New Zealand Symphony Orchestra
Perry So, Conductor
John Chen, Piano
Jenny Wollerman, Soprano

Harris, The Floating Bride, The Crimson Village
Xian Xinghai, The Yellow River Piano Concerto
Beethoven, Symphony No. 6 in F major Op. 68 Pastoral

Wellington
Michael Fowler Centre
Wednesday February 1, 7.30pm

Auckland
Town Hall
Friday February 3, 7.30 pm

The NZSO will be celebrating Chinese New Year and welcoming in the Year of the Dragon with New Zealand’s young pianist John Chen, soprano Jenny Wollerman along with the Hong Kong Philharmonic Associate Conductor Perry So.

Chen teams up with the NZSO to play one of China’s most beloved compositions, “The Yellow River Piano Concerto”. Originally composed as a cantata by Xian Xinghai in 1939 celebrating China’s great Yellow River, the work was recomposed as a piano concerto during the Cultural Revolution.

At only 18 years of age, John Chen made history by winning the prestigious Sydney International Piano Competition in 2004. Playing the Ravel “Piano Concerto for One Hand” in 2009, NBR noted “John Chen played the piece with consummate skill drawing out the various emotional responses with a keen awareness of the music bringing a brilliance of sound to the work.”

Similarly, Perry So was critically-praised during his last NZSO Chinese New Year tour for his energy, focus and freshness of touch. He is a rare recipient of the first prize at St Petersburg’s International Prokofiev Conducting Competition.

The NZSO Chinese New Year concert opens with Ross Harris’ entrancing song cycle “The Floating Bride, The Crimson Village”, featuring the crystalline voice of soprano Jenny Wollerman.

Inspired by the dreamy visions of Marc Chagall and the poetry of Vincent O’Sullivan, Harris’ colourful piece was the result of a casual conversation with O'Sullivan.

“I found we shared a love of the paintings of Marc Chagall, so we planned a song cycle based around them,” says the composer.

“Vincent wrote 15 poems filled with subtle images drawn from Chagall. For example from the third song The Dancer: ‘How the cheeks of the dancer / Are the morning’s rising, / How the flip of the clown / Turns the heart of the lover’. Just as Chagall's paintings are filled with beautifully surreal images so the poems reflected this making them wonderful material for setting to music,” Harris says.

Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony provides a European counterpoint to the Chinese inspired works with its celebration of the arrival of spring. No symphony better captures the wonder of Nature and her changeable moods than Beethoven’s triumphant Pastoral Symphony.