When Helene Pohl steps out on to the stages of Otago halls and theatres, she will play a piece performed on her very first outing with a string quartet as a 12-year-old.
Back then she only played the first introduction, but decades later she will play the full work, Schubert’s A minor Quartet Rosamunde, with her colleagues.
"It’s such a glorious work — the slow movement of that piece was my first introduction to string quartet."
Pohl, who was born in Ithaca, New York to German parents and spent her childhood on both sides of the Atlantic, can still remember how hard she worked to get the details right with coaching from a university student.
"They are details we still work on — issues of balance and voicing and how the communication of voices together are the real meaning of it ."
Her love of making music in a group grew from those days, and from learning the violin through the Suzuki method, which involves a lot of group music making.
"Making music together with other people is what I really loved and a quartet is an extension of that."
Destined for a career making music in a quartet, Pohl, who studied at the Musikhochschule Cologne, continued her studies with members of the Cleveland Quartet at the Eastman School of Music and at Indiana University.
Her first professional gig was with the San Francisco-based Fidelio String Quartet (1988-1993), which performed extensively in the USA, Germany, England, Italy, and South America.
The quartet was prize-winner in the 1991 London International String Quartet Competition and quartet-in-residence at both the Tanglewood and Aspen Music Festivals.
Pohl was based in New York when she heard the New Zealand String Quartet was advertising for a violinist. She auditioned and got the spot as first violinist in 1994.
While many of her friends and colleagues thought she was crazy and "jumping off the planet" by moving to New Zealand, Pohl knew she was making the right decision.
"As the years have gone by I don’t think there is one that hasn’t envied me."
She had visited Wellington before, to compete in the Lexus Violin Competition in 1992.
"I loved it. It was good little teaser. I joke that I won the competition as I got to come here and live."
Pohl is now about to hit her 30th anniversary with the quartet, something she never envisaged when she arrived in New Zealand in her 20s.
"It’s a wonderful legacy to leave as well. It’s just kept being fulfilling."
Being able to play for all sizes of audiences in all sorts of places is one of its attractions. The quartet is about to do an extensive tour of small venues throughout the South Island, including the first time visit to Roxburgh.
"The up close and personal aspect is what we love. We love it being a really special occasion as it doesn’t happen very often. For them to be up close and see each of our personalities interact with the others is something you don’t get in the Michael Fowler Centre."
Sometimes they find incredible gems in the small venues they play at.
"You get that ‘Oh I wish I could record here, as the sound is so good’."
Pohl can remember back to her first Arts on Tour trip back in 1997 "vividly".
"There was such excitement from these small towns who’d not had a string quartet visit before."
Being part of a quartet for such a long time, along with its founding members Gillian Ansell (viola) and Rolf Gjelsten (cello), is rare in the quartet world.
"It’s very intimate and very intense and you have to be able to spend a lot of time together. We’ve been lucky and blessed that we’ve managed that and it does help that we have the stability of the position."
Even through the Covid-19 pandemic the quartet prevailed — thanks to the Government’s support payments, as they could not do what they loved.
"That was a hard time for all the sector."
So to be able to tour and perform is even more special now. In July they head to North America for the first time since Covid hit.
"Its a honour to get up on stage and play great music and share with the audience great art, live and in person, that is the greatest."
For the Southern tour, the quartet is doing a lot of the travel by road, and has programmed in some time to see the sights along the way.
"At least go to lookouts and short walks — although we have to take our instruments so we can’t quite do the three hour version, but to definitely enjoy along the way is on the agenda."
The reason they take their instruments with them is due to their value. Pohl plays a Pietro Guarnerius violin made in Venice in 1730.
"So we are part of their lineage. It’s amazing to think my violin may have been heard by Bach, might have been heard by Vivaldi, might have been heard by Mozart."
Violins are shaped over the years by the people that play them and get "played in".
"They’ve been through lots of subtleties of expression in lots of ways and drive like great Ferraris around the corner, because they’re just great machines."
That comes through in the music alongside the feelings of the composer — expressed in a two-dimensional way on the page, vocalised by the performers and influenced by the instrument.
"The message is always multi-layered, then in the string quartet you’ve got the multi-layers of the different voices. If you came on tour with us you’d hear that one night’s performance is different to the next night’s because of the venue and the way we communicate, the way we feel. It’s very much an in the moment alchemy."
That is one of the reasons she loves the work.
The rest of the tour is all about good preparation. Before a concert Pohl likes to feel physically at her best and ready to perform, so she does tai chi prior to a performance.
"Some sort of mediation or nap. focusing inwardly so then I can share outwardly."
An ongoing challenge for Pohl is being able to wind down after a performance to sleep.
"There is the joy at having played, and then there is seeing people you know and talking to people."
They hope the Southern tour with Arts on Tour will help prove the importance of the organisation after a change to its funding from Creative New Zealand.
"It almost didn’t happen. So we’re doing it on the smell of an oily rag this time, in the hope it will help the case for everyone else. It’s so important we had to make it work somehow."
Pohl is looking forward to the trip to Otago, especially given the time of the year.
"What a beautiful time of year to be driving around."
To see:
New Zealand String Quartet: Tarras Community Church, Church Rd, Tarras, Thursday 11 7:30pm; Roxburgh Town Hall Friday 7pm; Anderson House Invercargill Saturday 3pm; Regent Theatre Clarkson Studio, Dunedin, Sunday 7.30pm.
