Virtuoso Pair Play in Greytown

The Greytown Music Group’s September concert was postponed due to Covid, and it is hoped that Violinist Mark Menzies, Professor of Music at Canterbury University, and Pianist/Bassoonist Gabriel Baird, will be able to travel up from Christchurch in three weeks’ time for the concert, now on 14 November.

The programme centres on the lush and characterful styles of 18/19  “turn-of-the-century” music, and its heritage. The bassoon, violin and piano were all important vehicles for this influential rethinking of how music could reflect the environment and humans’ interaction with it.

Maurice Ravel’s violin sonata is an excellant example. Its heart is a “blues” movement, the violin twanging like a guitar before singing the nostalgic theme-song. In the first movement you can imagine broad views of country landscapes, as well as having your attention drawn to the small sounds, for instance, of insects. The ceaseless bustle of human activity depicted in Ravel’s last movement has a precedent in Mozart’s masterful Violin Sonata in A major, which is also in the programme. 

The remainder of the concert will echo, extend and evoke the same atmosphere as these two impressive and exciting works of art, and will include Debussy’s Golliwog Cakewalk. Mark is noted for his innovative programming, and this concert should be one that everyone will enjoy.

The concert will be at 57 Wood Street, Greytown, at 4pm on Sunday 14 th Novemer. Admission $25, students $10. For bookings, contact Ed and Juliet Cooke, 06 304 9497 or efjacooke@gmail.com.

If we are still at Covid level 2, audience numbers will be limited by distancing requirements.