Parrenin Quartet At V.U.C'

The Parrenin String Quartet, who are at present touring New Zealand by the auspice's of the Chamber Music Society, gave a concert of eighteenth and twentieth century compositions in the Music Room recently.

The programme consisted of Alban Berg's "Lyric Suito," the Haydn "Sunrise Quartet" and the fifth quartet of Bela Bartok.

The programme began with the Berg quartet which is an extremely personal work with profound emotional intensity. This work is a turning point in Berg's musical style, for it is in this composition that Berg first made use of the "twelve note" technique, which after this date characterises all of his work to a lesser or greater degree. The Parrenin Quartet played with understanding and it was obvious that each member of the quartet felt at home with Berg's musical idiom. Their performance was a highly successful interpretation of this difficult work.

The essentially classical Haydn quartet provided a contrast to the romantic Berg "Lyric Suite," and the robust Bartok quartet. Unfortunately the Parrenin quartet did not have as clear understanding for Haydn as they had for Berg. There were a number of obvious faults; their phrasing was not uniform and their intonation was often faulty, which is especially ruinous in works of the classical period.

It was valiant of the Parrenin Quartet to play the Bartok fifth quartet, which is notorious for its technical difficulties and rhythmic complexities. This work, like the Berg "Lyric Suite' was a first New Zealand performance. The best part of the performance was the last movement, which had the necessary drive and force, and some parts of the first and third movements. The delicate second group of themes of the first moavement, however, lacked sensitivity, and the slow movements—second and fourth—lacked the essential "night music" atmosphere that is so characteristic of Bartok's late music.

On the whole, however, we must be greatful for the enterprising spirit of the Music Department for inviting the P. Quartet up to give two Now Zealand premiers.

The concert concluded with two encores, the pizzicato movement form Bartok's fourth quartet, and the slow movement from the Debussy quartet. In the second encore the P. Quartet demonstrated the extremely beautiful sounds that they are capable of producing.

—John Cegledy