Richard A. Betts
Writer and Editor at Freelance
Columnist at New Zealand Listener
Nasty, brutish and short. Columnist, @nzlistener, other words elsewhere.
Articles
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3 weeks ago |
nzherald.co.nz | Richard A. Betts
Austrian composer Franz Joseph Haydn. Photo / Getty Images I am uncoupled and unmoored. #A-Haydn-A-Day is over and suddenly life is emptier. Readers of this column may recall the cult-like group that gathered on the social media platform Bluesky, determined to listen to every one of what turns out to be 107 symphonies.
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1 month ago |
nzherald.co.nz | Richard A. Betts
Gillian Ansell: “Rhythm’s a huge part of what we do.” Photo / supplied ‘It’s fun to be around dancers,” says Gillian Ansell, violist in the New Zealand String Quartet. The group she co-founded is joining the New Zealand Dance Company for 100 Winds, Taupō Hau Rau (March 29-April 5), a fascinating, too-brief three-city Chamber Music New Zealand tour conceived and choreographed by NZDC artistic director Moss Te Ururangi Patterson.
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1 month ago |
nzherald.co.nz | Richard A. Betts
The Manukau Symphony Orchestra will perform The Resolute, written by Adrien de Croy. Photo / Tadashi Jokagi There are precedents. Scientists and mathematicians and the like, who are also gifted musicians. The composer Borodin was one. Queen guitarist Brian May is now famously Sir Brian May, astrophysicist. Add to the list New Zealand software engineer/composer Adrien de Croy, whose Symphony No.1, The Resolute, is premiered by Manukau Symphony Orchestra on March 15.
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2 months ago |
nzherald.co.nz | Richard A. Betts
Final shows: Ashley Brown with NZTrio colleagues Somi Kim (left) and Amalia Hall. Photo / suppliedAshley Brown has two ways of talking about NZTrio, the chamber ensemble he co-founded 23 years ago: the “it” and the “us”. The “it” is an abstraction, Brown standing back and taking stock. The “us” is the group close up, through Brown’s own eyes. “The everyday experience is personal,” he explains. “You’re at the coal face, you’re three musicians getting into the music.
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Jan 16, 2025 |
nzherald.co.nz | Richard A. Betts
Island bound: The NZ Trio will farewell founding cellist Ashley Brown, right, with a Waiheke Island concert next month. Photo / supplied NZ Opera’s bums-on-seats production for 2025 is Puccini’s La Bohème. There’s a reason it’s a perennial favourite, though NZO last performed it as recently as 2018. Is it a little soon for a return or is that just me quibbling? There’s an even hastier revival for Jonathan Dove’s chamber opera Mansfield Park.
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