Past winners mark 50 years of chamber music contest with tour

The Turnovsky Jubilee Ensemble is touring New Zealand. Photo / NZME.

There was a palpable sense of celebration as the 11 musicians of the Turnovsky Jubilee Ensemble took the stage on Friday evening.

Just a week into an exhaustive national tour that takes up most of this month, these players are distinguished alumni of Chamber Music New Zealand's annual contest for secondary schools, which celebrates its half-century this year.

A crisply delivered Third Brandenburg Concerto reminded us that chamber music did not start with Haydn string quartets.

It was perfectly buoyed by Rachael Griffiths-Hughes' shapely continuo playing, reaching a peak in the harpsichordist's splendid improvisation leading to the two chords of the Adagio.

Enthusiasm and a sense of occasion, however, did not quite atone for rough intonation when themes were passed along the line from soloist to soloist, or the vexing edge in the first violins that marred this half of the concert. Britten's Simple Symphony irritated me in the 1970s when I was forced to teach it to sixth-formers. This overly cute specimen of juvenilia, with pieces titled Boisterous Bouree and Frolicsome Finale, needs more polish and, probably, bigger forces.

Lilburn's Allegro for Strings scored through the ensemble's finely shaded dynamics, from big brawny crescendos to that final fading chord, but why was there not a more recent local commission for this important event?

After the interval, an unexpected interlude of Bach's Air on the G string played in total darkness made one aware of CMNZ's new audio description facilities for visually impaired concertgoers.

Mendelssohn's Octet finally brought the sheer joy and elation that had so far eluded the music-making. With violins now repositioned, textures were clearer, and Wilma Smith proved a formidable leader.

Delights ranged from Smith's delicate dialogues with Ashley Brown in the first movement to lustrous lower strings launching the second.

More than ever before, one could hear the essential Jewishness of this lovely music. How exotic it must have seemed in the Teutonic and Anglo-Saxon concert halls of Mendelssohn's time.

Turnovsky Jubilee Ensemble

Where: Auckland Town Hall
When: Friday.