Lyrical Tale of Don Quixote Told in Music by APO

MEDIA RELEASE
June 5, 2007

Lyrical Tale of Don Quixote Told in Music by APO

THE AGE OF CHIVALRY
APN News &Media Premier Series, Concert 8
Thursday 28 June, 8pm, Auckland Town Hall, THE EDGE

The fantastical tale of Don Quixote will be told in music by the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra and award-winning British cellist Richard Harwood at a concert called The Age of Chivalry on Thursday 28 June.

Richard Strauss’ Don Quixote (Fantastic Variations on a Theme of Knightly Character) Op. 35 will make up the second half of the concert programme at the Auckland Town Hall.

The tale of Don Quixote from Miguel de Cervantes’ novel has long captured artists’imagination and Strauss’ work is part tone-poem, part cello concerto. The solo cello takes on the persona of Don Quixote during the piece while the lead viola mainly serves as his long-suffering companion, Sancho Panza.

The Strauss work takes the listener through 10 variations, weaving the story of the chivalrous Quixote and his knightly delusions. The work is full of other “sound effects”, conjuring up the swish of the windmill sails, the bleating of sheep and a fanciful flight through the air.

Twenty-six-year-old cellist Richard Harwood has been described by The Strad magazine as “probably the greatest young cello talent since Jacqueline du Pre”. He made his concerto debut at the age of 10 and has since performed concerts and recitals in all the major British concert halls, Europe and the Russian Federation and won numerous awards. In January he released his debut CD on EMI Classics.

The Age of Chivalry concert is the eighth concert in the APO’s APN News & Media Premier Series and will be conducted by renowned Slovenian conductor, Marko Letonja, making his New Zealand debut.

In addition to Don Quixote, The Age of Chivalry concert programme includes Act I Prelude to Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg by Wagner and Rachmaninov’s Isle of the Dead.

Tickets for The Age of Chivalry are available from Ticketek Ph 09 307 5139, www.ticketek.co.nz.

ENDS

© Scoop Media