NZSO Guest Conductor Returns After 2 Year Absence

7 September 2005

Popular NZSO Guest Conductor Returns After A Two Year Absence

"I have had the privilege to be the Principal Guest Conductor of the NZSO and over the years have found their musicality and technical skills to be of the highest calibre. I hope the superb qualities of the orchestra will, in the future, be even more appreciated through their award winning recordings and international tours." Matthias Bamert, October 2003

Following their recent successes in Suffolk, BBC Proms, Concertgebouw - Amsterdam and the 2005 World Expo, Japan, the orchestra will undertake the next subscription season tour in September under the baton of NZSO Principal Guest conductor, Matthias Bamert.

A popular conductor with both the orchestra and NZ audiences, he returns to New Zealand, following a two year absence, to conduct a varied programme that includes Brahms' richly expressive first symphony and Ravel's Viennese inspired La Valse.

"The orchestra can't wait for the return of Matthias," said NZSO Concertmaster, Vesa-matti Leppanen, "he has been a great advocate of New Zealand since he first came here in 1999 and we are especially looking forward to his interpretation of the Brahms' symphony and Strauss' Also Sprach Zarathustra."

The soloist for the 30th September concert at the Auckland Town Hall, will be pianist Joseph Kalichstein. Renowned for his passionate musicianship, Kalichstein will perform Chopin's second piano concerto, written at only 19 before the composer first piano concerto, on a visit to Vienna just as the composer's popularity began to grow.

A graduate of the Julliard School, Kalichstein says his passion for the piano began while listening to his neighbour - a piano teacher; "My family tells me that even before I could walk, I used to crawl over toward his door to listen to the piano music emanating from his studio."

He began lessons at the age of three and has not looked back since - the decision to make music his life seemed to be a natural progression. He made his stunning debut at the invitation of Leonard Bernstein performing Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 4 with the New York Philharmonic in a nationally televised concert. He will perform on 1st October at theAuckland Town Hall, Beethoven's second piano concerto - a work the composers wrote to showcase his own virtuosic aspirations.

A contemporary specialist and composer himself, Matthias Bamert will also lead the orchestra in two New Zealand works featuring two of the 'stars' of the orchestra - NZSO Principal Flute, Bridget Douglas and NZSO Co-Principal Clarinet Patrick Barry.

Dylan Lardelli, an award-winning composer who grew up in the Hawke's Bay has written Tumbu for Clarinet and orchestra, as part of an NZSO iniative to support local composers. Now based in Wellington, Lardelli was recently awarded the inaugural $15,000 Edwin Carr Foundation Scholarship to study composition in Europe and build an international profile.

A graduate in mathematics and music from Victoria University; Auckland-born John Elmsley studied composition with David Farquhar and began electronic music with Douglas Lilburn. His work Response, for flute and orchestra was premiered on the NZSO's Lion Foundation Mainland tour last year.

NEW ZEALAND SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

SUBSCRIPTION SEASON 5, SERIES 1 Dylan Lardelli's Tumbu featuring NZSO Co-Principal Clarinettist Patrick Barry precedes Joseph Kalichstein's NZSO debut in Chopin's First Piano Concerto, which sold out at its first performance in 1830 and has charmed audiences ever since. It's the perfect entrée to Matthias Bamert's rendition of Brahms's richly expressive Symphony No.1, once nicknamed 'Beethoven's Tenth', and which confirmed his status as a master composer.

Friday 30 September at 6:30pm AUCKLAND TOWN HALL

Matthias Bamert - Conductor Joseph Kalichstein - Piano Patrick Barry - Clarinet

Dylan Lardelli: Tumbu Chopin: Piano Concerto No 2 in F Minor Op 21 Brahms: Symphony No 1 in C Minor Op 68

SUBSCRIPTION SEASON 5 - SERIES 2 One of music's most dramatic introductions opens this concert - Richard Strauss's Also Sprach Zarathustra, used to great effect in Stanley Kubrick's movie 2001. NZ composer John Elmsly's Response'with NZSO Principal Flutist Bridget Douglas as soloist follows, and guest soloist Joseph Kalichstein plays Beethoven's Second Piano Concerto. Ravel's La Valse from the hedonistic world of the Viennese ballroom is the perfect finish.

Saturday 1 October at 8:00pm Auckland Town Hall

Matthias Bamert - Conductor Joseph Kalichstein - Piano Bridget Douglas - Flute

Richard Strauss: Also Sprach Zarathustra Op 30 Elmsly: Response Beethoven: Piano Concerto No 2 in B-flat Op19 Ravel: La Valse

ENDS

© Scoop Media