Programme

Eve de Castro-Robinson Aurora
Beethoven Violin Concerto
Dvořák Symphony No. 9, From the New World

María Dueñas appears with generous support from Susan and Donald Best ONZM.
With thanks to the Embassy of Spain in New Zealand.

These beautiful and varied themes are the product of the soil.

- Antonín Dvořák

The winner of the 2021 Yehudi Menuhin Competition at just 18, María Dueñas is swiftly gaining global acclaim thanks to her “luminously radiant and golden-toned, fluidly quicksilver technique” (Gramophone). Her exceptional talent will be brilliantly showcased for the first time in Aotearoa New Zealand in a performance of Beethoven’s beloved Violin Concerto — an immense concerto that expanded the horizons of the genre.

Inspired both by memories of his native Bohemia and the majestic North American plains of his new home, Dvořák’s Symphony No. 9, From the New World, is replete with lush, unforgettable melodies that have made it one of the most adored symphonies of our time. It is a work that speaks so powerfully to a sense of place and ideas of home.

We are proud to open our season with a playful tribute to our own NZ skies in Eve de Castro-Robinson’s Aurora — a fanfare of birdsong and momentum.