SEASON ‘16 Orchestra Wellington, PO Box 11-977 Manners Street, Wellington 6142 Level 8, Alcatel-Lucent House (13-27 Manners St), Wellington
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SEASON ‘16 Orchestra Wellington, PO Box 11-977 Manners Street, Wellington 6142 Level 8, Alcatel-Lucent House (13-27 Manners St), Wellington LAST WORDS! #LASTWORDS2016 Orchestra Wellington is well-established Wellington is well-known as the creative as a vital component of the Capital’s cultural capital of New Zealand, home to many life, and the region’s music lovers have prolific and active artistic companies that much to look forward to in the 2016 season. breathe vitality and charisma. Filled with evocative works that will stimulate Orchestra Wellington offers many amazing the imagination of listeners of all ages, and imaginative musical experiences. Since audiences will appreciate the Subscription 1950 they have amassed a vibrant body Series, which explores legendary works of work. 2016 has a line-up that promises of the orchestral repertoire and features memorable performances from many a number of acclaimed New Zealand and genres. Orchestra Wellington remains international soloists. committed to making music accessible, Known for its versatility, Orchestra with tickets at a range of price points for Wellington will also continue to collaborate those who book early. with other national and regional cultural Wellington has world-class musicians, organisations in 2016, working alongside composers and performers who call this city the Royal New Zealand Ballet and New home, and we’re a popular destination with Zealand Opera, as well as Wellington’s many who travel from around the world to own Orpheus Choir. experience our unique culture. Orchestra I commend Orchestra Wellington for Wellington’s inspiring partnership with its commitment to fostering the next Arohanui Strings has also enabled new generation of musicians and music-lovers musical talent to thrive here. through its wide array of educational and The capital’s dramatic natural landscape outreach projects, notably the orchestra’s and thriving metropolitan culture are home relationship with Arohanui Strings – to both well-established and up and coming Sistema Hutt Valley and its expanded musical talent. Wellington City Council Music-to-Schools programme. These is delighted to have increased funding to initiatives enable many young people in Orchestra Wellington in our 10-year plan. the Wellington region to engage with the arts and be inspired by the transformative I’d like to thank the many dedicated power of music. performers and audience members whose creative passion continues to make arts I wish Marc Taddei and the members of in Wellington thrive. I look forward to Orchestra Wellington all the very best Orchestra Wellington’s 2016 season. for an exciting year of vibrant and diverse music-making in 2016. Ngā mihi mahana. Hon. Maggie BarryONZM Celia Wade-Brown Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Mayor of Wellington LAST WORDS! Welcome to Orchestra Wellington’s musical canon. Together, we will explore 2016 season! music of the greatest profundity, music There is something extraordinary about the of the most ineffable lightness, and some final masterpieces of great composers. of the most joyous music ever composed. This season truly focuses on what makes While all of the masterpieces that we are orchestral music so inspiring and thrilling. performing were written at different life stages, and not all were written with the It is an honour and a great responsibility to full knowledge of the end, the common be Wellington’s orchestra. We strive to offer link with all of these works is that each our lively and diverse community a musical composer valued knowledge and skill; all journey that is inclusive for all. In addition saw themselves as building upon, rather to our Subscription Series, we also offer than bucking, tradition. It is because of this great concerts for the family and children, commitment to a lifetime’s dedication to local free outdoor events and, of course, craft and inspiration that the legend around we maintain a pivotal role in accompanying these works grew. for the Royal New Zealand Ballet, New Zealand Opera, Orpheus Choir and In general, we are fascinated by the last several visiting artists. thing that anyone does, and this fascination is given greater intensity when the Your orchestra has a comprehensive person is a great artist. Ever since Mahler Music-to-Schools programme that focuses suggested the romantic notion of the curse on communities and schools with little of the 9th symphony – the myth that after or no exposure to live music. We are Beethoven, no one could write past this thrilled beyond measure to continue our number – our culture has been fascinated partnership with Arohanui Strings – Sistema by the idea of composers creating profound Hutt Valley, which is part of a visionary works of art that transcend their time and global movement transforming the lives of speak directly to us. children through music. With these final masterpieces, there is huge But in fact, what the arts does and what poignancy in contemplating the process of we strive to do every time we perform is development. It speaks to the fundamental to transform lives and contribute to the nature of creativity and how this unfolds vibrancy of our great city. over a lifetime. Please join us in this moving exploration of some of the greatest monuments in the Marc Taddei Adán E. Tijerina Music Director General Manager LAST WORDS Fittingly, we perform Beethoven’s Ninth This season we delight in some of the Symphony, which stands in the centre most profound music ever composed. of these works. This is Beethoven’s final These monumental works are made all symphonic utterance and serves as a promethean force and stunning example to the more profound by being among their every subsequent composer of symphonies. composers’ last creations. They include It is impossible to overstate this work’s pivotal symphonies and some of their last impact. The Ninth is a monumental great works for voice and piano. Performing symphony whose gravitational pull affects them, we will deepen our relationship with all others. We’ve paired it in a concert by valued colleagues such as the Orpheus Choir, Beethoven’s old mentor Haydn. An early pianist Michael Houstoun, and stunning work, but we hear Haydn toying with the vocal soloists we’ve previously worked with. elaboration of themes he would master Some of these masterpieces are deathbed later – and which Beethoven would develop utterances, forced out by superhuman in unimaginable directions. It’s Haydn’s effort in a race against time. We are left in Last Word also, because the manuscript awe of the generosity of these composers was lost until the 1960s. who wanted to give the deepest soundings The great composers who came after of their souls to the future for safekeeping. Beethoven had to face up to the challenge In the case of Bartok, his great friend of his incredible symphonic achievements Tibor Serly described visiting him the night and find something new to say, and a new before he was moved to the hospital where way to say it. he died. Bartok was in bed, surrounded by Maybe for Schubert the pressure was less medicines, trying to finish his Third Piano intense – for most of his life, symphonies Concerto: a bright and generous surprise were something he wrote for the pleasure gift for his concert pianist wife, Ditta. of sharing them in the orchestras he Mozart’s last works – the Requiem, the played in with his friends. They were not Clarinet Concerto, and the motet Ave performed publicly in his lifetime. But in Verum – look forward to Beethoven in 1824 he wrote of his eager anticipation their expressive humanity. By his final year, to hear Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony Mozart had long since mastered technical performed, and confided his plans to perfection. The three works we play are attempt a much grander symphony of gifts to his friends and colleagues, and his own. The C major “Great” symphony that strange, premonitory commission, a was Schubert’s response. Mahler took Requiem whose composition cut him off in Beethoven’s lead in using the voice in some the full flow of his creative height. of his symphonies. He also followed his 11 view of the symphony as the record of a recognition; Metamorphosen, written in the soul’s journey from one state to another, closing stages of World War II, is Strauss’s or a way of seeking meaning. anguished memorial to a lost culture: He only completed the first movement of it quotes from Beethoven and Wagner. his Tenth Symphony, and it is an intense The closing scene from his final opera, and visionary work – written under the full Capriccio, is arguably the most sumptuous realisation of his impending death and his in his entire oeuvre: a distillation of Strauss’ wife’s affair with Walter Gropius. It is an art as an operatic composer. impassioned adagio to his wife that wavers Tchaikovsky’s symphonies we have already on the edge of tonality. Mahler’s inner covered throughout 2015; it is time for us turmoil is laid bare to the listener and in his to present Tchaikovsky’s last masterpiece manuscript, he wrote entreaties to his wife, for the ballet, the Nutcracker. Tchaikovsky’s including, “für dich leben! für dich sterben!” distinctive musical gift includes a kind “To live for you! To die for you!” A more of physicality that impels and urges personal account of inner turmoil made movement. Nutcracker also shows him at manifest in music has not been written the peak of his powers as an orchestrator. and is one of the most sublime moments His work is paired with another great in early modernism. orchestrator and lover of the stage, Berlioz. We also perform one of the most moving The Orchestra finishes the year with a works of high modernism by one of departure from the theme.