One Composer Cancels - Another Saves the Day

1 May 2007

Media release

PIETARI INKINEN SAVES THE DAY!
JAAP VAN ZWEDEN CANCELS DUE TO INJURY

It's every orchestra's worst nightmare. The countdown to the next subscription tour has begun and the conductor can't come! Following medical advice, Jaap Van Zweden's management have advised that he is withdrawing from upcoming engagements in Europe, and his scheduled concerts with the NZSO.

At short notice, we are delighted to announce that Pietari Inkinen was able to rearrange his European engagements to come to our rescue. Inkinen is a conductor of exceptional musicianship and talent, with a vast breadth of repertoire experience, enabling him to present the NZSO programmes as advertised.

By a stroke of scheduling providence, Inkinen is in Brisbane this week conducting performances with The Queensland Orchestra and pianist Piers Lane. His programmes include works by Beethoven and Shostakovich Symphony No 5 - the very work that will be the highlight of our Wellington and Auckland concerts on 12 and 19 May respectively.

Interesting contemporary repertoire from a worldwide selection of composers is more often than not included in Inkinen's programmes. He will, therefore, be quite at home giving the world premiere of Lyle Cresswell's Alas! How Swift, commission for trumpet and orchestra, on Saturday 12 May in Wellington (and then repeated on Saturday 19 May in Auckland).

Inkinen maintains a busy concert schedule in Scandinavia, Europe, the US, Canada and Australasia. Notable orchestras that vie for the maestro's time include the Helsinki and Oslo Philharmonics, the Swedish, Netherlands, Finnish and Vienna Radio Philharmonics, the Ottawa, Vancouver, Toronto, Phoenix and Cincinnati Symphony Orchestras, the Hong Kong Philharmonic and the West Australia and Adelaide Symphony Orchestras. Shortly after his visit to New Zealand he will conduct the Tivoli Symphony Orchestra (Italy) with the engaging Swedish mezzo-soprano Anne Sofie von Otter. And so the list goes on ...

This will be Inkinen's third visit to New Zealand to conduct the NZSO and we will see him again in July this year when he returns to conduct eight concerts nationwide with violinist Leila Josefowicz. We first met him in January 2006 when he dazzled the sold-out Wellington Town Hall along with soloist Vesa-Matti Leppänen in a programme entitled Romeo and Juliet. He then returned for recordings for Naxos of works by Sibelius and Rautavaara.

Inkinen continues to work with soloists of international reputation - Vadim Repin, Hilary Hahn, Pinchas Zukerman, to name a few - and looks forward to working again with 29-year old British pianist Freddy Kempf (who likewise has a sizeable and growing reputation) in concertos by Beethoven and Prokofiev. Kempf won England's National Mozart Competition at the age of 10, also won the BBC Young Musician of the Year at the age of 15, and then made history at the 1998 Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow when he did NOT win first prize (he came third).This caused a national outcry from the Russian press and provoked protests from the audience.

Proclaimed "the hero of of the competition" his popularity has seen him become a key player on the international solo circuit ever since. Kempf continues to thrill audiences with his dexterity and maturity of interpretation. Musicweb's Marc Bridle called him "a musician with his feet firmly rooted on the ground" yet beneath his normality lies "a Mad Professor act" (as one Hague music reviewer called him) that manifests itself through his dazzling skill.

Pietari Inkinen "Pietari Inkinen, Finnish born, bred and trained and steeped in the Siberian tradition, coaxed from the orchestra an accompaniment fit for royalty. Inkinen came into his own in Sibelius' Fifth Symphony, providing, as he did, as considered and imaginative an account as one could have hoped for from a conductor identifying with every note of the score. I greatly admired the skill with which Inkinen expounded Sibelius' idiosyncratic symphonic argument." The West Australian, October 2006. "Above all I want to mention the conductor Pietari Inkinen. In the same way as so many other talented conductors, not only is he Finnish but he was also taught by Jorma Panula and Leif Segerstam. He began with Sibelius 'En Saga', a piece in which it is important for the conductor to bring out the lyrical details without overdoing so. Pietari Inkinen achieved the perfect balance. In Stravinsky's Firebird, he further demonstrated such extraordinary qualities. His interpretation was all you could wish for and more - softness where needed, energy, sparkle and excitement. His treatment of the orchestra and soloists was exemplary and, as a consequence of this, he received a very well deserved response from the orchestra." Skånska Dagbladet (Sweden) September, 2006 "Pietari Inkinen directs with sobriety and flexibility, inviting always more energy and the result is captivating. The tone that he creates is vivacious yet romantic and for repertoire like this is extremely appropriate." Gerard Pernon, Ouest France

Freddy Kempf "The meteoric success of pianist Freddy Kempf makes it easy to forget he is in his mid-20s. If it is true that an artist's finest years come with age, then the mind boggles at the possibilities." The Guardian (UK), July 2003. "I thought discovering 94 snails in our front garden was excitement enough for one day. But then came Freddy Kempf playing the Emperor Concerto, in the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra's Beethoven cycle. Here were notes as familiar as wallpaper; yet he dashed at them, impulsive, driven by youth and an itch to excel, with still enough care and delicacy to respect the patterns known to audiences for most of two centuries." The Times (UK) "Kempf is an astute manipulator of tempo push and pull, and Liszt himself couldn't have made better drama at the keyboard. Come to think of it, in that black, retro, knee-length Armani coat, Kempf looked a bit like the composer, too." The Philadelphia Inquirer (USA), October 2002

NEW ZEALAND SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

PIETARI INKINEN Conductor FREDDY KEMPF Soloist

BEETHOVEN Fidelio Overture BEETHOVEN Piano Concerto No 4 BEETHOVEN Symphony No 5

WELLINGTON Thursday 10 May 6.30pm Michael Fowler Centre

NAPIER Tuesday 15 May 8pm Municipal Theatre Preconcert talk 7.5pm

HAMILTON Thursday 17 May 8pm Founders Theatre Preconcert talk 7.15pm

AUCKLAND Friday 18 May 6.30pm Town Hall

PROKOFIEV Piano Concerto No 2 CRESSWELL Alas! How Swift Commission for Trumpet SHOSTAKOVICH Symphony No 5

MICHAEL KIRGAN Trumpet

WELLINGTON Saturday 12 May 8pm Michael Fowler Centre Preconcert talk 7.15pm

AUCKLAND Saturday 19 May 8pm Town Hall Preconcert talk 7.15pm

These concerts are sponsored by The Radio Network.

Tickets available from Ticketek www.ticketek.co.nz In Hamilton, TicketDirect Waikato www.ticketdirect.co.nz

Open Rehearsal Saturday 12 May,10am-12.30am, Michael Fowler Centre, Wellington Pietari Inkinen and Freddy Kempf

ENDS

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