Symphony Uncovered Series

10am, Thursday 2 April

Conductor Eivind Aadland
Violin Amalia Hall

Debussy (orch. Busser) Printemps
Michael Norris Violin Concerto ‘Sama’
Fauré Masques et bergamasques
Fauré Pelléas et Mélisande: Sicilienne
Ravel Boléro

Programme notes

Composed for local star Amalia Hall, Michael Norris’s Sufi-inspired concerto ‘tries to capture the sense of two vast realms – the earth and the sky – with the dancers whirling ecstatically between them’.

It is framed by some stunning French music. Debussy’s painting of the blossoming of nature, and two contrasting works by Fauré, the jolly Masques et bergamasques and the wistful Sicilienne.

Then, endlessly repeated rhythm, sinuously feline melody, imperceptible but implacable crescendo: it can only be Ravel’s Boléro

10am, Thursday 11 June

Conductor Alan Buribayev
Piano Eva Gevorgyan

Tchaikovsky Eugene Onegin: Polonaise
Chopin Piano Concerto No.1
Kalinnikov Symphony No.1

Programme notes

The stunning Russian-Armenian pianist Eva Gevorgyan makes her NZ debut with the delicate, melancholic concerto of the incomparable poet of the piano, Chopin.

Vasily Kalinnikov’s glorious First Symphony is one of the forgotten gems of Russian music: its composer died at only 35, and its profusion of warm-hearted melodies gives a tantalising glimpse of what was lost.

Those who knew and mourned Kalinnikov included Tchaikovsky, who opens the concert with the vigorous Polonaise from his greatest opera.

10am - 1pm, Thursday 30 July

Conductor Giordano Bellincampi
Violin Benjamin Beilman

Lilburn Drysdale Overture
Nielsen Violin Concerto
Mozart Symphony No.39

‘Poised and monstrously talented’ (Philadelphia Enquirer), the tremendous young violinist Benjamin Beilman joins the Auckland Philharmonia for what promises to be a definitive performance of the powerful, rugged concerto by Giordano Bellincampi’s compatriot, Carl Nielsen.

Studying in London, homesick, Douglas Lilburn wrote a tribute to the isolated farm in the Turakina Valley where he grew up; it’s incredible that this was a student work.

Mozart’s translucent, sunlit symphony rounds off the programme with weightless elegance.

10am - 1pm, Thursday 15 October

Conductor Karl-Heinz Steffens
Piano Sophia Liu
With musicians from the Australian National Academy of Music (ANAM)

Beethoven Piano Concerto No.4
Bartók The Wooden Prince (complete ballet)

The brilliant 17-year-old Canadian pianist Sophia Liu makes her Australasian debut with Beethoven’s concerto. It begins with the piano ruminating alone but soon broadens out into one of his most genial works.

A fairy enchants a stream so a prince cannot cross it to see his princess; he wins her with a wooden model of himself. When composing this sumptuous ballet, Bartók was having a passionate love affair, which left more than slight traces in the music.