Music Legend To Conduct Bach, Beethoven And Mozart With NZSO

The New Zealand Symphony Orchestra is thrilled to announce a spectacular concert tour in May, featuring the legendary conductor, harpsichordist and organist, Masaaki Suzuki.

Renowned for his profound interpretations of Baroque music, Maestro Suzuki will lead a New Zealand orchestra for the first time in an extraordinary programme of masterpieces by three other legends: JS Bach, WA Mozart, and Ludwig van Beethoven.

A world authority on Bach and celebrated for his expertise of other Baroque-era composers and performances with period instruments, Maestro Suzuki is equally at home with Bach’s successors, Mozart and Beethoven.

“The biggest pleasure in working with symphony orchestras is the opportunity to work on ‘new’ repertoire compared to Baroque orchestras,” he’s said.

“I have great joy in performing these compositions. This repertoire require a dynamic and steady sound, and it is delightful to be able to accomplish this relatively easily in comparison to period instruments.”

In Wellington, Auckland and Hamilton, Legends: Mozart & Beethoven features Mozart’s turbulent and groundbreaking Symphony No. 25, composed when he was just 17. One of only two symphonies Mozart wrote in the key of G minor, the composer squeezed dynamic changes, pulsing rhythms and unsettled melodies into 24 minutes of mesmerising and astonishing music.

Long considered Beethoven’s game changer on what a symphony could do, his Third Symphony ‘Eroica’ has been described by musicologist Paul Henry Lang as “the greatest single step made by an individual in the history of the symphony and in the history of music in general.”

In Wellington and Auckland Legends will include one of the most famous of Bach’s works, his Orchestral Suite No.3, featuring the beloved and sublime movement ‘Air’.

Hailed by Britain’s The Guardian as “simply breathtaking”, Maestro Suzuki is one of the most revered figures in classical music. Since founding the Bach Collegium Japan in 1990, he has established himself as a leading Bach interpreter.

His illustrious career includes collaborations with renowned period ensembles such as Collegium Vocale Gent and Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, as well as major symphony orchestras including the New York Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, and Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin.

His extensive discography of all of Bach’s major choral works and complete harpsichord compositions has garnered widespread critical acclaim.

Maestro Suzuki previously toured New Zealand in 2017 with the Juilliard415 ensemble.

Tickets to Legends: Mozart & Beethoven range from $26 to $117. For more information go to nzso.co.nz.

COMING UP

Pinnacle: Respighi & Rachmaninov – conductor Umberto Clerici, pianist Daniil Trifonov. Wellington (11 April), Auckland (12 April)

Mana Moana – conductor Brent Stewart, Signature Choir. Auckland (2 May)

Echoes of Home: Bartók & Dvořák – conductor Gábor Káli, violinist Amalia Hall. Wellington (23 May), Christchurch (28 May)

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