Amici Ensemble and Flight

It is said that chamber music is the ‘music of friends’. If so, the Amici Ensemble and Flight are aptly named. Led by NZSO Associate Concertmaster Donald Armstrong, they perform works of all periods for differing combinations of instruments, from the very small to the very large.

While most of the works in their programme are by French composers, much of the music also has a strong Spanish influence. Stravinsky described his bare and enigmatic Three Pieces for String Quartet as ‘being inspired by the mixture of strains from the mechanical pianos and orchestrinas in the streets and little night taverns of Madrid’.

A startling exception to this Franco-Spanish theme is a new work for solo clarinet by Ross Harris, commissioned by the Wellington Chamber Music Society in conjunction with the SOUNZ Tender Project.

Two works on the programme feature the harp – Debussy’s exquisite Sonata for Flute, Viola and Harp, and Ravel’s rapturous Introduction and Allegro which was the first piece to explore and exploit the full resources of the chromatic harp.

Past Concerts