Douglas Lilburn - Overture Aotearoa

If ever there was a piece of New Zealand orchestral music that threatened to achieve icon status, this might be it: Douglas Lilburn’s sweeping ‘Overture: Aotearoa’. We start our publication of six New Zealand works performed by the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra with this May 2018 rendition conducted by Gemma New.

William Dart, writing in the NZ Herald had this to say about the performance: “It was a remarkable reading. With broad, sweeping gestures, New invested the opening pages with a sense of majesty. Moving on to a brisk and purposeful Allegro, she drew out the composer's often tetchy to-and-fro between instruments, punctuated with sonorous strings and brass.”

Audio recorded by RNZ Concert; Resound is funded by NZ On Air.