Across September and October, works from companies which are part of Wise Music Group will be performed around Aotearoa New Zealand.
Highlights include chamber music festivals, orchestral concerts, and ballet presentations.
Upsurge Festival
New Zealand Ballet
September 12
Ólafur Arnalds 1440 from Eulogy for Evolution
Christchurch Symphony
November 30
Samuel Barber Knoxville: Summer of 1915
Knoxville: Summer of 1915 is a popular work for voice and orchestra. Lush and richly textured, itis usually sung by a soprano, but may be sung by tenor.
The last movement of Symphony No. 4 has a soprano join the orchestra singing "Das himmlische Leben". This working of the song represents a child’s vision of heaven. The symphony’s orchestral forces are smaller than Mahler’s previous works.
Christchurch Symphony
October 19
Artie Shaw Concerto for Clarinet
This jazz concerto ends with a high altissimo C for the clarinet player. It features boogie-woogie blues, tom-tom riffs, and virtuosic clarinet cadenzas. The work was made famous by Artie Shaw playing the clarinet solo in Fred Astaire’s film Second Chorus of 1940.
At The World’s Edge chamber music festival
October 5
Bright Sheng Concertino for Clarinet and String Quartet
The thematic materials for this work were drawn from Northwestern Chinese folk tunes. Sheng was curious to know if Chinese tones could be easily translated to Western ears. This 20-minute work shows the flexibility of the clarinet to weave through the textures of the string quartet.
October 11
Subito is one of the last compositions Lutoslawski composed. The work was originally commissioned for the 1994 International Violin Competition in Indianapolis. Lutoslawski had learned the violin in his childhood, but was inspired to write this 4-minute piece after hearing Anne-Sophie Mutter.
