NZSO to premiere work by Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood

2 May 2019 - NZSO media release for immediate release

A haunting instrumental work by acclaimed Radiohead guitarist Jonny Greenwood will be performed for the first time in New Zealand by the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra on 10 May.

Greenwood’s 48 Responses to Polymorphia features in the Orchestra’s innovative Shed Series concert Responses on Wellington’s waterfront.

The Shed Series presents orchestral music in the informal and relaxed setting of Shed 6. Each performance is designed to appeal to audiences new to the NZSO and those keen to experience the Orchestra playing different kinds of music. Last year the Shed Series included an excerpt from Greenwood’s music for the film There Will Be Blood.

The series has become very popular and the first 2019 concert in February sold out.

Greenwood’s 48 Responses to Polymorphia was written as a response to the influential 1961 work Polymorphia by lauded Polish composer Krzysztof Penderecki, used in the films The Exorcist and The Shining. Responses will feature both works, with the NZSO performing Penderecki’s Polymorphia first.

“Greenwood studied classical music before joining Radiohead and has collaborated several times with Penderecki. The two works are stunning and to be able to play both in the same concert will blow the audience away,” says Shed Series director and NZSO Associate Conductor Hamish McKeich.

Also featured in the concert is Haydn’s Symphony No. 38 The Echo, New Zealand composer Leonie Holmes’ Elegy, Mexican composer Silvestre Revueltas’ Homenaje a Federico Garcia Lorca (Homage to Lorca), which premiered just two months after the Spanish poet Lorca was murdered in 1936, and Ravel’s sparkling Le Tombeau de Couperin.

McKeich says it will be a fantastic night out, enhanced by the casual and inviting Shed 6 space. “You can sit or stand, catch up with friends and enjoy a drink and something to eat while the Orchestra performs six exceptional works. It will be an experience you won’t forget.”

Tickets are just $35 or $15 for students via ticketmaster.co.nz; or $25 as part of a multi-ticket bundle. For more information on multi-ticket bundles go to nzso.co.nz/concerts-and-tickets/season-2019/shed-series-responses/

ENDS

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