Gavrylyuk & Rach 3

Giordano Bellincampi brings us two lush Romantic works to start the season. The titanic ‘Rach Three’ needs no introduction, nor does a regular visitor to the Auckland Phil, the marvellous Ukrainian-Australian pianist Alexander Gavrylyuk.

Zemlinsky composed his opulent tone poem on the story of the Little Mermaid after a relationship break-up, and his depiction of his heroine’s yearning has a terrible poignancy; always inescapable, though, is Zemlinsky’s music of the vast, immense sea.