NZSO concert of all-time favourites next month

New Zealand Symphony Orchestra: The Lark Ascending

In association with: New Zealand Listener
Mark Wigglesworth, conductor
Yevgeny Sudbin, piano
Vesa-Matti Leppänen, violin

Vaughan Williams The Lark Ascending
Beethoven Piano Concerto No 2 in B flat major
Elgar Symphony No 1 Op.5 in A flat major

Wellington 
Michael Fowler Centre
Friday, May 17, 6.30pm

Napier 
Municipal Theatre 
Tuesday, May 21, 7.30pm

Hamilton 
Founders Theatre 
Thursday, May 23, 7.30pm

Auckland 
Town Hall
Friday, May 24, 7pm

The New Zealand Symphony Orchestra will next month undertake a four-centre tour under the baton of British conductor Mark Wigglesworth in a concert of all-time favourites.

Voted the most popular piece of classical music, Ralph Vaughan Williams' The Lark Ascending paints a landscape of the rural Britain.

Inspired by the poem by poet George Meredith, Williams’ music, perhaps more than any other composer of his time, has a specifically English pastoral quality.

His teacher Ravel recognised this, describing him as “the only one of my pupils who does not write my music”.

Passionate about past traditions, Williams dedicated a significant part of his life to collecting English folk songs and hymns. As a result, his music often evokes an idealised British past.

Completed after World War I, The Lark Ascending takes a nostalgic look back to a simpler time. 

Concertmaster Vesa-Matti Leppänen’s violin will be the solitary lark providing lyrical melodies which soar over a gentle body of sound in this popular romance.

Bright ascending and cascading phrases represent the lark soaring higher and higher before a central melody is found, and the orchestra returns to create a supportive body of sound within which the soloist wanders.

In contrast, Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No 2 provides a dramatic work with extended virtuosic passages offering opportunities for acclaimed pianist Yevgeny Sudbin.

The young Russian, known for his scorching performances, should be perfectly matched to this tempestuous concerto.

Also in the programme is Edward Elgar’s Symphony No 1, one of the great romantic English symphonies which is overwhelmingly majestic in form.

From its opening bars a quiet theme grows before marching rhythms emerge, transforming its humble beginning into an expansive, grand melody recalling past glories.