The Adam Festival: chamber music heaven
The Takács Quartet and the New Zealand String Quartet: a sense of community
From left: Harumi Rhodes (viola), Monique Lapins (violin), Helene Pohl (violin), Edward Dusinberre (violin), András Fejér (cello), Rolf Gjelsten (cello), Richard O’Neill (viola), Gillian Ansell (viola).
Photo credit: Sophie Kelly
For the first ten days of February, Nelson was abuzz with the joy and delight of chamber music lovers. Back to its full length after five years, the Adam Chamber Music Festival welcomed perhaps the most star-studded international and national line-up of musicians in its three-decade history and many of the twenty concerts sold out in advance.
The Adam Festival is the oldest and currently the largest of Aotearoa New Zealand’s three chamber music festivals. “The Adam”, as it is sometimes known, acknowledging long-term loyal benefactors Denis and Verna Adam, began in 1992 when five professional New Zealand-based musicians performed five concerts over five days in Nelson. The Adam Foundation was welcomed as principal sponsor in 1997 and that year the first overseas performers were included.
From those early days, the Festival developed into a 10-day event, and settled into a biennial pattern, curated by Artistic Directors Helene Pohl and Gillian Ansell of the New Zealand String Quartet (NZSQ). It has grown steadily in size, duration, quality and artistic ambition. The pandemic was, as everywhere else, an interruption. For 2021, with New Zealand’s borders closed, the Adam organisers presented a four-day “Celebration” featuring New Zealand-based artists. (You can read my review of that joyous event here.)
The NZSQ has always been a central hosting ensemble for the Adam, its musicians playing not only as a quartet but as soloists and in ensembles of all sizes. This year was no exception and these four hard-working, talented and generous musicians also led talk sessions and masterclasses, looked after performers and audiences, mentored the talented young quartet-at-large, The Troubadours, and generally ensured the Festival was a warm, welcoming and wonderful event for audiences from around New Zealand, Australia and elsewhere.
The Takács Quartet
“…like characters in the fascinating conversation that is the essence of chamber music.”
Photo credit: Amanda Tipton
The Takács Quartet
Chamber music festivals have a special atmosphere, building a close relationship between performers and audiences. The Adam’s free ‘Meet the Artists’ sessions were usually packed with music lovers keen to know more about visiting musicians.
The members of the famous Takács Quartet, one of the world’s finest string quartets, were particularly popular. Headline act, the Takács was both audience magnet and exemplar in their performances of “what matters” in chamber music.
In an entertaining conversation between cellist András Fejér and Rolf Gjelsten of the NZSQ, we learned that music education at the famous Franz Liszt Academy in Music in Budapest is not for the faint-hearted. Fejér described the extreme discipline demanded by his Hungarian teachers. “They felt free to torture us, while handing over what they had learnt,” he smiled. “But the humiliations we endured gave us more determination and guts.”
Fejér is the last remaining original member of the Takács, formed by four students at the Liszt Academy in 1975 and named after its original first violinist, Gábor Takács-Nagy. The cellist told us wryly how the four young musicians spent their first two years in the quartet engaged in “serious fighting, almost physical.” Eventually they learned that the little things they were arguing over were not important. “All that mattered was rhythm, colour – and quality.”
For the Festival’s Grand Opening Concert, in Haydn’s Quartet in B flat major Opus 76 No 4 ‘Sunrise’, the Takács musicians played like characters in the fascinating conversation that is the essence of chamber music. Exploiting Haydn’s wit and musical jokes to the hilt with exaggerated effects, their immaculate ensemble playing was also often magically quiet.
The discipline and passion from the ensemble’s Hungarian beginnings is all still there, although the ensemble has been “rejuvenated” by new members since the 1990’s. The current line-up includes Englishman Edward Dusinberre (first violin), American Harumi Rhodes (2nd violin) and the newest member, violist Richard O’Neill, an American with South Korean heritage who joined them in 2020. These outstanding chamber musicians, from different generations and backgrounds, play with understated virtuosity of ensemble and flawless unanimity. I have never heard Beethoven’s 2nd ‘Razumovsky’ Quartet better played, the brilliance, urgency and whimsy of their interpretation revealing new depths in this marvellous work.
The Takács also performed two Bartók String Quartets, nos. 4 and 6, in two different programmes. The 4th is full of Bartókian colours, harmonics, vehement, even gritty, bowings, col legno and, in the 4th movement, every flavour of pizzicato including strumming and snaps. Féjer’s lovely cello solo in the central movement was warm and communicative and the group’s impeccable ‘togetherness’ was especially breath-taking in the fleet muted Prestissimo.
A few days later they played Bartók’s sorrowful 6th Quartet. Every movement begins with the marking Mesto (“Sadly”), Bartók’s grief about his dying mother and his despair about the 2nd World War combining in darkly intense music. This drama is not unrelentingly grief-laden, however; in the hands of the Takács, the work’s full tonal range, from gravelly folk dance to whisper-quiet weeping, was explored with huge variety in the service of shattering expression.
The Takács is also committed to performances of new music and brought to Nelson a work they had recently commissioned and toured by Nokuthula Ngwenyama, an American composer of Ndebele and Japanese descent. Her first string quartet is complex and energetic, its stylistic diversity creating a very modern soundscape. Called Flow, it combines quasi-Romantic lushness, ironic hints of music box and dance hall, puzzling edgy moments, a lovely viola solo emerging from a pulsing texture and, finally, a concluding unison. “Go with the flow”, the composer advises.
The Takács musicians collaborated generously with others in smaller and larger ensembles during the programme. Dusinberre spoke warmly about the sense of community at the Adam while introducing the final Takács Festival performance, Brahms’ 2nd String Sextet Opus 36, for which they were joined by Ansell and Gjelsten of the NZSQ. Brahms’ sextet often features duos within the texture, revealing subtle musical intimacies and rapport. The composer’s lovely melodic lines sang and danced, all six musicians listening closely to each other, finally racing in the fourth movement to the work’s joyous conclusion.
Pianist Dénes Várjon
“…staggering technique and profoundly sensitive musicality.”
Photo credit: Chris Smith
Pianist Dénes Várjon
Hungarian pianist Dénes Várjon made his third visit to the Adam this year. When I heard him first in 2017, I was deeply impressed by his playing in both solo repertoire and chamber music. This quietly-spoken musician, winner of numerous awards and highly praised internationally, combines staggering technique with a profoundly sensitive musicality. He is also possessed of a huge repertoire and large discography. A critic once said of him “it is rare to hear such jaw-dropping virtuosity placed so modestly and so intuitively at the service of music.”
His solo piano concert, called simply “Dénes in Recital”, was, as I expected, a highlight of the Festival. It opened with a magnificent performance of Beethoven’s ‘Pathétique’ Sonata, playing that acknowledged the complex architecture of a big work in which Beethoven shifted from a classical approach to an almost symphonic romanticism. The audience maintained a pin-drop silence as Várjon combined elegance, passion and a wonderful clarity of texture.
The solo piano recital is no longer such a common occurrence in our concert calendar. This was a pianist’s programme, repertoire chosen to exploit the beauty and facility of the instrument, and sounding wonderful on the Nelson Centre of Musical Arts fine Steinway piano. Liszt’s Petrarch Sonnet 104 was brilliant with romantic poetry and emotion, and was followed by Bartók’s spiky, folk-inspired First Romanian Dance and his odd and remarkable Improvisations Opus 20. Várjon has impressed in the past by his voicing of lines within a melodious Romantic texture and his final choice, Chopin’s virtuosic Piano Sonata in B minor, was all multi-layered melodies and rippling beauty, solemn lyricism in the slow movement and amazing facility in the rapid runs of the Finale.
Várjon, another Lizst Academy graduate, referring to the Academy’s tradition dating back to composers Bartók, Kodály and Dohnányi, told me “you had to give the last drop of your blood for the composers.” A generous chamber musician, Várjon collaborated throughout the Festival with his colleagues in many chamber ensembles, seeming to lift whoever he played with to a higher level. Always loyal to his Hungarian roots, he played Piano Quintets by Dohnányi and Bartók with the NZSQ, who matched his strength and musicality in performances of character and fiery zest. All five musicians visibly enjoyed the energetic music and their well-balanced partnership, and audiences responded with equal pleasure.
Pianists Izabella Simon and Dénes Várjon
“…remarkable rapport and understanding.”
Photo credit: Andrea Felvégi
Várjon frequently travels, performs and records with his wife, pianist Izabella Simon, the pair showing remarkable rapport and understanding. They were fellow students at the Liszt Academy. “We have exactly the same musical tastes, we resonate the same way,” Várjon told me a few years ago. “We don't have to practise some things at all because we breathe together.”
Simon joined the Adam Festival international lineup, not only performing with her husband but in other duos and trios, revealing her fine pianism and versatility. For the Grand Finale concert, the couple were joined by their daughter Liána as Narrator for an enchanting performance of Ravel’s Ma Mere l’oye (Mother Goose) Suite.
International visitors
Internationally-acclaimed Canadian clarinetist James Campbell
…a return visitor to the Adam Festival.
Photo supplied
Chamber music festivals bring together musicians from different backgrounds and offer audiences ensemble repertoire seldom heard in regular concert programmes. Clarinetist James Campbell, an acclaimed Canadian musician with a world-wide reputation, has visited the Adam a number of times. Artistic Director of the Festival of the Sound in Ontario for almost forty years, Campbell is an old friend of the NZSQ. Berlin-based violinist, violist and specialist on the violoncello da spalla Sergey Malov, winner of the 2011 Michael Hill International Violin Competition, was making his first appearance at the Festival in Nelson. And Hiroshi Ikematsu, one of the finest contrabassists in Japan, where he is section principal with the Tokyo Metropolitan Orchestra, returns to the Adam. He is fondly remembered by New Zealand audiences from his years with the NZSO between 2006-2014 and his brilliant chamber performances, including collaborations with the NZSQ.
Campbell and Malov on viola joined Várjon for the lovely romanticism of Schumann’s Trio Märchenerzälungen Opus 132, three musicians combining their different worlds, Campbell’s singing clarinet with Malov’s rhythmic strength and Várjon’s full-on unfaltering musicality. It was a bold and energetic conversation throughout.
Malov is an astonishingly versatile musician (read my profile here) and in his engaging afternoon concert with New Zealand harpist Helen Webby showed his virtuosity in Ysaÿe’s Sonata for solo violin and in the gorgeous French timbres of Saint-Säens Fantaisie for Violin and Harp Opus 124, both musicians dazzling in this beautifully crafted duet. His beloved violoncello da spalla made an appearance with harp in a lovely encore duet of Saint-Säens’ famous Le Cygne (The Swan).
Sergey Malov (left) and Hiroshi Ikematsu on stage at the Adam Festival
Convinced that Bach wrote his 6th Cello Suite for the da spalla, Malov delighted the audience for the sold-out “Bach by Candlelight” concert in Nelson Cathedral with both that Suite and English composer James Hendy’s improvisatory response to it, also played on the intriguing historic instrument. Ikematsu also showed his versatility and the astonishing delicacy of his bass playing in the Bach concert, playing in several ensembles and offering an alternative view of the 1st Cello Suite.
Campbell joined Várjon, Pohl and Gjelsten for Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time, a fine performance by all four musicians, although I found Campbell’s 15-minute illustrated introductory lecture an unnecessary addition for an audience likely to have heard the work before. Playing numerous excerpts from the movements offered “spoilers” that reduced, for me, the work’s shattering emotional impact.
New Zealand composers
The Adam Festival has always included many New Zealand composers in its programmes, and this year there were no fewer than five world premieres. Celestia><Terralia, a string quartet by the ever imaginative and talented Claire Cowan, was a Festival commission played by the NZSQ, using minimalist language to express ideas about earth and space. Dame Gillian Whitehead’s Ngā roimata o Mānuka was another 2024 commission, performed by the NZSQ and Bob Bickerton (taonga pūoro). It is her third quintet for such an ensemble; the other two, Hine-pu-te-hue and Puhake ki te rangi, written for the NZSQ and the late Richard Nunns, have been extensively performed and recorded by Atoll Records.
Composer Dame Gillian Whitehead
“…using taonga pūoro with string quartet in her moving new work Ngā roimata o Mānuka .”
Photo credit: Daniel Belton
Ngā roimata, the tear-drop shape of many pounamu (greenstone) pendants, is a symbol of grief and healing. Mānuka is the Māori name of Haulashore Island off the coast of Whakatū (Nelson). Some years ago Whitehead made a hikoi to Haulashore with composer Lyell Cresswell and other musical friends, to support Cresswell, who died in 2022, in a visit to the grave of his great-grandfather.
Many composers of Aotearoa now combine taonga pūoro with western instruments. Whitehead was one of the first and remains one of the most successful. Her works acknowledge both the timbral variety and the improvisatory nature of the traditional instruments and in this moving new work taonga pūoro enhance the work’s descriptive quality, with sounds of sea and wind, birdsong and rattling shells and stones. The work is reverent and magical, the string instruments in close, imaginative and expressive conversation with taonga pūoro.
Waitangi Day, (a public holiday in Aotearoa commemorating the signing of Te Tiriti o Waitangi – the Treaty of Waitangi) always falls within the Adam Festival and is marked by a programme of music by New Zealand composers. After a lovely performance of Helen Fisher’s interesting and attractive Otari for solo harp by Helen Webby, soprano Jenny Wollerman with pianist Jian Liu presented the world premiere of Under Southern Skies, a cycle of songs written by the late Jenny McLeod in 2003, setting poetry by Anne Powell.
The poems are simple and domestic, sometimes wry or mysterious with occasional dark humour. McLeod’s settings are stylistically varied, tongue-in-cheek or thoughtful. Wollerman sang them beautifully and pianist Liu was as usual a sensitive and imaginative accompanist. I was left, however, with the impression that the poetry was not substantial enough to sustain interest for a 45-minute cycle.
Percussionist Justin DeHart
“…a fascinating afternoon concert including two world premieres.”
Californian percussion virtuoso Justin DeHart, now an associate professor of music at Canterbury University, included two more world premieres in his fascinating afternoon concert, ‘New Vistas’. From a stage filled with a glittering array of percussion instruments he performed Philip Brownlee’s new work, Catchpool valley, early autumn, for vibraphone and a live soundtrack of field recordings of bird, water and tree sounds from the Remutaka Forest Park. The gentle work transported us delightfully to the bush; DeHart will tour it to regional centres for Chamber Music NZ later this year.
Introducing his new percussion work Infinite Mind at the concert, composer John Psathas talked of his urgent desire to use his compositions to reflect on major issues facing humanity. Using the recorded voice of 94-year-old Noam Chomsky, linguist and public intellectual, this work may be Psathas’s most successful musical attempt yet to focus attention on global existential threats. Terminal, the first movement, is about nuclear war, setting the voice against sprays of marimba notes with a continuous, repetitious soundtrack. In the second, Noam, we hear the voice of Chomsky on climate-denialist Trump, contrasted with positive reminiscences from his own life. The audio track, with solo marimba, is strong, insistent and full of foreboding. It’s a compelling work.
Securing musicians of the calibre of the Takács Quartet and Dénes Várjon for a week-long residency in Nelson is a testimony to the artistic reputation of the Adam Festival and the ambition and enterprise of its artistic leadership. During the rich programme it was amply demonstrated that chamber music is about much more than an “up close” experience; the performance quality and repertoire range of these and the other visiting musicians and numerous sold-out Festival performances provided a background to energetic conversations amongst audience members about the place, breadth and substance of chamber music in our national cultural context.
And finally, a word about the venue, the Nelson Centre of Musical Arts. With its barrel-shaped ceiling and reflective wooden surfaces, the auditorium’s acoustic is wonderfully responsive. Subtle raking of seats further back in the hall mean sight-lines for the audience are excellent. With an attractive foyer, fine backstage facilities, a large room for functions and talks, and facilities for recording (the RNZ Concert and SOUNZ team were present throughout), it is ideal for the Festival, and greatly enhances the experience for artists and audience. There are lessons to be learned here for construction or refurbishment of other classical music venues.
Adam Chamber Music Festival, at Nelson Centre of Musical Arts, Nelson, 1-10 February 2024
