Symphony Orchestra plays Mahler, Brahms, Beethoven and Shostakovich

During April and May the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra will be presenting performances of the works of  Mahler, Brahms, Beethoven and Shostakovich as well as several New Zealand composers.

Mahler, Symphony No 3
Edo de Waart, Conductor
Charlotte Hellekant , Mezzo
Friday April 1 – Auckland, Town Hall, 7pm
Saturday April 2 – Wellington, Michael Fowler Centre, 7.30pm

With Mahler’s Symphony No 3 the NZSO will be conducted by the new music director, Edo de Waart, in the first of its Masterworks’ series.  

In this symphony, Mahler combines a full symphony orchestra with delicate choral forces. The Auckland concert will feature members from Auckland Choral and the Auckland Boys Choir and Wellington will feature the NZSO Chorale and Wellington Young Voices.

The Swedish mezzo-soprano Charlotte Hellekant, wellknown for her strong stage presence and vocal expressiveness, will sing Mahler’s portrait of the natural world.

Brahms and Beethoven
Edo de Waart, Conductor

Programme 1
Lilburn, Festival Overture
Brahms, Concerto for Violin and Cello in A minor Double Concerto
Beethoven, Symphony No. 3 in E-flat major Eroica
Friday April 8 – Hamilton, Founders Theatre, 7.30pm
Saturday April 9 – Auckland, Town Hall, 7.30pm
Wednesday  April 13– Christchurch, Horncastle Arena, 7pm
Saturday April 16 – Wellington, Michael Fowler Centre, 7.30pm

Programme 2
Lilburn, Festival Overture
Brahms, Concerto for Violin and Cello
Beethoven, Symphony No 5
Wednesday  April 6  – Napier, Municipal Theatre, 7pm
Thursday April 7 – Tauranga, Baycourt Theatre, 7.30pm
Tuesday  April  12 – Blenheim, ASB Theatre Marlborough, 7pm
Thursday  April14  – Dunedin, Regent Theatre, 7pm

In the NZSO’s second Masterworks series, de Waart and the NZSO look to the giants of the Romantic repertoire with the music of Beethoven and Brahms.

Nicola Benedetti, who was last seen in New Zealand in 2012, returns to perform Brahms’ lyrical Double Concerto for Violin and Cello. Joining her is the cellist Leonard Elschenbroich, whose intuitive, physical style has earned him an international following. Having known each other since they were students, they bring an intimacy to Brahms’ melodies.

Spirit of Anzac: Voices from the field
Hamish McKeich, Conductor
Madeleine Pierard, Soprano
Frederick Septimus  Kelly, In Memoriam Rupert Brooke
George Butterworth, A Shropshire Lad
Ross Harris, Symphony No.2
Thursday  April 21 – Wellington, Michael Fowler Centre, 6.30pm
Friday  April 22 – Auckland, Town Hall,7pm

The orchestra continues its commemoration of the  World War I with a special concert of remembrance and thanksgiving. Australian composer Frederick Septimus Kelly wrote his string elegy, In memoriam Rupert Brooke, from a tent while stationed at Gallipoli, while it was the poetry of A E Housman and his evocative portraits of the English countryside that inspired George Butterworth’s orchestral rhapsody, A Shropshire Lad. Butterworth also died in 1916 during the battle of the Somme.

This programme continues its thread of war poetry with Ross Harris’ frightening and beautiful Symphony No. 2, recalling another difficult part of our history. This work, with settings of poems by Vincent O’Sullivan, remembers those soldiers who were executed for desertion and features the voice of soprano Madeleine Pierard who sang the premiere of this work in 2006  

Aotearoa Plus
Bramwell Tovey, Conductor
Stephen de Pledge, piano
Bramwell Tovey, Time Tracks (Suite from opera The Inventor)
Magnus Lindberg, Piano Concerto No.2
Christopher Blake, Symphony – Voices (world premiere)
Friday May 6 – Wellington, Michael Fowler Centre, 6.30pm
Saturday May 7 – Auckland, Town Hall, 7.30pm

This programme showcases some of the best contemporary repertoire from New Zealand and abroad with the Grammy-award winning conductor and composer Bramwell Tovey leading the NZSO with the world premiere of his orchestral suite, Time Tracks – an arrangement from his 2011 opera The Inventor.

The contemporary Finnish composer and pianist Magnus Lindberg’s Piano Concerto No 2, which was written while composer-in- residence with the New York Philharmonic, is a complex and fascinating exploration of the concerto form. With music that is both lyrical and explosive, this score is an ideal work the virtuosity of New Zealand pianist Stephen de Pledge. 

Also on the programme will be the world premiere of Christopher Blake’s Symphony – Voices, the second of his symphonies to be premiered by the NZSO. It is an evocative and rich creation for large orchestra, drawing on the voices and imagery of T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land.

Stephen Hough plays Brahms
Gustavo Gimeno, Conductor
Stephen Hough, Piano
Brahms, Piano Concerto No 2 in B-flat
Farr, From the Depths Sound the Great Sea Gongs
Shostakovich, Symphony No 1 in F Minor
Friday 13 May – Wellington, Michael Fowler Centre, 6.30pm
Wednesday 18 May – Dunedin, Town Hall, 7pm
Thursday 19 May – Christchurch, Horncastle Arena, 7pm
Saturday 21 May – Auckland, Town Hall, 7.30pm

Hough’s interpretations of Brahms have drawn praise for their gentle reflectiveness. His performance of the composer’s Piano Concerto No 2 is considered to be an experience not to be missed.

The Spanish conductor Gustavo Gimeno has been much in demand since his debut with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in 2014. As a former percussionist, Gimeno helps mark the 20^th anniversary of Gareth Farr’ From the Depths Sound the Great Sea Gongs, which was  commissioned for the 50th anniversary of the NZSO

The major work of this concert will be Symphony No 1 by Shostakovich. This romantic and clever work was written as his graduation piece at the Petrograd Conservatory at the tender age of 19.

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