Visiting String Players

New Zealand Listener, Volume 35, Issue 886, 27 July 1956, Page 7

Visiting String Players

NE of the leading chamber music ensembles of today, the. Robert Masters Quartet, arrives in New Zealand at the end of July -to begin a month’s tour for the N.Z. Federation of Chamber Music Societies. Many of their concerts will be broadcast, and three members of the quartet will act as soloists in a performance of Beethoven’s Triple Concerto with the National Orchestra. in Wellington. The quartet specialises in piano quartets, piano trios, string trios, and duos, and its members are Robert Masters (violin), Muriel Taylor (cello), Kinloch Anderson (piano) and Nannie Jamieson (viola). Modern works included in their repertoire are piano quartets by Benjamin Frankel (1953) and by William Walton. The Quartet visited New Zealand in 1950, and its present visit is part of a world tour to include Australia and the Far. East, Programmes by the Robert Masters Quartet this week are from all YCs at 10.0 on Monday, July 30, and 1XH at 80 on Thursday, August 2, and from 2XP at 9.5 on Saturday, August 4.. Another string player who has achieved distinction .overseas since he left New Zealand in 1937 is the cellist Harold Beck, who is beginning a concert tour for the NZBS. For many years Harold Beck conducted the 3YA Studio Orches-

tra, and was founder of the famed Laurian Club in Christchurch, This club, founded in 1931, gave chamber music concerts of an unusually high standard, often including works by modern composers, such as Hindemith. Beck had many good cello pupils, and as a teacher was noted for his musical integrity and for his genial personality. When he went to Australia in 1937 he formed his own chamber music group,

and at the same time did orchestral playing. He went on to London, and it was while playing in a quartet there that he had a piece of good fortune. John Barbirolli, conductor of the. Halle Orchestra, had lost his first cellist and was in London to select another, He attended a performance at which Beck was playing, and immediately engaged him as his first cellist. Beck stayed with. the Halle for. six years, and during this time reintroduced the’. Delius cello congerto to. the repertoire. His performance in 1954 earned him

wide acclaim. He is now with the Loncon Symphony Orchestra and after his New Zealand tour will be rejoining this orchestra in Johannesburg, where it is taking part in the city’s centennial celebrations. Harold Beck originally came from Wanganui, where his family were active musicians. His brother, Haydn Beck, has become a celebrated violinist, and now plays with the Philharmonia Orchestra in London. Broadcasts by Harold Beck this week are from all YCs at 7.30, July 30, and all YCs at 8.45 on : Sunday, August 5.