Haydn & Prokofiev

In his Sinfonia concertante for cello and orchestra, Prokofiev is at his most sardonic and his most lyrical. It’s a formidable test for the soloist but the distinguished French cellist Jean-Guihen Queyras, making his New Zealand debut, is the artist to meet the challenge.

To open, Smetana’s beloved tone-poem draws a magically evocative picture of the longest river in the Czech Republic, from its source in the forest until it flows majestically into the Elbe. This is followed by Haydn’s lean and energetic Symphony No.80, originally written in 1784, but finally receiving its Auckland premiere.