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Manawatu Piano and Wind Ensemble

Ticket Information

  • Admission by donation recommended from: $5.00 each
  • Additional fees may apply

Dates

  • Sun 30 Jun 2019, 2:30pm–3:45pm

Restrictions

All Ages

Listed by

donaldsonhqf

The popular Globe Sunday Matinee series continues on Sunday June 30 with an ‘out of the ordinary’ combination of instruments and composers.

Two years ago the Manawatu Piano and Wind Quintet gave a performance at the Globe of compositions by Mozart and Beethoven for the combination of oboe, clarinet, French horn, bassoon and piano.

Critic Stephen Fisher wrote “This was a charming afternoon listening to notable works that demonstrate each of these composers at the height of their powers, performed by players appreciative of their music and the opportunity this satisfying matinee series provided. May we hear more from this talented ensemble again.”

This month the ensemble indeed returns with compositions by rarely heard composers of the nineteenth century – pieces which certainly deserve to be heard.

Franz Danzi was born in 1763 and was raised in Mannheim in Germany. When he was only 15 he began playing next to his cellist father and teacher in the then world-famous Mannheim orchestra which influenced the compositions of both Mozart and Beethoven. As a young man Danzi knew Mozart, whom he revered, and was a contemporary of Beethoven, about whom he had strong but mixed feelings.

His numerous works, covering the whole range of vocal and instrumental music, excited the admiration of his contemporaries, and he was to become a well-known and respected figure throughout Europe. Today his music has fallen under the shadow of Mozart and Beethoven, and lies largely neglected. In his Quintets for Piano and Wind instruments, Danzi introduces into the piano part brilliant passages which make this work something of a chamber piano concerto.

Heinrich von Herzogenberg was an Austrian composer and conductor descended from a French aristocratic family. The fact that he is not generally known about possibly relates not so much to his compositional ability, for he was a composer of definite gifts. Herzogenberg had been an advocate for the music of Richard Wagner at a time when European music circles were strongly divided in their preferences for either the forward-looking Richard Wagner or the more traditional Johannes Brahms.

Amongst Brahms’ piano students was one Elisabeth von Stockhausen to whom Brahms was evidently much attracted. However a meeting between Elizabeth and Heinrich resulted in their marriage in 1886. Herzogenberg soon shifted his allegiance to the music of Brahms, which he enthusiastically promoted.

However, despite Elizabeth’s cajoling, Brahms almost never expressed approval of the music of Herzogenberg. From this perspective it appears that Brahms held a personal grudge against Herzogenberg. Toward the end of his life, Brahms grudgingly relented somewhat writing, “Herzogenberg is able to do more than any of the others.”

From 1885 Herzogenberg was a Professor of Composition in Berlin, and it was in this capacity that he advised the young Ralph Vaughan Williams to study with Max Bruch. He was also a Bach enthusiast at a time when Bach was little known and he founded a society for the revival of Bach’s cantatas. Several of Herzogenberg’s major works were thought to have been destroyed during World War II, but resurfaced during the 1990s. His piano quintet shows the strong influences of both Brahms and Wagner. It is passionate in spirit, highly melodic and always engaging.

In this performance well-known Palmerston North musician Guy Donaldson is the pianist, and is joined by local wind players Lise Bakker – oboe, Ingrid Vlieg – clarinet, David Pearce – French horn, and Milja Albers-Pearce – bassoon.

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