Kelemen Quartet brings Hungarian fire to Auckland

By Simon Holden, 20 March 2014

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Reviewed at Auckland Town Hall: Great Hall, Auckland on 19 March 2014

Mozart, String Quartet no. 19 in C major "Dissonance", K465

Kodály, Serenade for two violins and viola, Op.12

Haydn, String Quartet no. 27 in D major, Op.20 no.4, Hob III:34

Bartók, String Quartet no. 4 in C major, Sz.91

Beethoven, String Quartet no. 9 in C major, "Razumovsky", Op.59 no.3 (Final movement only)

Kelemen Quartet

Newly-minted Festival Academy Budapest

Alexandra Ivanoff, 24th July

Playing repeatedly in my mind as I walked home on 24 July was the spine-chilling orchestral performance of the "Dance of the Knights" from Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet in the Franz Liszt Academy’s superb Solti Hall.

***11

Beethoven, Schubert und eine Gänsemutter an der Festival Academy Budapest

Rolf Kyburz, 11th June

Das Kelemen-Quartett überzeugte mit leichter Artikulation, einem weichen Ton und ausgezeichneter, sprechender Agogik und Dynamik, perfekter Koordination. Es agierte aus einem Geist, mit einer Seele.

****1

A special relationship renewed: Leonard Slatkin returns to Prague

Frank Kuznik, 16th April

Leonard Slatkin returns to the Prague Symphony Orchestra with one of his own pieces, a Schubert tribute that steals the show.

****1

Tarmo Peltokoski conducts the Hallé in Mahler and Vaughan Williams

Leighton Jones, 16th April

Mahler’s Rückert-Lieder provide an apt, if somewhat unexpected, partner to Vaughan Williams’ A Sea Symphony in Manchester’s Bridgewater Hall.

****1

Cummings and the AAM win ‘Leipzig's Got Talent’

Nick Boston, 16th April

The Academy of Ancient Music poses the question what might have been in Leipzig with stunning performances of Bach and his competitors to be the new Thomaskantor.

*****

Kinan Azmeh offers a sampling of delights with St Luke’s

No’a L. bat Miri, 15th April

As part of St Luke’s ‘Visionary Sounds’ series, Kinan Azmeh joined the chamber ensemble to play a variety of his own compositions.

****1

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Simon Holden

Simon is an operaphile based in Auckland, New Zealand. He wrote his dissertation on Japanese popular music. With a background in piano and classical music retail, he spends his time attending as much opera or vocal concert as he can and blogs at irishenceaway.blogspot.com.