Griller Quartet's Second Visit

New Zealand Listener, Volume 29, Issue 729, 3 July 1953, Page 7

Griller Quartet's Second Visit

"[ HE Griller String Quartet, which this '" "year is celebrating the 25th anniversary of its formation, will arrive in New Zealand this month to begin an eight weeks’ tour of both Islands under the direction of the New Zealand Fed: eration of Chamber Music Societies in conjunction with the NZBS. It will be the quartet’s second visit to this country. Hephzibah Menuhin, sister of Yehudi Menuhin, will appear with the group in four quintet recitals and in two solo recitals with the National Orchestra. The Quartet’s 20 concerts will be given in centres from Auckland to Dunedin, and in extension of its regular summer school of chamber music at Berkeley, California, it will conduct Néw Zealand’s first group teaching at St. Peter’s School, Cambridge, in August. Hephzibah Menuhin, who will arrive at the end of July, will appear in Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin. The Griller String Quartet tours widely in Britain, the Continent and the United States of America, and spends several months annually as Resident Quartet at the University of California where it ‘gives lectures, recitals and coaching to chamber music students. In recent years several works have been dedicated to the Quartet, notably by Rubbra and Bloch. Sidney Griller, the principal, says that when members of his quartet were students at the Royal College of Music their eyes were opened to the possibilities of quartet playing at its best by hearing the original Pro Arte Quartet. They wondered how such

co-ordination was possible and came to the conclusion that apart from being individually such fine players, they must of necessity be spending so much of their time together that they obviously had come to think as one person. "Our own career has proved this to be absolutely true," says Sidney Griller, "and any quartet whose members are determined to have ‘a life’ outside the quartet is courting disaster. It is pretty

obvious that four people ‘on the road’ cannot get away from each other, and it is the ability to endure each other’s presence that in no small degree helps towards the success of the quartet. In spite of certain exceptions I have always firmly believed that no really fine quartet could continue to exist if any of its members failed to devote themselves entirely to quartet playing, and not use it merely as an additional

source of income; to do this is an insult to the greatness of chamber music." The first recital by the Griller String Quartet will be given at the Concert Chamber of the Auckland Town Hall on Saturday, July 11. The first half of this public concert (beginning at ‘8.0 p.m.) will be broadcast by a YC station link. Listeners will hear Haydn’s String Quartet in C Major, Op, 33, No. 3, and the Beethoven Quartet No. 11 in F Minor, Op. 95.