Interpreting Haydn

The New Zealand String Quartet performed two pieces by Haydn at Ithaca College in New York to commemorate the 200th anniversary of his death in 1809. The group also played Janacek’s String Quartet No 1 (the Kreutzer Sonata) and a new piece by New Zealand composer Ross Harris, “Variation 25 for string quartet.” First violinist Helene Pohl is a native Ithacan and a graduate of the Ithaca Talent Education Violin School. The other quartet members are Douglas Beilman, second violin; Gillian Ansell, viola; and Rolf Gjelsten, cello. The Quartet recently brought its interpretative skill to a major project to record all of Mendelssohn’s string quartets in a three volume CD set for Naxos.