KEY POINTS:
What: Pedro Carneiro and the New Zealand String Quartet
Where and when: Auckland Town Hall, Mon Aug 20, 8pm; Hamilton, Wel Energy Trust Academy of Performing Art, Tue Aug 21, 8pm
After two visits to our country, both limited to the wind-tossed capital, Portuguese percussionist Pedro Carneiro is looking forward "to getting out and about".
Out and about is a 10-city tour with the New Zealand String Quartet that includes the musicians playing in Auckland on Monday evening and Hamilton the following night.
Carneiro was fascinated by percussion from childhood, initially by the sheer physicality of the instruments, an attraction that led to "a constant search for different timbres and different, deeper ways of music-making".
These days, percussion instruments are certainly a force to be reckoned with. "If the piano was the king of instruments in the romantic period, then you can definitely say percussion takes over in the 20th century," he says. While this man is not immune to the liberating rhythms of the Brazilian samba and bossa nova, he says that "percussion is such a huge field you have to specialise".
Carneiro is a avowed fan of John Psathas and it is Carneiro who stirs up storms on the Rattle CD of the Wellington composer's Piano Concerto and View from Olympus. "He is one of the most interesting composers writing for percussion today because he knows the instruments inside out.
"He knows what he wants and how he wants it to be played. He is very good at communicating his intentions. And he sometimes says he's a closet percussionist." There are two Psathas works on Monday's programme, including One Study One Summary, a composition for five-octave marimba, digital audio playback and junk percussion.
"John asked me if I had any bizarre, out-of-the-ordinary instruments I could use," Carneiro says. "I found some old lid from a washing-machine powder tin, some salad bowls, a frying pan, a wok and a gong I accidentally ran over in my car, making it crooked and giving it some amazing harmonics.
"John got them all together and made them fuse their sounds with the marimba."
Other works that have Carneiro playing with the NZSQ include a movement from Sound of the Five by Chinese composer Chen Yi.
"We Portuguese have many ties with Asia. We were the first Westerners in Japan and ran Macau for many years - Portuguese mariners were men of the world in a sense.
"I had the privilege of premiering Sound of the Five with the Shanghai Quartet."
Collaborations with the quartet include works by three Portuguese composers. For Egberto Gismonti's Danca no 2, Carneiro transcribed it right off the jazz recording. "I couldn't get all of the subtleties, but I did create some new ones. The composer said he liked it, which was quite a relief."
Portugal is one of the least familiar European countries to us in this part of the world, certainly in terms of its culture, and Carneiro emphasises that there is more to Portuguese music than fado.
"Our country endured 50 years of a fascist regime which only ended in 1974. We have been recovering some of the culture that had been lost and in the past 10 years Portugal has been blossoming with young musicians. Many players who have studied abroad have now returned to encourage the younger generation."
As for including his country's music on this programme, he says: "It is something I have been privileged to do."
"It's not out of nationalism. It is simply that this is Portuguese music I like very much. To play it in concert is a natural step."
