NZSO welcomes Dutch piano virtuoso Ronald Brautigam to NZ

12 October 2016 - NZSO media release for immediate release

NZSO welcomes Dutch piano virtuoso Ronald Brautigam to NZ

The NZSO completes its exciting series of Masterworks for 2016 with two programmes Mozart & Elgar andMozart & Beethoven featuring NZSO Music Director Edo de Waart and Dutch piano virtuoso Ronald Brautigam.

Known for his love of Mozart, Edo de Waart has chosen the great composer’s Piano Concerto No. 24 in C minorto be performed in both programmes by his fellow countryman in Brautigam’s debut performance with the NZSO.

Mozart’s treasure is in safe hands with the brilliant Ronald Brautigam. Only a truly great pianist can make a work as mysterious as this appear simple.
Edo de Waart.

Completed in 1786, Mozart’s Piano Concerto in C minor was distinctive in its time. Very few concertos from the 18th century were composed in minor keys and it was the first Mozart concerto to include both oboes and clarinets. Famously, Beethoven exclaimed after hearing the work, ‘We shall never be able to do anything like that!’ This Concerto certainly lingered in Beethoven’s memory as its first movement coda would later appear in his C minor piano concerto, and it has remained a firm favourite with music lovers ever since.

In the hands of Ronald Brautigam, one of Holland’s most respected musicians, this performance will be an unforgettable experience for Mozart fans all around New Zealand.

Brautigam is renowned for his virtuosity and eclectic musical interests. A student of the legendary Rudolf Serkin, Ronald Brautigam performs regularly with leading orchestras including the Royal Concertgebouw, London Philharmonic and BBC Philharmonic Orchestras. He has received numerous awards including the Dutch Music Prize and a MIDEM Classical Award for best concerto recording for his CD of Beethoven Piano Concertos in 2010.

Completing the Mozart & Elgar concert series (touring Dunedin, Wellington, Hamilton, Auckland) is Elgar’s popular Symphony No. 1. Following its debut with the Hallé Orchestra in Manchester on 3 December 1908, The Daily Mail called it ‘The Musical Event of the Year’.

It is quite plain that we have perhaps the finest masterpiece of its type that ever came from the pen of an English composer. Daily Mail, 1908.

The work was a hit and was performed more than 100 times through America and Europe within a year of its premiere. Composed during a six-month trip to Italy and finished when Elgar returned to his Herefordshire home in September 1908, Elgar suggested that this music should sound ‘like something we hear down by the river’.

There is no programme beyond a wide experience of human life with a great charity and a massive hope in the future. Elgar.

Opening the Mozart & Beethoven concert series (touring Christchurch, Napier, Tauranga) is Mendelssohn’s charming A Midsummer Night’s Dream Overture.Dedicated to the Crown Prince of Prussia, this work invites us into Shakespeare’s magical world with a succession of mysterious chords. Mendelssohn creates lyrical pictures of the young lovers, the fairy king and queen and most memorably the heaving braying of Bottom. It is amazing to think that this magical work was composed when Mendelssohn was only 17 years old.

Completing this programme is Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7 in A major. The second movement Allegretto is perhaps one of Beethoven’s most famous pieces of music. Featured in the 2010 Oscar-winning movie The King’s Speech, this well-known funeral march begins with an unstable A minor chord, showcasing Beethoven’s mastery of harmony and eccentricity. The appeal of this much loved work lies in its complexities of rhythm and harmony that suggest that almost anything is possible. Beethoven evokes a sense of the infinite in his music and this unique quality is what makes his Symphony No. 7 so utterly compelling and unforgettable.

It’s the humanity of Beethoven, as a man and a musician, which I find deeply moving. Edo de Waart.

Enjoy these inspiring Masterworks Series, conducted by the NZSO’s acclaimed Music Director Edo de Waart, in association with NZSO Principal PartnerNewstalk ZB.

More about Maestro Edo de Waart >

ENDS

NZSO: Mozart & Elgar
In association with Newstalk ZB

EDO DE WAART Conductor

RONALD BRAUTIGAM Piano

MOZART Piano Concerto No. 24 in C minor

ELGAR Symphony No. 1 in A-flat major

DUNEDIN | Town Hall | Wednesday 26 October | 7pm

Ticketmaster | 0800 111 999 | ticketmaster.co.nz

WELLINGTON | Michael Fowler Centre | Saturday 29 October| 7.30pm

Ticketek | 0800 842 538 | ticketek.co.nz

HAMILTON | Claudelands Arena| Thursday 3 November| 7.30pm

Ticketek | 0800 842 538 | ticketek.co.nz

AUCKLAND | Town Hall | Friday 4 November| 7pm

Ticketmaster | 0800 111 999 | ticketmaster.co.nz

NZSO: Mozart & Beethoven
In association with Newstalk ZB

EDO DE WAART Conductor

RONALD BRAUTIGAM Piano

MENDELSSOHN A Midsummer Night’s Dream Overture

MOZART Piano Concerto No. 24 in C minor

BEETHOVEN Symphony No. 7 in A major

CHRISTCHURCH | Isaac Theatre Royal| Thursday 27 October | 7.00pm

Ticketek | 0800 842 538 | ticketek.co.nz

NAPIER | Municipal Theatre | Tuesday 1 November| 7.00pm

Ticketek | 0800 842 538 | ticketek.co.nz

TAURANGA | Baycourt Theatre | Wednesday 2 November| 7.30pm

Ticketek | 0800 842 538 | ticketek.co.nz

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