Pulling strings for baroque

ORNATE STYLE: Czech harpsichord player Edita Keglerova will perform with Christchurch Symphony Orchestra cellist Tomas Humik at St Barnabas Church, Stoke.

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A cellist and a harpsichord player pool their talents, writes Charles Anderson.

St Barnabas Church will ring out with the sound of traditional baroque music when two acclaimed Czech musicians start a nationwide tour next week.

Christchurch Symphony Orchestra principal cellist Tomas Hurnik and renowned Czech harpsichord player Edita Keglerova are on a nine-stop tour to help bring traditional baroque music to a New Zealand audience.

Hurnik has been living and working in New Zealand for the past five years after he visited the country while on tour.

"I was travelling and playing and spent some time here and I quite liked Christchurch. I applied for a position [with the CSO] and got it."

He says the whole programme is dedicated to early baroque music and will be played on a traditional baroque cello which differs slightly from a modern cello.

Most modern stringed instruments are set up in a state of high tension that maximises tone production and power, qualities highly prized for performance in large rooms.

The sound which is ideal for instruments in the baroque period, however, is one of internal resonance achieved by lower tension.

"It is a completely different instrument and is not very often played. There are few musicians in the South Island and even New Zealand that would play it."

Harpsichordist Keglerova graduated from the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague and in 2002 she was awarded a one-year scholarship at the Royal Academy of Music in London.

She says she is "absolutely delighted" to have the opportunity to visit New Zealand and present these programmes with Hurnik.

The hour-long show will see the duo play Domenico Gabrielli's Sonata in A major, Johann Jakob Froberger's Suite in C major, Johann Sebastian Bach's Suite No1 in G major for solo cello and Fantasia and Fugue in A minor with Francois Francoeur's Sonata in E major as the finale.

Hurnik hopes the tour will allow audiences to experience a taste of something they might not have heard before.

"We just want to share it with people. I think that contact with baroque is missing in New Zealand."

• Tomas Hurnik and Edita Keglerova at St Barnabas Church, Stoke, on February 16. Tickets will be available at the door from 6.30pm, adults $20, seniors $15, students $10. For more information, contact Catherine Lister on 021430351 or at fullmoonnzltd@xtra.co.nz.

- © Fairfax NZ News