Trombone titan conducts and performs with NZSO

Trombone titan Christian Lindberg conducts and performs with NZSO

Acclaimed trombonist and conductor Christian Lindberg will conduct the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra in Aotearoa Plus, an annual concert series that features the best of international contemporary classical music alongside the best of New Zealandcontemporary classical music.

Voted 'brass player of the century' alongside Miles Davis and Louis Armstrong, Lindberg will lead the NZSO in an invigorating mix of brand new and well-loved New Zealand music, plus a modern brass classic in Wellington on Friday 1 May and Auckland on Saturday 2 May.

Lindberg is an all-rounder. He performs, conducts, and composes. The BBC declared him the “best thing that’s ever happened to the trombone” and The New York Times said: “You could stick a kazoo in his hands, and he’d sell the concert hall out.” He even has a press photograph taken under water (attached).

In 1981, Lindberg won the Nordic Soloists' Biennale competition and three years later signed a 3-CD recording contract with BISRecords. Renowned for his performances of contemporary music, it is estimated that from 1981-2006 he had 82 works written for him by contemporary composers. Since his first solo album The Virtuoso Trombone was released in 1984, he’s recorded more than 70 CDs and premiered more than 300 works for the trombone including 90 major concertos.

David Bremner, NZSO Section Principal Trombone, says the opportunity to perform Jan Sandström’s Echoes of Eternity with Christian Lindberg is an absolute career highlight.

“Lindberg’s a true master of the trombone. I have a deep respect for his openness to perform a large number of diverse contemporary works, as well as expanding the repertoire of concerti for trombone,” he says. “I am greatly looking forward to showcasing the trombone in Sandström’s concerto for two trombones and orchestra, Echoes of Eternity, alongside one of my all-time musical heroes.”

Alongside his activities as a soloist and composer, Christian Lindberg mainly focuses on his career as a conductor. Since his conducting debut with the Royal Northern Sinfonia in England 15 years ago, he has conducted numerous orchestras such as the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, Giuseppe Verdi Symphony Orchestra of Milan, Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, and the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra. He is currently Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor of the newly established Arctic Philharmonic Orchestra, an orchestra with strong support from the Norwegian government.

At the encouragement of fellow Swedish composer Jan Sandström, Lindberg began to compose in the 1990s. His first-performed work was Arabenne for Trombone and Strings (1997-98), which he says he originally composed as an experiment. Since then he has completed more than 50 works including Mandrake in the Corner (2002), Chick 'a' bone Checkout (2006) andKundraan and the Arctic Light (2008).

Christian Lindberg’s philosophy about composing is simple:

I do not write in any style whatsoever! I just listen to what my brain and my soul tell me, and what I hear I simply put down on paper. To say anything more about my work would be pretentious nonsense.

Aotearoa Plus is your opportunity to hear one of the greatest works by Douglas Lilburn, the composer who first found a distinctive voice for New Zealandmusic, alongside the sound of contemporary New Zealand with the world premiere of his student and Wellington composer Michael Norris' NZSO commissionClaro.

In the centenary year of Lilburn’s birth, we celebrate this much-loved composer who left an enduring impression on the landscape of New Zealandmusic. 100 years on, we honour his rich musical legacy as the “grandfather of New Zealand music” with this performance of his Symphony No. 2.

Following the premiere of his first symphony, by the National Orchestra on 12 May 1951, Lilburn started work almost immediately on theSecond Symphony, a larger four movement piece which evokes the breath-taking landscapes of Aotearoa. In the 1960s, John Hopkins persuaded him to write his final Third Symphony.

Music critic Rod Biss says:

At the time the Third was seen as Lilburn’s finest symphony, however over the years the Second – the symphony that shamefully was kept waiting for its first performance – has come to be seen as essentially of New Zealand, more mature than the First, more aware of its origins than the Third and, I have always thought, the most lovable.

Composer Michael Norris follows the musical footsteps of Douglas Lilburn who was Victoria University’s Senior Lecturer of Music and famously founded the Electronic Music Studio in 1966. A recipient of the Douglas Lilburn Prize in 2003, Norris is currently the Senior Lecturer in Composition at Te Kōkī, New Zealand School of Music where he also teaches sonic art. Commissioned by the NZSO in honour of this legacy, Norris’ new work is dedicated to the Orchestra players. It employs the same instrumentation as Lilburn’s Symphony No. 2.

While there is no specific imagery or narrative for the piece this new work, , is intended as a 'play' of forms and lines - with a constant sense of 'shimmering' or 'glistening' bubbling under the surface.

Michael Norris, who will lead the pre-concert talk 45 minutes before each concert, says about his work:

‘Claro’ meaning ‘light’ or ‘clear’, describes a visual, aural and psychological state of transparency and clarity which is depicted sonically by the opening texture of the work, a delicate series of ‘points’ that first states the main pitch material for the piece. These points are produced by pizzicato strings, piano, harp, crotales, vibraphone and glockenspiel, instruments that have no natural sustain, only an attack-decay profile that results from being plucked or struck.

Enjoy the finest compositional voices of today from home and overseas with your national orchestra in Aotearoa Plus and experience the world’s most outstanding trombone player, Christian Lindberg, when he teams up with our own New Zealand star,NZSO Section Principal Trombone David Bremner, to perform Sandström’s inventive concerto for two trombones and orchestra, Echoes of Eternity.

More about Douglas Lilburn >

ENDS

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