NZSO to impress with power of Bruckner   16 Jul 2015

Acclaimed conductor Simone Young and the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra are set to enthral New Zealand audiences withAnton Bruckner’s breathtaking Eighth Symphony in Cathedral of Sound in August and September.

The inspired interpretations of Australian-born Young, who conducted Bruckner’s Symphony No. 5 in a 2012 tour with theNZSO, will still be fresh in the minds of many classical music fans in New Zealand. In this concert, the stage will gleam with brass as the Orchestra adds four Wagner tubas to the horn section to perform Bruckner’s Symphony No. 8 in C minor.

Young has made her name internationally both in opera and in the concert hall, and particularly in the works of Bruckner and Wagner. Since 2005 she has been Artistic Director of the Hamburgische Staatsoper and Music Director of the Hamburg Philharmonic State Orchestra.

Last time Young was in New Zealand she told The Listener:

“A Bruckner symphony is never just another concert.”

She described Bruckner’s symphonies as massive structures “capable of creating many different moods”.

“The slow movements of his symphonies are exquisitely beautiful, almost painfully beautiful at times. I imagine you could use the slow movements as an inspiration to meditation, to reflective thought. There is grandeur in them, there is nobility, there is humanity in them; and that’s their power.”

The Guardian describes Bruckner’s Eighth Symphony as ‘one of the most existentially thrilling experiences a symphony has ever created’:

This is a piece that is attempting something so extraordinary that if you're not prepared to encounter its expressive demons, or to be shocked and awed by the places Bruckner's imagination takes you, then you're missing out on the essential experience of the symphony.

Cathedral of Sound will open with Jean Sibelius’ Violin Concerto, in recognition of the 150th anniversary of the birth of the legendary Finnish composer. Demonstrating the extreme virtuosity and physical stamina required for this concerto, Latvian violinist Baiba Skride will take centre stage for this work, playing a Stradivarius ‘Ex Baron Feilitzsch’ violin that was made in 1734.

Skride, who got married in New Zealand last time she toured here, was born into a family of professional musicians and has been performing from a young age. A recent review of one of her performances described her as “[soaring] through technical challenges as if they were a mere morning stretch”.

Latvian violinist Baiba Skride sailed over the orchestra’s magic forest with long lines of melody, silver and sweet.
- The Times, 2014

Sibelius's Violin Concerto is the most frequently recorded and performed of any violin concerto composed in the 20th century.

This year Cathedral of Sound will tour Wellington, Dunedin and Auckland.

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