Having wowed audiences in the 2012 performances of The Valkyrie, our very own mezzo-soprano Margaret Medlyn and Australian soprano Lisa Harper-Brown return alongside acclaimed Australian-born tenor Rosario La Spina and New Zealand bass Jud Arthur to perform the famous opera composer’s funeral mass Requiem.

Filled with recognisable musical moments, from the dramatic and despairing ‘Dies Irae’ with its thunderous percussion and brass to the imploring beauty of the ‘Lacrimosa’ that grows in its intensity with every phrase, Verdi’s Requiem is an enduring seven-part masterpiece. Once considered too ‘operatic’ for the church, it is packed with rhythmic vivacity, high emotion, and glorious melodies – one of Verdi’s most popular musical trademarks.

Composed to mark the passing of two great Italian heroes – the composer Gioachino Rossini and the author and poet Alessandro Manzoni – Verdi’s Requiem is an overwhelming expression of grief, and yet it is reassuring in its message of comfort. It is a work of great personal significance for the composer, its performers, and for many who have come to know this monumental work.

City Choir Dunedin joins the NZSO on tour around the country in celebration of their 150th anniversary. Formed in 1863, Dunedin’s leading exponent of large-scale choral works will combine vocal forces with the Auckland Choral, Christchurch City Choir, and Orpheus Choir of Wellington in each respective city.

Witness the power of more than 180 singers and an impressive quartet of singing talent alongside your national orchestra, led by NZSO Music Director Pietari Inkinen.

Revel in Verdi’s thrilling brilliance in Requiem, proudly brought to you by National Tour Partner Newstalk ZB.

FUN FACTS:

·        Originally, a great work was to be written by a number of composers to honour the life of Gioachino Rossini following his death in 1868. Frustratingly for Verdi, this work was abandoned. So, upon hearing of Manzoni’s death in 1873, Verdi resolved to complete his own Requiem. He travelled to Paris to compose what we now know to be his famous Requiem, including a revised version of the final seventh section, ‘Libera me’, originally composed for Rossini.

·        The first performance of Verdi’s Requiem, conducted by Verdi himself, marked the first anniversary of Manzoni’s death, the Italian poet and novelist much-loved by Verdi. It took place in San Marco in Milan on 22 May, 1874.

·        At one stage, the work was called the Manzoni Requiem.

·        Verdi always intended to use female singers; however they were not permitted to perform in Catholic Church rituals at the time that the work was composed. Verdi wrote an open letter during the early stages of the work’s conception stating: “If I were in the good graces of the Holy Father, I would beg him to permit – if only for this one time – that women take part in the performance of this music; but since I am not, it will fall to someone else better suited to obtain this decree”.

·        The Requiem was reportedly criticised by some as being too operatic in style for the religious subject matter when it was first performed. However, critics were divided and some praised Verdi’s willingness to break standard compositional rules for musical effect, such as his use of consecutive fifths.

·        Verdi’s original instrumentation included an ophicleide – a conical-bore keyed bugle – which was eventually succeeded by the tuba. Andrew Jarvis, NZSO Principal Tuba, will perform this part during the NZSO tour.

·        Four of eight trumpets will be played off-stage during the performance.

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For further information or interviews, please contact:
Janina Hanify | Publicity & Communications Manager
New Zealand Symphony Orchestra
Te Tira Pūoro o Aotearoa P +64 4 801 3833 M +64 275 745 294 E janinah@nzso.co.nz

English composer Gustav Holst’s The Planets is an orchestral tour de force. From the weighty and arresting, doom-laden rhythmic strains of Mars – The Bringer of War, to the mysterious beauty of Jupiter – the Bringer of Jollity (and the Rugby World Cup theme song), Holst’s memorable seven-movement masterpiece glides seamlessly from gestures of grandeur to glistening moments of introspection.

Each movement of the suite is named after a planet of the solar system and its corresponding astrological character. (Earth was not included). A fellow traveller introduced Holst to astrology during a tour of Spain in 1913 and he soon devoted himself to the study of the planets and the ancient gods associated with them, even learning to cast horoscopes.

From here emerged one of the most popular works of the twentieth century. Originally composed for two pianos and an organ, this brilliant work was finally orchestrated with the help of colleagues, as Holst’s arthritis prevented him from the fiddly work of orchestration. The Planets premiered during the last weeks of World War I on 29 September 1918, with conductor Adrian Boult. It was an immediate success, exciting a frenzy in the press with its kaleidoscope of orchestral colours and originality.

Auckland-based composer Eve de Castro-Robinson’s specially commissioned work The glittering hosts of heaven conjures a similar air of mystery and wonder.

“Rather than being descriptive, like Holst’s The Planets, it is a sonic springboard for me, the players and listeners to consider what it is that surrounds us, that gives us protection, solace and hope,” says de Castro-Robinson. “The music ranges freely from high glittering passages to slow contemplative events and serene passages, but overall is searching and restless in tone, as befits a questioning spirit.”

Dedicated to her parents, The glittering hosts of heaven was inspired by English writer H.G. Wells’ sentiment:

There is – though I do not know how there is or why there is – a sense of infinite peace and protection in the glittering hosts of heaven. There it must be, I think, in the vast and eternal laws of matter, and not in the daily cares and sins and troubles of men, that whatever is more than animal within us must find its solace and its hope.

Matariki is both the name of the Pleiades star cluster and also of the season of its first rising in late May or early June – the beginning of the New Year. The name Matariki is also used for the central star in the cluster, with the surrounding stars named Tupu-a-nuku, Tupu-a-rangi, Waiti, Waita, Waipuna-a-rangi and Ururangi. With the rise of the Seven Sisters, Matariki begins, marking the arrival of the Maori New Year.

“The seven soloists acknowledge the Seven Sisters of the Pleiades. At Matariki, New Year in the Maori calendar, there is renewed respect for the land, and thoughts turn to the past and the future, including the legacy of parents,” says de Castro-Robinson.

Stargaze with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra this Matariki in The Planets, proudly brought to you by National Tour Partner Newstalk ZB.

ENDS

For further information or interviews, please contact:
Janina Hanify | Publicity & Communications Manager
New Zealand Symphony Orchestra
Te Tira Pūoro o Aotearoa P +64 4 801 3833 M +64 275 745 294 E janinah@nzso.co.nz

Voted the most popular piece of classical music*, Ralph Vaughan Williams’ The Lark Ascending paints a stunning landscape of the British wilderness. Inspired by the poem by English novelist and poet George Meredith, Vaughan 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, Vaughan Williams dedicated a significant part of his life to collecting English folk songs and hymns and as a result, his music often evokes an idealised British past. Completed after the First World War, The Lark Ascending takes a nostalgic look back to a simpler time.

With our Concertmaster Vesa-Matti Leppänen as the solitary lark, lyrical melodies soar over a gentle body of sound in this popular romance. Bright ascending and cascading phrases pour fourth from the violin, as the lark soars higher and higher before a central melody is found, and the orchestra returns to create a supportive body of sound within which the soloist can wander.

In contrast, Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 2 provides drama to stir you from your reverie. Its extended virtuosic passages offer ample opportunities for the acclaimed pianist Yevgeny Sudbin to dazzle. The young Russian, known for his scorching performances, is perfectly matched to this tempestuous concerto.

We return to England for Edward Elgar’s Symphony No. 1. Surprisingly, Elgar waited until his early fifties before composing a symphony, although it was widely known that he had been planning one for more than 10 years. The wait was worth it; his First Symphony, completed in 1908, is now one of the most beloved in the repertoire.

Unashamedly romantic, Elgar’s symphony is overwhelmingly majestic. From its opening bars a quiet theme grows, before marching rhythms emerge, transforming its humble beginning into an expansive, grand melody, recalling past glories. It is no surprise that within a year of its premiere, Elgar’s eagerly anticipated first symphony had been performed a hundred times worldwide.

Join the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra this May and hear three of the most memorable works in our popular national concert series The Lark Ascending.

Enjoy an evening of glorious music to stir the soul, in association with the New Zealand Listener.

*Radio New Zealand Concert ‘Settling the Score’, 2012 and Classic FM (UK) Hall of Fame, 2007-2010.

FUN FACTS:

·        The Lark Ascending was voted number one in the popular UK radio station Classic FM’s annual Hall of Fame poll for four years running (from 2007-2010). It was selected over Edward Elgar’s Cello Concerto, Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2, Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto and another work of Vaughan Williams’, the Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis.

·        Vaughan Williams reportedly sketched The Lark Ascending as he watched troop ships cross the English Channel at the outbreak of the First World War. But he was arrested by a police officer after a boy reported him to the police for “jotting down a secret code”.

·        Originally, The Lark Ascending was a violin-piano arrangement composed in 1914. Edward Elgar’s pupil Marie Hall first performed this version in December 1920 before a violin and orchestral version was completed in 1920.

·        Following its first orchestral performance in London on 14 June 1921, under conductor Adrian Boult, a critic from The Times quoted: “It showed supreme disregard for the ways of today or yesterday. It dreamed itself along”. This “dream-like” meditative quality could perhaps be blamed on the solo violin cadenzas, which were written without bar lines.

·        Beethoven did not hold his Piano Concerto No. 2 in much esteem, remarking that it was “not one of my best” to the publisher Franz Anton Hoffmeister. But despite his initial remarks, this Concerto has become a gem in the piano repertoire and is as popular as ever.

·        In order to establish himself as a virtuoso, a young Beethoven regularly performed his Piano Concerto No. 2. He was even the soloist at its premiere performance on 29 March 1795, at Vienna’s Burgtheater.

·        Beethoven uses one of trademark musical jokes in the third movement. Before the last appearance of the rondo theme, Beethoven brings the piano in in the “wrong” key of G major, before the orchestra “discovers” the discrepancy and returns to the correct tonic key.

·        Edward Elgar’s Symphony No. 1 was an instant success. Within weeks of its premiere, on 3 December 1908 in the Free Trade Hall in Manchester,  it was performed in New York under Walter Damrosch, Vienna under Ferdinand Löwe, St. Petersburg under Alexander Siloti, and Leipzig under Artur Nikisch. Within a year, Elgar’s eagerly anticipated first symphony had been performed a hundred times worldwide.

·        Dedicated “To Hans Richter, Mus. Doc. True Artist and true Friend”, Elgar’s first symphony was only one of two written by the popular composer.

·        Unusually, Elgar’s symphony was composed in Ab and, according to the conductor Sir Adrian Boult, its equally unusual transition to the clashing key – D minor – in the opening theme, arose because someone made a bet with Elgar that he could not compose a symphony in two keys at once.

ENDS

For further information, images, or interview requests, please contact:
Janina Hanify | Publicity & Communications Manager
New Zealand Symphony Orchestra
Te Tira Pūoro o Aotearoa P +64 4 801 3833 M +64 275 745 294 E janinah@nzso.co.nz

“He can roar – with pain, with pleasure, with fierce indignation, filling the hall with full, strong tone. But he can also coo and purr at an extreme pianissimo, making a sound that stays audible only because there is so much in it to feel, as well as to hear.” The New York Times

Welsh singing star, Bryn Terfel, one of the most sought after international voices, performs a very special gala concert with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra this May.

New Zealand audiences will be able to hear Bryn sing his career highlights, with the full accompaniment of a live symphony orchestra.

This Gala Concert is an exceptional opportunity to witness the breadth of his mastery amid an especially busy year for the opera world, being the twin bicentenaries of two giants of the romantic repertoire, Wagner and Verdi. This time, he takes on some of the world’s most impressive vocal works by the master of opera – Richard Wagner.

Following the success of last year’s NZSO production of The Valkyrie, Bryn will tackle Wagner arias that have caused The Guardian to proclaim him “the new Wagnerian king at Covent Garden”. From Wotan’s heart wrenching mountain top farewell to the romantic aria O! du mein holder Abendstern in Tannhäuser; Terfel’s natural ability appears effortless.

One of the world’s finest bass-baritones, Bryn is no stranger to some of the best international stages in the world, including the Metropolitan Opera House, Covent Garden or La Scala, and is the winner of both Grammy and Gramophone awards.

“Terfel is one of the world’s leading – if not the leading – exponents of Wagner’s Wotan and the Dutchman, and of Verdi’s Falstaff.” The Australian, 2013.

His on and off-stage charisma sets him apart from other artists. He is equally at home in opera, music theatre and the traditional songs of his native Wales.

In this concert you will hear some of the finest operatic repertoire as well as sparkling musical theatre gems – from the wide open cornfields in musical theatre classic Oh What a Beautiful Mornin’; to Bryn’s favourite folk songs such as My Little Welsh Home; and even the menacing whistling of Mefistofele, see why Gramophone declared: “This astonishingly gifted bass-baritone seems able to touch with magic whatever he sets his voice to”.

Bryn Terfel has charmed audiences and critics world-wide and fans all around New Zealand have been eager to see him return to perform with the full backing of a live symphony orchestra, following his 2009 recital tour.

Don’t miss this extraordinary chance to hear this consummate performer at the height of his career, performing with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra and one of New Zealand’s most successful and sought-after conductors, Tecwyn Evans.

“I can’t think of anyone who could present a concert quite like this, other than Bryn,” says Tecwyn Evans, who is based in Sweden. “From the passion of Wagner, to the intimacy of some of the traditional folk songs in the second half, the audience will be treated to one of the great voices of this generation. I had enormous fun recording a Christmas CD with Bryn for Deutsche Grammophon a few years ago and it will be highlight for me to work alongside him once again, in partnership with the gem that is the NZSO.”

This gala evening of favourite arias and songs will be one of the highlights of the NZSO Season, in association with ANZ Private.

ENDS

For further information, images, or interview requests, please contact:
Janina Hanify | Publicity & Communications Manager
New Zealand Symphony Orchestra
Te Tira Pūoro o Aotearoa
P +64 4 801 3833
M +64 275 745 294
E janinah@nzso.co.nz

NZSO Bryn Terfel: A Gala Evening
In association with ANZ Private

Tecwyn Evans Conductor
Bryn Terfel Bass Baritone

WAGNER:
Tannhäuser Overture
Aria: O! du mein holder Abendstern
Das Rheingold Aria: Abendlich strahlt der Sonne Auge
Die Walküre
The Ride of the Valkyries
Wotan’s Farewell and Magic Fire Music

BOITO: Mefistofele Aria: Son lo Spirito
WEILL: Die Moritat von Mackie Messer (The Ballad of Mack the Knife)
RODGERS & HAMMERSTEIN: Oklahoma!
- Overture & Oh What a Beautiful Mornin’
LERNER & LOEWE: Camelot – How to Handle a Woman
BOCK: Fiddler on the Roof – If I Were a Rich Man
LILBURN: Aotearoa Overture
TRAD. Passing By
WILLIAMS: My Little Welsh Home
TRAD. Molly Malone

WELLINGTON / Michael Fowler Centre / Friday 3 May / 6.30pm
AUCKLAND / ASB Auditorium, Aotea Centre / Saturday 4 May / 7.30pm

American composer John Adams’ wonderfully strange, yet riveting piece, Harmonielehre, shares a complementary vitality and vibrancy with fellow Pacific composer, John Psathas’ work for choir and orchestra, Orpheus in Rarohenga.

Harmonielehre was composed in 1985 following an 18-month period of writer’s block. This beautifully textured three-movement work was inspired by a dream in which Adams’ was driving across the San Francisco – Oakland Bay Bridge when he saw an oil tanker on the surface of the water abruptly turn upright and take off like a rocket. Each of its three movements reflects Adams’ feeling at the time: liberation (I), spiritual sickness (II), and grace (III).

Its powerful opening, featuring the minimalist repetition of E minor chords, forms the work’s recurring theme, before the cello section takes on an expressive melody eventually adopted by the entire orchestra.
Famously, this impressive work, which means “study of harmony” in German, appears in the video game Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.

“What is beyond doubt is that Adams is one of those contemporary voices we all need to hear and keep hearing.” The Guardian.

Composed only 17 years later, in 2002, Orpheus in Rarohenga shares Harmonielehre’s dramatic, “larger than life” quality.

“It’s like a movie without the visuals,” says New Zealand composer John Psathas. “It’s storytelling on a grand scale.”

Also constructed in three movements, Psathas’ major oratorio was commissioned to mark the 50th anniversary of one of New Zealand’s most accomplished choral ensembles, the Orpheus Choir of Wellington. This NZSO performance will feature New Zealand soprano Jenny Wollerman, tenor Richard Greager, bass-baritone Paul Whelan, and successful New Zealand conductor Tecwyn Evans.

Orpheus in Rarohenga tells a unique tale of Captain James Cook’s 1769 voyage to the Southern Hemisphere, ostensibly to view the Transit of Venus. This voyage, and its resulting historical ramifications, are literally merged with the journey by the mythical figure of Orpheus to the Underworld.

Respected New Zealand poet Robert Sullivan, of Ngā Puhi and Irish descent, was commissioned to write the book-length poem Captain Cook in the Underworld as the libretto for Psathas’ Orpheus in Rarohenga. The poem offers fresh perspectives on the familiar story of Cook’s Pacific explorations with its broad bi-cultural (European/Polynesian) frame of references and bold risk-taking approach.

“The entire work is rhythmically driven and builds in momentum towards the moment of Cook’s death in the second movement,” says Psathas. “When Cook dies it’s like an action sequence with the choir engaged in the battle itself. Then, the story continues when Cook enters the Underworld in the third movement, guided by Orpheus – it’s mystical and other worldly.”

Enjoy the best of New Zealand with the best of the world and experience the voice of Aotearoa as it resonates with international voices in this innovative NZSO concert series Hear & Far.

“A moving, captivating and frightening work… Robert Sullivan re-ignites Cook’s Pacific explorations. This book will make many readers think deeply… Captain Cook in the Underworld really achieves its end through rhythm, intensity and extreme focus.” – Hamesh Wyatt, Otago Daily Times

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