"String lovers might be forgiven these days if they think they've died and gone to Quartet Heaven after yesterday's concert by the New Zealand String Quartet in an overstuffed First Baptist Church…. The concert ended with a superb account of Schubert's finest quartet, the No. 15 in G major. There was scarcely a misstep in the entire performance and the slow movement was profoundly beautiful." Ottawa Citizen

"The quartet's command of intonation - the key to such a piece - was impressive" [John Psathas: Abhisheka] The New York Times

"The luscious, velvet sound of this group was apparent from the opening phrases of its first selections..."
Worcester Telegram & Gazette

" ...the Kiwis rivaled the excellence of leading international string quartets...they let the lyrical music ebb and flow with warm tone and beautiful balance. The ensemble was cohesive, the energy positive. The melodic dialogues came across like meaningful exchanges of wordless thoughts." Cleveland Plain Dealer

"The quartet had the virtuosity to handle the passionate outbursts in the first and fifth movements and the wit to exploit the playful dance parodies of the second and fourth." [Beethoven op. 132] Minneapolis Star-Tribune

"Gossamer without being merely glossy, the string quartet’s intricate sonic patterns explored the depths of human emotions crisply, tenderly and, always with great subtlety."
News Journal, Daytona Beach

"...the New Zealanders played Bartok's wartime 2nd String Quartet, staking out a respectable stylistic middle ground that acknowledged the music's astringency but also it's unlikely lyricism." The New York Times

"The absolutely perfect ensemble, the outstanding technical skills and the passionate playing ... made the concert an extraordinary experience."
Rheinische Post, Germany


New Zealand String Quartet Discography and SoundBytes

The New Zealand String Quartet live in Daytona Beach

"The New Zealand String Quartet plays as though it has nothing to prove. The New Zealanders gave Debussy's G Minor Quartet a dreamy, shivering elegance without losing rhythmic vigor or flow."
The Washington Post


"Our neighbours can boast a quartet to match the finest anywhere...it's hard to imagine that anyone hearing these four players would not be instantly captivated by their living, breathing musicianship."
The Australian, Sydney

"The large crowd responded with enthusiasm, and the quartet played an amusing pops encore, violinist Beilman's bluesy arrangement of Gershwin's Second Piano Prelude. "
Cleveland Plain Dealer

"I cannot imagine more authentic or committed performances of the music of these two composers (Dvorak and Janacek); the New Zealand String Quartet has hit top form in these concerts."
Evening Post, Wellington

"A quartet that soothes the ears and caresses the spirits."
Canberra Times

Classics Today
web site Review

New Zealand String Quartet
Web site

"Listening to these four players begin the very last quartet of their six-concert, all-Beethoven festival, you had to admire the gleaming, smoothly oiled ensemble they had become. Like the unfolding partnership of a dance, each instrument breathed its way in after every four bars, creating the very best chamber music experience by contributing strong, individual character yet yielding gracefully to the combined musical personality of the group."
The New Zealand Herald

The New Zealand String Quartet is already recognized with acclaim on four continents, touring regularly in Europe, Asia, Australia and North America, where they have appeared at Tanglewood, Festival of the Sound, Ottawa Chamber Music Festival, and other major festivals. Now recording for the Naxos label, the first of their complete Mendelssohn Quartet series was released in early 2008. Naxos released their highly regarded CD of Berg and Wolf in 2007. Click here for a video clip from their Naxos recording sessions.

Sought-after for their imaginative and varied programming, the quartet is known for their revelatory performances of the standard classical quartet repertoire and their exciting realizations of newer works from contemporary composers, many from New Zealand. Click here for tour program suggestions.
 
Recent U.S. tours have spanned the distance from Hawaii to New Hampshire, and featured engagements in Los Angeles, San Antonio, New York, Cleveland, Buffalo and Washington, DC, where they appeared at the National Gallery of Art, the Corcoran Gallery of Art, and at the National Academy of Sciences in three successive seasons.

During the last year, the New Zealand String Quartet toured through Korea, North America, Mexico, and returned to London's Wigmore Hall as part of a tour of England and Europe.

The quartet regularly makes two North American tours, one during the summer months, and again during the season. To visit the New Zealand Quartet's own web-site, click here.

During the quartet's 2008-2009 North American tours, they will offer a new work by New Zealand composer Gillian Whitehead that features guest artist Richard Nunns performing on traditional Maori instruments. Puhake ki te rangi which translates as “spouting to the skies” is a celebration of whales, and was written late in 2006 for the New Zealand String Quartet and Richard Nunns, taonga puoro (traditional instruments). The taonga puoro used in this piece include the percussive tumutumu, karanga manu (pounamu bird-caller), two nguru and two albatross putorino (played as both trumpet and flute).   

This will be the quartet's second tour offering of a Whitehead composition with taonga puoro. In 2005 Nunns joined the quartet for Hine-pu-te-hue, a work named for the Maori Goddess of peace. Hine-pu-te-hue features several of the taonga puoro which are made of gourds -- the poi awhiowhio, which opens the piece, is swung around the head, the large hue puru hau is blown across the open neck, there are gourd rattles and the koauau ponga ihu (a nose flute) which closes the piece is also a small gourd.

In addition to their unique status in the performance of original New Zealand compositions, this remarkable quartet has been hailed for their performances of the Beethoven Quartet cycle. They offered the Bartok cycle (which they have recorded) in the 2005-2006 season, as part of the observance of the fiftieth anniversary of Bartok's death. Their repertoire is wide and varied, and features the standard classical literature and the works of our time, including compositions by New Zealand composers. The quartet has premiered more than 20 works by New Zealand composers and continue to explore and enhance that repertoire. The Quartet has been awarded three years sole performing rights to Zoltán Székely's recently discovered 1937 string quartet. Székely, a composition student of Kodály, was Bartók's long-time sonata partner and leader of the Hungarian String Quartet. Their recording of Székely's quartet has just been released on the Atoll label, paired with the Dvorak Quartet in E flat, opus 51.

The group has been featured on North America's popular public radio program St Paul Sunday, and has recorded for Deutsche Welle, CBC in Canada, and Australia's ABC, as well as regularly appearing on Radio New Zealand's Concert FM.

Their discography includes several fine recordings for BMG (including Bartok, Debussy and Ravel). The French disc, released in early 2000 was given high marks on ClassicsToday.com "The New Zealand Quartet proves here that it knows a lot--a lot more in fact than most quartets about how to make these oft-played and oft-underestimated repertoire standards sound fresh and original. For one thing, these players manage to penetrate popular notions of impressionist "style" and just pay attention to the music. The result is some of the most intense and emotionally involving Debussy and Ravel on disc....I have to say that the New Zealanders' performances are more alive and immediate and just as well--in some cases better--played. I'm convinced that this result has much to do with the NZSQ's unique performing style: they play standing with the cellist seated on a special platform, giving a tremendous freedom and energy to the music's natural movement." (David Vernier, ClassicsToday.com)

As dedicated teachers, the New Zealand String Quartet is in residence at Victoria University of Wellington and have established the highly regarded Adam Summer Chamber Music School for the country's most accomplished string and piano students. In North America, the quartet has been guest faculty at the Banff Centre, Quartet Fest West, and the Quartet Program at Bucknell University.