New Zealand Symphony Orchestra

Win tickets to the NZSO Prokofiev & Tchaikovsky concert

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Music lovers, take note!

TPicture of music noteshe New Zealand Symphony Orchestra’s 2018 season concludes with a concert featuring works by Prokofiev and Tchaikovsky at Horncastle Arena on Saturday 17 November.  The pieces being performed will be:

Hindemith – Symphonic Metamorphosis of Themes by Carl Maria von Weber
Prokofiev – Violin Concerto No. 2 in G minor, Op. 63
Tchaikovsky – Symphony No. 5 in E minor, Op. 64

Symphonies no.5 & 6 Tchaikovsky, Peter Ilich, 1840-1893 Violin concertos Sonata for two violins Prokofiev, Sergey, 1891-1953 Cover of Symphonies Der Schwanendreher, etc Hindemith, Paul, 1895-1963

Paul Hindemith’s Symphonic Metamorphosis of Themes by Carl Maria von Weber grew out of a request from choreographer and dancer Léonide Massine in 1940 for music for a ballet. While the project was shelved, the completed piece has since been adapted for ballet productions and is equally powerful as a standalone work.

Prokofiev’s rich and multi-layered Violin Concerto No. 2 was his last work written in Europe before his return to the Soviet Union. It makes full use of the instrument, with intoxicating contrasts in tone, colour, melody, and rhythm and is the perfect fit for the virtuosic skills of NZSO Concertmaster Vesa-Matti Leppänen.

Inspired by his homeland, Tchaikovsky’s bold Fifth Symphony came 10 years after his Fourth and divided audiences at its premiere. It is bursting with unforgettable melodies and lush orchestration, making it one of the great works of the Romantic tradition. Under the baton of Maestro de Waart, the NZSO will perform it in all its glory.

We have 2 double passes to give away to library members. All you need to do is tell us which floor of Tūranga, the new central library, holds the music collection and fill out your details in the competition entry form. Entries close at 5pm on Sunday, 11 November and winners will be announced on our competitions page on  Monday 12 November.

Win tickets to NZSO concert Rachmaninov with Joyce Yang – Tues 31 October

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Rachmaninov with Joyce Yang is a New Zealand Symphony Orchestra concert at the Horncastle Arena on Tuesday 31 October. Pianist Joyce Yang will perform Sergei Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No. 3 in D minor. This concerto is notable for its difficulty and:

demands an extraordinary technical virtuosity and an ability to realise the poetry at the heart of this lush and layered score.

Conducted by Edo de Waart, Joyce is In her debut NZSO performance, she will also play Rachmaninov’s Vocalise and Symphonic Dances.

Thanks to the NZSO we have two double passes to give away to library members!

Use this form to enter our NZSO competition and be in to win a double pass to the Rachmaninov concert. Entries close 5pm on Monday 23 October and winners will be drawn and announced on Tuesday 24 October.

 

Win tickets to the NZSO Schumann & Barber concert

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NZSO posterThe New Zealand Symphony Orchestra are in town again this month with a concert featuring works by Brahms, Schumann and Barber on 21 June at the Isaac Theatre Royal.

The pieces performed will be:

We have 2 double passes to give away to library members. All you need to do is tell us the name of Christchurch City Libraries’ Quarterly magazine and complete the competition entry form. Entries close at 5pm on Monday, 12 June and winners will be announced on Tuesday 13 June.

Win tickets to the NZSO Mozart & Beethoven concert

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Music lovers, take note!

TPicture of music noteshe New Zealand Symphony Orchestra’s 2017 season continues next month with a concert featuring works by Beethoven, Mozart, and John Adams on 4 April at Horncastle Arena. A free pre-concert talk also takes place 45 mins prior to the concert.

The pieces performed will be:

We have 2 double passes to give away to library members. All you need to do is name one of our music eResources and fill out the competition entry form. Entries close at 5pm on Monday, 27 March and winners will be announced on Tuesday 28 March.

The voice inside by Lyell Cresswell – free online New Zealand music

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In The voice inside, Lyell Cresswell explores the ever-changing relationship between the soprano and violin soloists and the orchestra, while Cassandra’s Songs, which also set words by Scottish poet Ron Butlin, is concerned with exile, identity and belonging. Alas! How Swift embodies in musical terms the inescapable passing of time. His Trombone Concerto takes its name Kaea from the Maori wooden war trumpet used to terrify enemies and raise alarms.

New Zealand-born Edinburgh-based Lyell Cresswell has composed works for orchestra, chamber ensemble, choir, voice and solo instruments which have been widely performed and broadcast.

This album (and over 52,000 more) is available online for free from anywhere with your library card number and PIN.

For New Zealand Music Month we are featuring a daily dose of free online New Zealand music from Naxos Music Library and the Source.

The Islands by Christopher Blake – free online New Zealand music

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Christopher Blake, creator of The Islands was born in Christchurch in 1949. He studied music and engineering at Canterbury University and has a post graduate degree in composition from the University of Southampton, England.

Blake has been general manager of the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra, manager of Concert FM and foundation chief executive of the Ministry of Cultural Affairs. He has undertaken commissions for all the major music organisations in New Zealand and a wide variety of performers. His music is heard in concerts and broadcasts,  and in recent performances in Mexico and the United States.

This album (and over 52,000 more) is available online for free from anywhere with your library card number and PIN.

For New Zealand Music Month we are featuring a daily dose of free online New Zealand music from Naxos Music Library and the Source.

Pulse by Jack Body – free online New Zealand music

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Jack Body is a composer who has travelled to remote locations to experience his musical sources first hand. Obsessively recording, collecting, and transcribing, he has set out in an instinctive way to recreate his experiences in a new musical context.

Pulse won the award for Best Classical Album at the NZ Music Awards in 2002. Performers on the project include the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra and the New Zealand String Quartet and Budi Putra (a Javanaese artist playing the gender and kendna) as well as Japanese guitarists Nary Sato and Kei Koh.

This album (and over 52,000 more) is available online for free from anywhere with your library card number and PIN.

For New Zealand Music Month we are featuring a daily dose of free online New Zealand music from Naxos Music Library and the Source.

Three Symphonies by David Farquhar – free online New Zealand music

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Three Symphonies by David Farquhar featuring New Zealand Symphony Orchestra with Kenneth Young performing the music of David Farquhar, 1928 – 2007

These highly original works feature serious and dense clustering dissonances to more whimsical and open passages of lyrical expression.

David Farquhar was born in 1928 in Cambridge, New Zealand, and studied music at Canterbury, Victoria and Cambridge (UK) Universities. He was a strong advocate for New Zealand music, and his long teaching career meant that he had a direct and indirect influence on hundreds of New Zealand musicians and composers. In 1953 he joined the Music Department of Victoria University, where he was appointed Professor in 1976. He retired at the end of 1993.

Widely-respected, he was founder-president of the Composers Foundation of New Zealand (which later became the Composers Association of New Zealand). He believed music should entertain, his body of work was extensive, and his skill and creativity as a composer is a legacy all New Zealanders can share.

This album (and over 52,000 more) is available online for free from anywhere with your library card number and PIN.

For New Zealand Music Month we are featuring a daily dose of free online New Zealand music from Naxos Music Library and the Source.

Douglas Lilburn – The Three Symphonies – free online New Zealand music

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Douglas Lilburn – The Three Symphonies features James Judd conducting the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra

Douglas Lilburn (1915-2001) is considered ‘the father of New Zealand music’. Lilburn’s three symphonies represent the heart of his creativity. The first and second symphonies written in the 1940s and early 50s clearly bear the resolve, energy and determination of the young Lilburn – the composer’s response to the elevating power of landscape whilst the third is an admission that the natural world is beautiful, restorative and necessary, yet also vulnerable and transient.

We also have a webpage on Lilburn’s famouse collaboration with Allen Curnow Landfall in unknown seas.

This album (and over 52,000 more) is available online for free from anywhere with your library card number and PIN.

For New Zealand Music Month we are featuring a daily dose of free online New Zealand music from Naxos Music Library and the Source.

The NZSO and Butterfly Lovers

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View on NaxosIt is amazing what the NZSO gets up to. Browsing our Naxos Video Library I came across a film with a soundtrack played by the NZSO which  they recorded in 2006. Its called The Butterfly Lovers.

The Butterfly Lovers violin concerto is based on an ancient Chinese fairytale which is the Chinese equivalent of Romeo and Juliet.

One version of the story goes that the only daughter of a wealthy family talks her father into allowing her to go to school. There she falls in love with a friend and fellow student to whom she eventually reveals her true identity. They pledge themselves to each other, but are thwarted after her family betroths her to another. The young man dies of a broken heart and on her way to her wedding she joins him magically in his grave. They emerge together as two butterflies.

Two young composers at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music wrote a short violin concerto based on the story in the 1950s, although it didn’t gain popularity until the 70s when it was released from censorship.

The NZSO recorded the sound track to a film of music and dance using the “synthesis of the concerto” with  choreography inspired by Chinese martial arts and modern dance. You can watch this free on our website (using your library card number and PIN).

You can also listen to this very beautiful concerto on CD or there are a number of recordings on the Naxos music streaming service on our website. I like this one.