Award-winning conductor leads NZSO through masterpiece

Groundbreaking conductor Simone Young visits New Zealand for the first time next month to direct double symphonies with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra in Cathedral of Sound.

Originally from Australia, Young is General Manager and Music Director of the Hamburg Staatsoper and Music Director of the Philharmonic State Orchestra, Hamburg. She regularly conducts a broad range of operatic and symphonic repertoire for major international opera companies and orchestras and has received many awards including the prestigious Goethe Institute Medal in 2005 and the Sir Bernard Heinze Award in 2011. Young was even appointed a Member of the Order of Australia in the Australia Day Honours List 2004.

Her recordings of Bruckner’s Symphonies have established her at the forefront of the repertoire and her interpretation of his architectural Fifth Symphony will be a highlight of our grand season.

“I’m particularly delighted that my first meeting with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra is in this monumental, devastating and uplifting masterpiece,” Simone Young says.

Bruckner’s Fifth Symphony is a mighty ‘cathedral of sound’ that surges between blazing orchestral textures and lingering melodic whispers. The Finale, perhaps one of Bruckner’s greatest movements, features the opening theme, proficiently handled, and playfully passed from a cheeky clarinet motif to glorious strings. It leads on, triumphantly guiding us towards the effective ‘brass-choir’ coda of this grand symphony.

Last year, Gramophone published this about Young’s recording of Bruckner’s Symphony No. 1:

“Here is a Bruckner conductor who understands where the music is going and the contextual significance of detail. Young seems at one with Bruckner’s sound world, how the music breathes and how to balance weighty brass without letting them overwhelm the rest of the orchestra…”

Opening this concert programme is one of Mozart’s finest works – the elegant Linz Symphony No. 36. Amazingly, it was composed in a mere four days, during a stopover in the Austrian town of Linz. Upon hearing of Mozart’s arrival, the count announced a concert, at which, four days later, this fine symphony premiered.

Cathedral of Sound is in the hands of a modern master primed to please your ears at every phrase. Join your national orchestra this August and witness the prowess of conductor Simone Young, in association with NZ Listener.

Roger Smith will give a free 30-minute talk before the Auckland concert at 7.15pm. For more details about each NZSO pre-concert talk, visit www.nzso.co.nz/talks

ENDS

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