Michael Houstoun Plays Bartok's Last Musical Love Letter

Media Release

28 September 2016

Michael Houstoun Plays Bartok's Last Musical Love Letter In Orchestra Wellington's Nutcracker Concert

Orchestra Wellington welcomes Michael Houstoun to play Bartók’s Piano Concerto No. 3 in a special, rare and unmissable performance conducted by Marc Taddei next month.

The Third Piano Concerto by Bartók will be performed on Saturday 15th October at the Michael Fowler Centre. In keeping with the Orchestra’s 2016 theme of final masterworks, the concerto is truly Bartók’s “last word,” written during the illness that claimed his life. Bartók finished the work except for the final seventeen bars, which were sketched.

“The Bartók concerto is a return to nature piece as far as I’m concerned,” said Houstoun, before his first appearance of the 2016 season with Orchestra Wellington.

“It is as beautiful and profound as it is pared back and straightforward. There is no violence in its tremendous energy.”

Bartók wrote the concerto as a gift for his wife, Ditta, who was also a concert pianist. The lyrical work is full of whimsical and beguiling melodies influenced by Hungarian folk music.

Last month a near capacity crowd was enthralled by Houstoun’s performance of Bartok's last musical love letter at the Dunedin Symphony Orchestra’s 50th anniversary.

Tchaikovsky’s rousing Nutcracker, the composer’s enchanting final ballet, is on the programme. The Nutcracker is filled with the impulse to move, and its music understands everything about how a human body might express grace, power and emotion. Orchestra Wellington is playing the second act of this timeless Russian score.

With its fantastic scenes and dramatic montages, this is music that brings the imagination to life. From the most diaphanous textures to the grandest climaxes and the first appearance of the celeste, the Nutcracker is a marvel.

The opera Beatrice and Benedict by Hector Berlioz is based on two characters from Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing, and was the composer's last substantial work.

Mercurial and bright, the flamboyant overture captures the essence of an opera Berlioz described as “a caprice written with the point of a needle”. In this performance, Orchestra Wellington is paying tribute to Shakespeare’s 400th anniversary commemorations.

For more information contact, Penny Miles, publicist, 021 644 800.

Orchestra Wellington presents NUTCRACKER

SATURDAY 15 OCTOBER 2016, 7:30PM

MICHAEL FOWLER CENTRE, WELLINGTON

Hector Berlioz Overture to Beatrice and Benedict

Béla Bartók Piano Concerto No 3

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Nutcracker Ballet, Act II

Marc Taddei, Conductor

Michael Houstoun, Piano

/ENDS

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