News & Reviews

18 July 2019    /    Review

A large audience was kept spellbound and in awe by the extraordinary skill and adaptability of leading touring chamber ensemble The New Zealand String Quartet.

05 May 2019    /    Review

A concert by the NZ String Quartet is always an event to look forward to. This is the quartet’s 32nd season, and over the years they have gained an international reputation. In this concert they covered a broad period of the musical development of the string quartet.

15 April 2019    /    Review

Dick Oatts is a respected educator and player from America. An alto specialist, who in 1977 was shoulder-tapped to join the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra. He’s also toured or recorded with the likes of Sarah Vaughan, Joe Henderson, Ella Fitzgerald, Joe Lovano and Mel Tormé.  

29 March 2019    /    Review

Within a fortnight of the NZ String Quartet’s inspirational presentation at the NZ School of Music’s Adam Concert Room of two major works from the string quartet repertoire, we were, at another lunchtime concert, able to enjoy for a second time, on this occasion, the artistry of one of the...

25 March 2019    /    Review

It all seemed too good to be true – here we were at a FREE CONCERT at the Adam Concert Room up at the University, about to be enthralled by the country’s most prestigious string quartet in two major works from the genre’s repertoire, one from the nineteenth and the...

17 March 2019    /    Review

New Zealand String Quartet, with Maria Lambros (viola), presentsBRAHMS – String Quintets – No.1 in F Major, Op.88 / No/2 in G Major, Op.111

12 February 2019    /    Review

From Upbeat, 1:00 pm on 12 February 2019 

05 February 2019    /    Review

The Adam Chamber Musical Festival is in full flight in Nelson. Elizabeth Kerr reviews the first few days of performances.

03 February 2019    /    Review

Mozart: Horn Quintet in E flat, K 407    Sam Jacobs – horn, Helene Pohl – violin, Gillian Ansell – viola, Monique Lapins – viola, Rolf Gjelsten – celloBrahms: Three Intermezzi from Op 118 (Nos 1, 2, 6)    Dénes VárjonProkofiev: Sonata for two violins, Op 58    Anthony Marwood and Nikki Chooi...

30 August 2018    /    Review

It is always a pleasure to hear one of our great music institutions again, an ensemble which has built up a loyal following by their polish and rapport with audiences.

20 August 2018    /    Review

For its latest tour of the country, the New Zealand String Quartet has turned its attention to works that set new historical directions for chamber music genre, giving audiences a wide variety of music.

30 April 2018    /    Review

The English poet Edward Thomas, one of World War One’s neglected literary voices, has now been given a voice 101 years after his death in 1917. In Memoriam - a new song cycle by New Zealand composer, Janet Jennings – is a contemporary musical meditation incorporating four of Thomas’s war...

07 March 2018    /    Review

St Mary’s of the Angels was transformed to a New Zealand bush scene with ferns and trees that screened the European church architecture behind. It set a scene of antipodean ambience that supported the musical programme that we were to hear.

25 November 2017    /    Review

When Requiem for the Fallen debuted at the 2014 New Zealand Arts Festival, it was preceded by an eclectic selection of shorter choral and instrumental music.

10 November 2017    /    Review

Yong Siew Toh Conservatory Concert Hall, Singapore, Wednesday 8 November 2017

23 September 2017    /    Review

Brahms String Quartet No 3, Clarinet Quintet.New Zealand String Quartet, James Campbell, Clarinet (Naxos) 

29 August 2017    /    Review

Dangerous Liaisons New Zealand String Quartet Church Road Winery, Taradale. Music by Janacek, Jack Body and Mendelssohn. Sunday, August 27.

21 August 2017    /    Review

Dangerous Liaisons, Hanover Hall, Dunedin, Saturday 19 August 

07 June 2017    /    Review

New Zealand String Quartet and James Campbell (clarinet)

15 May 2017    /    Review

New Zealand String Quartet with Kathryn Stott (piano). Music by Faure, Ravel, John Psathas, Cesar Franck. Auckland Town Hall. May 13.

09 May 2017    /    Review

New Zealand String Quartet with Kathryn Stott (piano). Music by Whitehead, Dutilleux and Dvorak. The Piano, May 9.

08 May 2017    /    Review

REVIEW: Kathryn Stott, piano and New Zealand String Quartet, Chamber Music New Zealand, Old St John's Church, Sunday  May 7.  

08 December 2016    /    Review

Musica Viva Tasmania, New Zealand String Quartet, Hobart Town Hall, 30 November 2016 

06 November 2016    /    Review

Dumbarton Concerts, Washington DC: The New Zealand String Quartet with Maria Lambros (viola), 5 November 2016

27 September 2016    /    Review

Quintessence: The New Zealand String Quartet with James Dunham (viola), Charles Luney Auditorium, September 24 

17 September 2016    /    Review

String quintets by Mozart and Brahms New Zealand String Quartet (Helene Pohl, Monique Lapins, Gillian Ansell, Rolf Gjelsten) with James Dunham (viola).Michael Fowler Centre,  September 17

08 August 2016    /    Review

Heartland Classics presented by the New Zealand String Quartet. Caccia Birch House, Sunday August 7 2016 

20 September 2015    /    Review

New Zealand String Quartet: Russian Icons

01 July 2015    /    Review

The recent Composer Connections season for Chamber Music New Zealand took us to Wellington, Hamilton, Invercargill and Dunedin as part of a shared tour with NZTrio and the New Zealand Chamber Soloists. The three programmes were curated by New Zealand composers who placed music that deeply influenced them alongside their own compositions. In Wellington, our...

04 November 2014    /    Review

The Dunedin Town Hall was an acoustically ideal venue for yesterday's performance of Requiem For The Fallen - a profound musical commemoration of World War 1, which claimed the lives of more than 18,000 New Zealanders.

27 September 2014    /    Review

Springtime's Salon Series 2014 has brought the superlative New Zealand String Quartet (NZSQ) to eight nationwide centres as unalike as Geraldine, population 2,301 and Auckland, population 1.5 million. In doing so it had devised Salon 2, a programme cemented with solo J S Bach movements interleaved by complete works of...

20 May 2014    /    Review

CONCERT REVIEW James Campbell with NZ String Quartet Theatre Royal, Saturday, May 17

19 May 2014    /    Review

NZ String Quartet with James Campbell (clarinet) Old St Johns Sunday, May 18.

03 March 2014    /    Review

There was an air of ritual about Requiem for the Fallen, the major music commission of the New Zealand Arts Festival.

17 October 2013    /    Review

Tom McDonald Barrel Room, Church Road Winery, Taradale, Sunday 1 September, 2013.