Beethoven: Piano Quartets

"It has been a very long time since these wonderful works had been recorded in their entirety, so this new release by the New Zealand Piano Quartet-and what a great and spirited one!-is warmly welcome. Penned by the 15 year old Beethoven, they are clearly works of genius, even if (understandably) heavily influenced by Haydn and Mozart. The New Zealanders play stylishly, vigourously and with great tone and benefit from outstanding recorded sound. Most warmly and highly recommended!"
(New Recordings, cliffclassics.com)

"These resourceful works by the 15-year-old Beethoven contain sufficient glimpses of his mature style to warrant the occasional airing. Good solid performances that manages to convey some of the music's boldness and charm." BBC Music Magazine, August 2009 ***

From the pen of the fifteen-year-old Beethoven, these three piano quartets are among the earliest examples of a chamber music genre that would not reach full maturity until the time of Brahms. Beethoven's path-breaking essays stand beside those of Mozart (Naxos 8.554274), also dating from the mid-1780s. In them the teenage composer and virtuoso pianist exuberantly explores the relationship between the strings and piano, and would later borrow from them for his Piano Sonatas, Op. 2 (8.550150). With this recording the New Zealand Piano Quartet makes its Naxos début.

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Richard Mapp teaches at the New Zealand School of Music and plays in the New Zealand Piano Quartet. He studied at the Royal Academy of Music and taught there from 1979 to 1982. While living in Britain and Italy, he performed regularly in the main London concert halls, and recorded for the BBC, and for radio in Germany, Sweden, Finland and Canada. He has appeared as soloist with all the orchestras in New Zealand, tours regularly for Chamber Music New Zealand and is heard often on Concert FM. His CD of piano music by Granados for Meridian records was well reviewed in the BBC Music Magazine, and he also appears on CDs with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra.

Yury Gezentsvey was born into a musical family in the Kiev in 1952. In 1974 he graduated from the Gnessin Institute in Moscow. He migrated to the USA in 1979 to become Concertmaster of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago and in 1980 was appointed Concertmaster of the Philharmonic Orchestra of Caracas, Venezuela. In 1985 he joined the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, and has led it on many occasions. He is also first violinist of the Dominion String Quartet whose Naxos recordings of Alfred Hill's quartets have received critical acclaim [Vol 1 - 8.570491, Vol 2 - 8.572097]. He is an artist teacher at the New Zealand School of Music in Wellington.

Donald Maurice is Professor of Music at the New Zealand School of Music and violist with the Dominion String Quartet. He performs and records regularly as soloist and chamber musician and has presented at numerous International Viola Congresses since 1993. He has been awarded the Silver Alto Clef by the International Viola Society and has been awarded life membership of the American Viola Society. His book Bartók's Viola Concerto was released by Oxford University Press and his 2008 transcription for viola and piano of George Enescu's Third Violin Sonata, published by Enoch & Cie, introduces a new idiom to the viola repertoire.

David Chickering was born and raised in upstate New York. After completing a performance degree at Northwestern University and prior to his appointment as Principal Cellist in the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, he was a member of orchestras in Milwaukee, Syracuse, Chicago, Santa Fe, San Jose (Costa Rica) and Auckland. Solo performances include Dvořák's Cello Concerto with the Auckland Philharmonia and performances of Don Quixote with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra. He has given chamber music performances in the USA, Costa Rica, Japan, and New Zealand and is cellist in the Dominion String Quartet.