New NZSO season includes Anton Oliver but not Anton Bruckner

The New Zealand Symphony Orchestra
2013 Season

The New Zealand Symphony Orchestra's programme for next year marks something of a shift in programming with no major symphonic works by Beethoven, Brahms, Bruckner or Mahler.

In their place the orchestra is offering a much varied assortment of work, with some of the world’s most exciting musical talent, including a gala performance by Bryn Terfel.

Other soloists will be Stephen de Pledge playing the Ravel Piano Concerto, Daniel Muller- Schott playing the Dvorak Cello Concert, Yevgeny Sudbin playing the Beethoven Piano Concerto No 2 and Kolja Blacher playing Benjamin Britten’s Violin Concerto.

The season opens with the Academy Award-winning composer Tan Dun conducting the NZSO in a performance of his Martial Arts Trilogy to mark the Year of the Snake and the Chinese New Year.

The concert comprises Tan Dun’s scores from three classic martial arts films: The Banquet, Hero, and Crouching Tiger and Hidden Dragon. The multi-media event will also feature scenes from the films projected above the orchestra.

Of the 18 concerts, 15 will open in Auckland, with the remaining three performed in Wellington only. Ten will tour to centres including Gore, Te Anau, Timaru and Balclutha.

The three concerts with Wellington performances only are Bolero, with music by Ravel and Scraibin; On Anzac Eve, a concert featuring Elgar’s Enigma Variations; and works by the Australian Ross Edwards and the NZSO’s Christopher Blake.

There is also a performance by NZSO National Youth Orchestra, who do play a work by Brahms – his Symphony No 2, as well as Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No 5 and Beethoven Piano Concerto No 3 with soloist Lara Merlda.

One of the touring concerts, Tall Tales and Tangos, travels throughout the South Island and includes Tchaikovsky’s Peter and the Wolf narrated by legendary All Black Anton Oliver.

The major works on the programme is Verdi’s Requiem with soloists Lisa Harper Brown, Margaret Medlyn, Rosario La Spina and Jud Arthur. In Wellington they will accompanied by the Orpheus Choir and members of the Dunedin Choir. In Auckland, it will be Auckland Choral with members of the Dunedin Choir.

The Heights of Passion concert includes work by Wagner (Lohengrin, Prelude to Act I and Tristan & Isolde Prelude and Liebestod), Strauss (Der Rosenkavalier Suite) and Britten’s Violin Concerto.

Other works in the season are Gustav Holst’s The Planets, Elgar’s Symphony No 1 and John Adams Harmonielehre.

Among the New Zealand works to be played will be Eve de Castro-Robinson’s The Glittering hosts of Heaven, John Psathas’s Orpheus in Rarohenga and Larry Pruden’s Soliloquy for Strings.