It’s Amadeus and The Shining on Wellington’s waterfront with the NZSO

Timeless music used to great effect in the hit films Amadeus and The Shining will feature in the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra’s next Shed Series concert in Wellington on 19 October.

Projection, the third in the hit Shed Series for 2018, will again be performed in the relaxed setting of Shed 6 on Wellington’s waterfront.

Each Shed Series performance, in Association with Craggy Range, is designed so audiences, including those new to the NZSO, can experience the Orchestra outside the traditional concert hall.

The concerts have a casual, inviting atmosphere, where audiences can sit or stand, mingle with friends and enjoy a drink, while the Orchestra performs a mix of classical and contemporary works.

For Projection, Shed Series curator and conductor Hamish McKeich will open with Mozart’s Symphony No. 25. The intense, rhythmic first movement of the symphony set the scene for the Oscar-winning film Amadeus, while Hungarian composer Béla Bartók’s Music for Strings Percussion and Celeste was used to jarring effect in Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining.

“For Projection, the music is suggestive of visual stories,” says McKeich. “Some has been used in movies to enhance them, some are evocative of faraway stories, and one contains over 30 film music genres compressed into one exhilarating work.”

The NZSO will also perform In Distance by Tan Dun, best known for his scores for films, including Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, and How Slow the Wind by prolific Japanese composer Toru Takemitsu, who also wrote for film, including Akira Kurosawa’s Ran.

McKeich will close the concert with inventive American composer John Zorn’s For Your Eyes Only, written in 1983. The work has references to other composer’s works, including Raymond Scott’s Powerhouse, best known for its extensive use in Warner Brothers’ Looney Tunes cartoons.

The first NZSO Shed Series in April featured works by Frank Zappa and Mozart, while the second in June included pieces by Haydn, Zorn and Radiohead guitarist Jonny Greenwood.

Wellington-based music critic Stephen Gibbs said the Shed Series was a refreshing change of pace for the country’s national orchestra. “People were engaged, the programme was remarkable, the NZSO players were superb.”

“It was a great concert to attend,” said Radio New Zealand Concert reviewer Hadyn Green on the June concert. “I am definitely excited for the next in the series.”

ENDS

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