Auckland Philharmonia speaks with violinist Yeyeong Jenny Jin ahead of her performance of Mozart's Violin Concerto No.3 ‘Strassburg.
What draws you to Mozart’s music?
His music reveals a deeper beauty with each listen. As a child, I saw it as simple, but now it resonates with greater meaning. Similar to Bach, playing his music feels like a true reflection of who I am—there’s no hiding behind its purity. I admire him deeply, and his work continually challenges me to grow.
What is the best piece of advice you’ve received?
Be yourself.
How has your experience been with winning the Michael Hill International Violin competition?
It has truly changed me from within. Winning the Michael Hill International Violin competition has given me courage in my musical direction, and I want to continue growing and learning new things. I feel grateful for the trust that has been placed in me, and I approach this with humility. Being on this tour to connect with different audiences and musicians feels like a dream come true.
What is your favourite way to prepare for a performance?
I like to treat it as a normal day, even though my heartbeat tells a different story as I get closer to the performance. I enjoy a good meal for energy, and before I step on stage I remind myself that it's always about the music.
Do you have a process for learning a violin concerto before a performance?
I like to run through it once or twice as if I already know the piece; the first few days are the most enjoyable part of learning a concerto! You get to envision your interpretation of the music, and I also love playing concertos. Then I focus on capturing the character and practice the movements in order. Since most of the time is usually spent on the first movement, I sometimes work backward for a balanced approach.
Favourite venue in the world? Dream venue to play?
Favourite venue in the world would be the Great Hall, Auckland Town Hall! I performed there last year and it was an experience that filled my heart with gratitude and joy. I’ll never forget the feeling I had in that hall, and that moment will be with me forever. A dream venue for me would be The Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. I remember watching a video as a child of a violinist walking down the hall’s stairs in her gown and it looked marvellous.
Do you have music that you love to play outside of practicing / performing?
I like to listen to pop songs when I’m on a run, especially trending K-pop songs.
Bayleys Great Classics
Conductor Shiyeon Sung
Violin Yeyeong Jenny Jin
Mozart The Magic Flute: Overture
Mozart Violin Concerto No.3 ‘Strassburg’
Dvořák Symphony No.7
It’s been a busy winter for our Learn & Participate team, delivering events across Tāmaki Makaurau that brought together thousands of Aucklanders to connect, learn, and warm their hearts, through music. Read on to find out more about the wonderful community music-making that took place at three of our recent Learn & Participate events: Pese! Fasi! Puoro!, Link Up: The Orchestra Sings! and Community Bash.
Auckland Philharmonia speaks with composer Kirsten Strom ahead of the performance of her new piece at our Strings Under the Stars concerts at Auckland's Stardome Observatory & Planetarium.
Introduce yourself and tell us about your musical journey so far!
I'm Kirsten, a composer, singer-songwriter and arranger from Auckland, New Zealand. I have an eclectic heritage, ranging from Swedish to Māori, with quite a bit of Celtic thrown in there too. I was inspired to write my first song when I was nine, after a life-changing spiritual experience. The songs kept on coming, and before I knew it, I was choosing to study composition at the University of Auckland. Opportunities came my way, and I was always over the moon to be invited to participate in projects. Highlights include hearing my piece Ice played by the NZSO, winning the Orchestra's Choice Award, and being mentored by Kaija Saariaho as part of a festival in France. Taking my studies further saw me boarding a plane for London to study a Master of Music at the Royal Academy. Now I’m settling back into Auckland and seeking out freelance opportunities as a composer, arranger and mentor.
What work have you previously done with Auckland Philharmonia?
In 2017 I was incredibly honoured to be chosen as the Young Composer-in-Residence. I wrote three pieces for them, including Wake-up Call for orchestra, a playful critique of our smartphone-obsessed society. There was an amazing concert in the Town Hall, packed with students who started stomping and clapping along with the piece! This was one of my highlights as a composer! More recently, I have done arranging projects for Auckland Philharmonia Learn & Participate, and written my newest piece, The Heavens Declare the Glory of God!
What inspired you to write a piece for performance in Stardome?
My sister Jasmine and I had always dreamed of having my music performed in a place where the audience could look up and see the stars. This project was an extension of that idea, and I am so thrilled to see it coming to life!
You’ve written quite a few works about space. Where did your love for space and the universe come from?
Stars have always inspired me, from an early age. When I look at them, I always think of God and how amazing it is that He created such a vast universe. In recent projects I have enjoyed deep diving into facts about stars, radiance, and specific galaxies such as those in Stephan's Quintet.
How did you work with Stardome’s astronomers to design the visuals for your piece?
After an amazing initial session at Stardome, which formed my inspiration for the piece, I went back to finalise the visuals for my finished piece I discussed my vision for each movement with the astronomer and gave exact timings of events. We selected the most stunning nebulae to use, as well as thinking about pacing and how to make each movement visually exciting. I am so grateful to the Stardome staff for their amazing energy and time for this project. I am also very excited to hear my piece come to life with such stunning live musicians! I have enjoyed working with Miranda, Charmian and Ashley before.
What does the next few years of your career look like? What else is on the horizon?
After a lovely residency with Avondale College (I was a former student there), writing and mentoring students under Creatives in Schools, I’d like to work more with schools as a composition mentor. I would also like to get back into conducting, having previously conducted two school orchestras. In terms of my own composition, I am currently in talks about a children's opera, a concerto, and a string quartet for Jade Quartet. I would of course like to keep working with Auckland Philharmonia on further projects, whether composing, arranging, or mentoring.
What’s one piece of advice you would tell young aspiring composers at the beginning of their careers?
My advice is to work with performers as much as you possibly can! Get every piece you can workshopped or performed. It is often in the rehearsal process that you learn the most as a composer, interfacing with live musicians and learning from their expertise. Plus, it is incredibly exciting hearing your own music live! It makes it worth all the effort.
7pm & 8.30pm
Thu-Sat, 19-21 September
Thu-Sat, 26-28 September
Stardome Observatory & Planetarium
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William Green peeks inside the artist’s studio to observe musicians who paint musical pictures.
As we mark 150 years since the composition of Mussorgsky’s iconic Pictures at an Exhibition – and near Auckland Philharmonia’s 17 October concert featuring said piece – it’s interesting to speculate where artinspired music began. A Byzantine monk chanting his response to a picture of a saint? An Egyptian twanging on a lyre after seeing an image of Horus? Perhaps a pair of far-distant ancestors gazing at a cave drawing then making their feelings known on rudimentary musical instruments? The list of composers inspired by paintings is long, ranging from Liszt, Debussy, Respighi and Saint-Saëns to Rautavaara, Dutilleux and Sondheim. Stravinsky’s A Rake’s Progress is based on paintings and engravings by William Hogarth. Even John Cage’s 4’33” was stimulated by a canvas, although admittedly a very blank one.
In this country, we have Rita Angus’s influence on Douglas Lilburn (whose own electronic music in turn influenced visual artists like Michael Shepherd). Anthony Ritchie has written music inspired by Frances Hodgkins, Philip Claremont and Grahame Sydney. Janet Jennings has made a specialty of it, with the solo piano works Pictures at the Waikato Museum and Aotearoa Pictures framed next to Twelve Colours: Homage to Paul Klee, which in 2023 was given its premiere by the Ākarana Piano Quartet, a group composed of Auckland Philharmonia musicians.
Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition hangs highest, though, with its gallery stroll immortalising the life and work of the composer’s dear friend, Viktor Hartmann. Its first outing left the Russian’s musical colleagues scratching their heads in bewilderment, leading the composer himself to suspect that he’d gone too far. Mussorgsky’s music often has a wild and untamed edge – it’s one reason his friends felt the need to tidy his scores after his early death. Nevertheless, Mussorgsky’s experimental set of piano pieces has inspired a staggering list of orchestrators. It’s a tribute to his genius that there have been nearly a dozen new orchestrations in the 21st century alone. However, the Ravel orchestration, which Auckland Philharmonia plays in October, stands head and shoulders above all others – how could it not, in the hands of arguably the greatest master of orchestral colour? In a strange twist of musical evolution, virtuoso pianist Vladimir Horowitz concocted a piano version of the work from Ravel’s orchestration rather than the original Mussorgsky piano score – a tribute, this time, to Ravel’s genius.
Less known than Mussorgsky’s Pictures is Bohuslav Martinů’s The Frescoes of Piero della Francesca, which opens Auckland Phil’s concert. Unlike the Mussorgsky set, which was written just a few years after the Hartmann paintings were completed, Martinů’s music finds its source in frescoes painted in the Italian city of Arezzo 500 years earlier. The threemovement work is based on The History of the True Cross, a cycle of paintings adorning the walls of the Basilica of San Francesco, which the composer visited in 1952. Martinů’s work is less programmatic than Mussorgsky’s, attempting to represent not what the younger composer sees, but how the frescoes make him feel.
“I tried to express in musical terms that kind of solemnly immobile calm and semi-darkness,” Martinů said, “that palette of colours creating an atmosphere filled with delicate, peaceful, and moving poetry.”
The result is sometimes mysterious, sometimes majestic, but always evocative.
7.30pm, Thursday 17 October
Auckland Town Hall
Conductor Shiyeon Sung
Piano Jean-Efflam Bavouzet
Martinů The Frescoes of Piero della Francesca
Bartók Piano Concerto No.2
Mussorgsky (orch. Ravel) Pictures at an Exhibition
Composer Gemma Peacocke shares three pieces of music that changed her life.
Richard Betts speaks with Associate Principal Viola Julie Park.
Julie Park has only ever had one orchestral audition. She aced it, of course, which is how Auckland Philharmonia’s Associate Principal Viola became Auckland Philharmonia’s Associate Principal Viola.
Julie’s connection with the orchestra goes back to her school days.
“I grew up watching Auckland Phil, especially [Section Principal Viola] Robert Ashworth. In high school I did internships and competed in all the Auckland Philharmonia young soloist programmes.”
Julie didn’t just compete; she was crowned Auckland Philharmonia’s Young Soloist of the Year, an honour that saw her performing Cecil Forsyth’s Viola Concerto in G minor with the orchestra at Auckland Town Hall.
The award was all the more impressive for the fact that Julie came to viola relatively late. She began her musical life playing violin, spurred on by an inspirational music teacher at her primary school. She didn’t fall for viola until high school.
“I loved playing but I didn’t feel a big connection to the violin,” she says. “I was encouraged to try the viola and it really connected. Having played the violin for a long time, I felt the viola had more grit, a bass-y depth, and I enjoyed being able to produce that sound. In terms of personality, too, I was quite shy, so I didn’t want to always be in the spotlight; having the role of supporting and blending clicked with me.”
Julie will have nowhere to hide in October, when she leads colleagues in Viva Viola!, a pair of In Your Neighbourhood concerts featuring music by Beethoven, Dohnányi and Bowen.
“The Beethoven is a lovely, short duet for viola and cello, which is a rare combination. I’ve always loved playing the Dohnányi Serenade; it’s feisty. It’s written in a lovely register and showcases the mellow sound a viola can produce. The Bowen speaks for itself: Fantasia for Four Violas.”
York Bowen (1884-1961) is a composer dear to Julie’s heart. Following a Bachelor’s degree in Auckland, she did her postgraduate study at the Royal Academy of Music, London, where she played plenty of English repertoire. Bowen became a staple.
“He was an amazing composer who wrote a lot of music for Lionel Tertis, who’s often called the ‘father of the viola’,” Julie explains. “I wish more people knew about Bowen.”
It’s not for want of effort. At RAM, Julie became the first violist ever to be invited to study for an Advanced Diploma and was awarded a full-ride Bicentennial Scholarship. Part of the scholarship was a recording contract with Linn Records - a company famed for its extravagantly priced hi-fi gear and the exceptional audio quality of its CDs. Unsurprisingly, Julie recorded a disc of Bowen. Julie describes her years at RAM as some of the best of her life.
“It was eye-opening to be surrounded by so many good musicians. We’d learn off each other, watch performances, try to explore as much as we could. I learnt so much from my teachers but also my friends.”
Julie’s final year was curtailed by the pandemic, and while she was in a UK lockdown, Auckland Philharmonia got in touch about a temporary contract. The timing was right.
“[In lockdown] I realised playing solo wasn’t for me,” Julie says. “I loved collaborating.”
So Julie had her one and only orchestral audition.
“The day I landed in New Zealand for MIQ, I got an email saying I got the job. I made the right choice coming back; working with the orchestra has literally been the best thing ever.”
In Your Neighbourhood
6.30pm, Monday 7 October
St Luke's Church, Remuera
6.30pm, Tursday 8 October
All Saints Church, Howick
Featuring Julie Park, Associate Principal Viola
Beethoven Duet with Two Obligato Eyeglasses
Dohnányi Serenade
Bowen Fantasia for Four Violas
Richard Betts on Tōru Takemitsu, the leading Japanese composer of the 20th century
If Tōru Takemitsu is today revered for his synthesis of Western forms with Eastern philosophy and culture, it wasn’t always that way.
Born in Tokyo in 1930, Takemitsu’s childhood was effectively halted by the war, and in 1944 he was conscripted into the Japanese army, an experience he described as “extremely bitter.” It caused him to turn away from Japanese culture in general, and traditional music and instruments in particular.
“I hated everything about Japan at that time because of my experience during the war,” he said.
A lack of opportunities in Japan to study the kind of music he wanted meant that Takemitsu remained mostly self-taught, but he was nevertheless championed early in his career by Stravinsky. However, it took an American, the composer John Cage, to steer Takemitsu eastward in the 1960s.
It was less Cage’s music than his interest in Zen Buddhism that intrigued Takemitsu. In subsequent attempts to capture what critic Paul Kosidowski nicely sums as “the spirit and spirituality of nature,” Takemitsu expressed not only his ‘Japaneseness’, but his rapport with the French masters Debussy and Messiaen, with whom he also shared a superb sense of orchestral colour.
November Steps (1967) was the breakthrough: Takemitsu’s first work contrasting the Japanese shakuhachi and biwa against a Western orchestra. Its success as a composition and with audiences – and the members of the New York Philharmonic, who are said to have cheered following rehearsals for November Steps’ premiere – sent Takemitsu on a new path.
Not that this road was straightforward, either. Takemitsu was astonishingly eclectic. As he got older his music became more tonal, and we know him best for works of crystalline beauty composed for the concert hall. He wasn’t beyond kitsch, though. Takemitsu’s classical guitar arrangements of pop songs, including music by The Beatles, contain occasional harmonic twists, but they’d also work as background listening for a chain of moderately priced restaurants.
Somewhere between the symphony hall and the steakhouse was the cinema. Takemitsu wrote around 100 film scores, including the music for Akiro Kurasawa’s masterpiece Ran. Auckland Philharmonia’s Joie de Vivre concert (12 September) gives listeners a rare opportunity to hear Three Film Scores for Strings (1994/5), which rearranges snippets from the movies Jose Torres (1959), Black Rain (1989) and Face of Another (1966).
The first movement, ‘Jose Torres: Music of Training and Rest’, derives from a short film by Hiroshi Teshigahara about a Puerto Rican boxer. The movie was shot in New York, and Takemitsu’s five-minute piece has the bluesy sway of a Gershwin or a Bernstein, but without either’s brassy NYC edge.
‘Black Rain: Funeral Music’ – unrelated to the Ridley Scott/Michael Douglas action flick – is a contemplation on the bombing of Hiroshima. Takemitsu’s music is suitably intense and brooding.
The final movement, ‘Face of Another: Waltz’ is the shortest of the three, a too-brief two-and-a-half minutes, whose dancing rise and fall is tinged with minor-key regret.
Three Film Scores was among Takemitsu’s last works. He died in 1996, the most celebrated Japanese composer both inside the country and out, a final synthesis of East and West, played out in acclaim.
The New Zealand Herald Premier Series
7.30pm, Thursday 12 September
Conductor Samy Rachid
Piano Louis Schwizgebel
Ravel Le Tombeau de Couperin
Saint-Saëns Piano Concerto No.2
Takemitsu Three Film Scores for Strings
Poulenc Sinfonietta
Love our orchestra and want to know more about how your business can work with us? With options ranging from VIP hosting for your clients at a concert, through to a platinum level sponsorship, we develop tailored partnerships based on your businesses’ requirements to align your brand with the musical heart of Auckland. Find out more in this Q&A with Colleen Edwards, Auckland Philharmonia’s Corporate Relations Manager
What are some of the ways that businesses can work with the Auckland Phil?
There are many options, from VIP hosting at our concerts for your clients and staff, or hiring our musicians to play at your next event, to partnering with us to support our music education initiatives, or becoming a concert or series partner. This can be a one-time concert or activity, a longer-term relationship or a contra partnership. It’s also possible to host a ensemble concert and Q&A in your own business venue – a great option for a networking event or to showcase a new premises.
This is by no means a complete list of how we can work with your business – we’re open to any ideas you have! If you’re interested in finding out more, please don't hesitate to get in touch.
Is it possible to develop a tailored corporate partnership and how do you go about this?
We love tailoring a package that reflects true partnership, creating opportunity for the orchestra while meeting the marketing and community engagement goals of a business. Our team embraces a collaborative and responsive approach, open to our partner’s suggestions and ideas but equally content to provide a smorgasbord of options to choose from. We'll help you to find a package that promotes your business best and achieves your varied objectives; whether that be personally connecting with Auckland communities or being the headlining partner of a large year-round marketing campaign.
Relive the magic of Phil Opera Fest, a celebration of Wagner and his operatic masterpiece Tristan und Isolde. From captivating lectures to community singalongs, culminating an extraordinary final performance, this gallery captures the spirit of an unforgettable festival.
Phil Opera Fest began on Wednesday 31 July with a fascinating lecture by Dr David Chisholm, Head of Music at the University of Auckland. Entitled I Love You to Death: Sex and Consequence in Tristan und Isolde, Dr Chisholm's presentation delved into the passionate and complex world of Wagner's legendary opera.
On Sunday 4 August, all were welcome to take part in our Sunday Singalong with Wagner. Attending participants learnt Wagner's iconic Wedding March from Lohengrin, with the guidance of experienced choral conductor Catrin Johnsson, pianist and repetiteur David Kelly, and a troupe of NZ Opera’s finest singers.
Phil Opera Fest culminated in an unforgettable evening with Opera in Concert: Tristan und Isolde, featuring New Zealand tenor Simon O'Neill as Tristan and renowned soprano Ricarda Merbeth as Isolde. It was a captivating and powerful performance, and an indisputable highlight of the Auckland Philharmonia's 2024 Season.
The Auckland Philharmonia announces an artist change to its upcoming concert, Bayleys Great Classics: Romantic Journeys, on Thursday 21 November 2024.
Described as "one of the finest among the astonishing gallery of young virtuoso cellists" by Gramophone magazine, German Canadian cellist, Johannes Moser will make a welcome return to the Auckland Town Hall stage. He will step in as the replacement soloist to perform Tchaikovsky’s Rococo Variations. This will be Moser’s only Aotearoa performance in a tour that includes concerts at the Sydney Opera House with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra.
The Bayleys Great Classics: Romantic Journeys programme also includes Schumann’s sunniest symphony, Symphony No.3. Also known as the ‘Rhenish’, this buoyant piece was inspired by the beautiful rivers and cathedrals that Schumann experienced when he took an idyllic three-month holiday with his wife Clara to the Rhineland in Germany
Johannes Moser replaces the previously advertised, Edgar Moreau, who has withdrawn from the concert for personal reasons. The concert title and music programme are unchanged.
Bayleys Great Classics
7:30pm, Thursday 21 November
Auckland Town Hall
Conductor Giordano Bellincampi
Cello Johannes Moser
Tchaikovsky Capriccio Italien
Tchaikovsky Variations on a Rococo Theme
Schumann Symphony No.3 ‘Rhenish’
Amber Read speaks to Maxim Vengerov
Amber Read: The Sibelius concerto is a cornerstone of the repertoire, and your performance is part of an all-Sibelius programme. You have surely performed the work countless times as well as recording it. What are the links between the concerto and Sibelius’s other works?
Maxim Vengerov: I’ve performed the concerto hundreds of times if not more. It is one of the great milestones for every violinist, and it has many similarities in spirit and in the score with the symphonies. For someone like me who has conducted those symphonies, I can easily recognise the style of Sibelius and can view his violin concerto from a different perspective, from the perspective of a conductor. You get a fuller experience and a better understanding of what the Sibelius Violin Concerto is: basically, this is a symphony with integrated violin solo line.
AR: How does your conducting influence your violin playing, and vice versa?
MV: I have always found conducting an inspiration. My mother was a choir conductor and when I visited my father’s rehearsals (he played oboe), I always sat in the first row where I could see the conductor. I was just three years old so I always admired conductors, that they could lead an orchestra, they could lead musical events and that they could conduct such great symphonies.
When I was 17 or 18, I started meeting great conductors like Rostropovich, Barenboim, Zubin Mehta, Riccardo Muti and Lorin Maazel, just to name a few. I learned so much from them and it was a privilege to be their student, especially with Rostropovich and Barenboim – I studied for many years and made many recordings with them. They set the bar; their level of music comprehension was extremely high. So for me to start conducting at the age of 26 was a normal evolution. I studied also for seven years with the conductor Yuri Simonov. He was my great mentor in conducting.
After having conducted so many symphonies, my approach to violin concertos has changed significantly, because I view these compositions no longer as purely violinistic pieces with a substantial orchestral part, but also vice versa – these are symphonies with an integral violin part. And if we talk about the concertos of Brahms, Sibelius, Beethoven and others, these concertos were written in a symphonic way. The violin has a substantial role, but the orchestra sometimes even leads. As a soloist it gives me a fuller, richer experience when I’m working with orchestras and conductors.
Maxim Vengerov is the biggest name to visit New Zealand in 2024. A global superstar since his early 20s, Vengerov plays Sibelius with Auckland Philharmonia on 22 August. David Larson explores the links between Sibelius and Aotearoa.
“It is really a sensual experience. One is literally carried away... zooming in over magnificent mountains and farmlands, held up by nothing but Sibelius... I emerged feeling quite proud of my country.”
That’s Marilyn Duckworth in 1971, giving a representative home-town review of This is New Zealand, a multiscreen promotional film made for the 1970 World Expo in Osaka and viewed by millions of people globally. The brief excerpt from the Karelia Suite, which underscores the aerial vistas of the opening minutes, is only one of the film’s many music cues, but it left a large cultural footprint. The passage is a million miles from the sombre brutality of Finlandia’s opening horn snarls, or the oceanic surges and jagged accents of the violin concerto. It’s Sibelius marching to victory, inexorable, four-square, exultant. As an accompaniment to those “magnificent mountains and farmlands”, it feels like a patriotic expansion of the film’s title: This is New Zealand, be astonished. In its wake, through the 70s and even into the 80s, you could detect a sense of understated Kiwi ownership towards any given Sibelius piece the Concert Programme cared to feature: one might concede if pressed that this music was Scandinavian to its bones, but its local meaning had become Duckworth’s one. It said that we were allowed to feel proud of our country.
Bernstein’s great half-truth, “Music is never about anything, music just is,” flips to a half-lie when applied to Sibelius. His music so often seems to be about things. He first rode to fame on the back of a decade’s worth of tone poems, music explicitly written to express thematic ideas or stories, most of them tied to Finnish nationalism. Like most well-to-do Finns born in the 19th century, he had to learn Finnish as a second language, having grown up speaking the Swedish of his now Russian-owned province’s former rulers. He became one of the great cultural champions of the Finnish independence movement, and his early works were received as expressions of Finnish identity, not least because he wrote them with that in mind. Finlandia, composed as part of a protest against Tsarist censorship (and performed by Auckland Phil on 22 August), became so popular that as it spread around the not-yet-country, it had to be performed under a range of made-up names, to hide the fact it had been programmed until it was too late for the local Russian overseers to shut down the concert.
National identity – if not nationalist pride – was, of course, a key theme in the early works of our own Douglas Lilburn, the closest thing Aotearoa has produced to a Sibelius. Lilburn’s assertion of a New Zealand musical language echoed Sibelius’s from the other side of the world. But if anyone asked, in the wake of This is New Zealand’s popularity at the Osaka Expo, why Liburn had not been used on the soundtrack, I can find no record of it. Instead, we basked in the warm glow of association with greatness: the world had glanced at us and smiled, and we were happy. Oh yes, this was New Zealand.
And yet the Kiwi cultural cringe does give us a distant claim to the music that fanned the fires of Finnish independence. The difficult tribal emotions that helped spark some of Sibelius’s most popular works belong to us as much as to anyone. Though if we’re wise, even as we glory in the music, we won’t take pride in that.
