One of the many perks from the visits to Christchurch of the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra is the occasional recitals by one of the chamber ensembles made up from its members. The Aroha String Quartet is one such group.

Their concert on Tuesday evening centred around the Tango Ballet by the Argentinian Ástor Piazzola. An unlikely medium for one of the most erotic dance forms, the string quartet version is just one of the many musical media through which Piazzola brought the tango to the ears of a new audience in the 1950s. The Aroha String Quartet brought out the poignancy, as well as robust energy of the work.

But not all the evening was devoted to the tango, which was just one item of a most varied programme that started with one of Haydn's more witty quartets, Opus 33 No. 5.

This was followed by a welcome addition to the published programme, the second movement of Alex Taylor's a coincidence of surfaces. For the context of this I must ask you to refer to my review of the Enso String Quartet's Monday night concert, at which the first movement was played.

We are told in the programme of that concert that the Enso and Aroha quartets are to play their respective movements simultaneously after the Enso's Wellington concert on May 20, and that the performance will be recorded by and presumably played over Radio NZ Concert.

To return to the Aroha's Christchurch concert, a lightweight, enjoyable landscape piece, Whakatipua, by Anthony Ritchie, was followed in a darker mode by the String Quartet No. 6, Opus 80, by Mendelssohn, his last major work, which was played by the Aroha String Quartet with an appropriate sense of emotional power and eloquence.