Eight-year-old Alex Morton desperately wanted to play trombone. The instrument had caught the young lad’s eye at a Christchurch School of Music open day – but there was a problem: Alex’s arms were too short.
“Little Alex was not a big kid,” Morton, now 33, sighs.
Trombone dreams dashed, he instead picked up a French horn, a decision he’s never regretted.
“Dodged a bullet,” he jokes. “Not only does [horn] sound better, in my impartial opinion, but also we get used a lot more in orchestra. Often, I’m looking down at my brass colleagues and they look a bit underutilised.”
Morton is a part-time member of Christchurch Symphony Orchestra (CSO), but it’s just one of many valves to his horn, and he can often be found in the Morton Trio with his wife, Arna – herself principal second violin with the CSO – and excellent Melbourne-based Kiwi pianist Liam Wooding.
Morton Trio have played together since 2018, but Alex and Arna go much further back. The pair met aged 15, as members of the New Zealand Secondary Schools Symphony Orchestra, and have been together ever since. Those family bonds will be road-tested this month when the trio join three CSO colleagues for a Chamber Music New Zealand-backed nationwide tour.
Morton Trio & Friends comprises an unusual jumble of instruments: violin, French horn, piano, clarinet, viola and cello. You won’t find much music for that ensemble, and the group are offering a pair of substantial but rarely heard sextets from Dohnányi and Penderecki.
“The Dohnányi is the most unapologetic expression of grandeur and filigree and beauty,” Morton says. “It’s a romping good time.”
The Penderecki does not romp, but nor is this the young gunslinger who made his name with fearsome experimentalism. Indeed, it’s all quite tuneful, in a slightly creepy, twisted way, and is one of the composer’s most important later works. It’s not easy to play, though.
“It’s very challenging,” Morton says. “But this is a programme the performers want to play, that brings us immense joy and satisfaction. The concerts I’ve seen that stick out as exciting and enjoyable are the ones where the performers are so clearly having a good time. It’s a real luxury to be at the stage where we can take on projects we enjoy.”
Another upcoming project is a Morton Trio album, out on Atoll Records in August. Tucked within is a composition by Arna, 2010 winner of the NZSO/Todd Young Composer Award. Is this the start of a Morton Trio commissioning spree?
“We are hungry to commission works,” Alex says. “The privilege of having an established group is that you can shouldertap composers you enjoy and be like, ‘Hey, we’d like some of that for us.’”
CMNZ In Partnership Series: Morton Trio & Friends, nine centres, until April 28.
