014, and Rachmaninoff’s Second Piano Concerto and Beethoven’s Fifth Piano Concerto with the Manawatu Sinfonia in 2019 and 2021 respectively. He has also conducted the Manawatu Sinfonia, Kapiti Concert Orchestra, Wellington Chamber Orchestra and the New Zealand School of Music Orchestra. He is the current Music Director of the Wairarapa Singers.

The principal works on their programme are the Beethoven cello sonata in A major and Le Grand Tango of Astor Piazzolla .
The Cello Sonata No. 3 in A major, opus 69, is the third of Beethoven’s five cello sonatas. He composed it in 1807–08, during his productive middle period. The third sonata has been described as the first cello sonata to give the two instruments equal importance, his first two sonatas giving greater importance to the piano. First sketches for the sonata appeared alongside those for the Fifth Symphony and the Violin Concerto in a sketchbook dated September 1807 to early in 1808. Beethoven's sketches show that he continuously revised passages, though the finished composition sounds like the result of spontaneous inspiration. The sonata is formally the most expansive of Beethoven's cello sonatas, but also the most melodic one, and was successful with audiences from the beginning.

Astor Piazzolla was an Argentine tango composer, bandoneon player, and arranger. His works revolutionized the traditional tango into a new style termed nuevo tango, incorporating elements from jazz and classical music. A virtuoso bandoneonist, he regularly performed his own compositions with a variety of ensembles. Le Grand Tango is a single-movement piece for cello and that expresses the spirit of nuevo tango(“new tango”), a melding of traditional tango rhythms and jazz-inspired syncopation. Written in 1982, Le Grand Tango was published in Paris —thus its French rather than Spanish title.

Admission is by donation, recommended from $5.