Strike up the band

INTERNATIONAL STAR: American violinist Hilary Hahn.

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Chris Moore reports on the music and the people in New Zealand Symphony Orchestra's 2010 season.

The New Zealand Symphony Orchestra's 2010 season will spark new and old relationships with artists including conductors Alexander Lazarev and Vladimir Ashkenazy, singers Dame Malvina Major and Simon O'Neill and American violinist Hilary Hahn.

Next year's NZSO programme also includes a major international tour in October. Beyond hinting that it will include concerts "in some of the world's leading concert halls and festivals", organisers refuse to reveal where, until details have been finalised, possibly in March. However, there is already speculation the tour will include a significant European component. Four years ago, the orchestra played at the BBC Proms in London and Amsterdam's Concertgebouw. It now seems poised to return to some of the world's oldest and most important musical centres.

NZSO management, meanwhile, has released details of next year's New Zealand season, including the two- concert collaboration with the New Zealand International Arts Festival in February and March.

Vladimir Ashkenazy will conduct a performance of Mahler's monumental Symphony No 8 (The Symphony Of A Thousand) in Wellington on February 26. The performance will mark the festival's opening night and the centennial of the symphony's first performance.

A week later, Anthony Legge conducts a Wagner Gala with New Zealand tenor Simon O'Neill. Hailed as one of the leading Wagnerian tenors of his generation, O'Neill recently spent a week with Pietari Inkinen and the NZSO recording a selection of Wagner arias to be released on CD by EMI in conjunction with the Festival performance.

The NZSO comes to Christchurch and Dunedin in April when its music director, Pietari Inkinen, conducts a performance of Sibelius' violin concerto with American violinist Hilary Hahn. Also on the programme are a work from Smetana's tone poem Ma Vlast and Tchaikovsky's Sixth Symphony (Pathetique.)

While the orchestra's national tour with Dame Malvina Major in May will not include the South Island, the orchestra will return in June when conductor Alexander Lazarev leads a concert of Russian Romantics, featuring music by Dvorak, Tchaikovsky (Piano Concerto No 1 with soloist Freddy Kempf) and Prokofiev.

In September, Christchurch and Dunedin audiences will hear a concert of pieces by Britten, Ravel and Strauss conducted by Alexander Shelley. The programme also features Scottish composer James MacMillan's resounding Veni, Veni, Emmanual with guest soloist, percussionist Colin Currie.

The NZSO celebrates Christmas with a seasonal concert in Christchurch in December featuring soprano Aivale Cole, the choirs and choristers of Wellington's St Paul's Cathedral and Holy Trinity Cathedral, Auckland.

A new initiative is the NZSO Soloists, a recently-formed ensemble of musicians from the orchestra's string section under the direction of concertmaster Vesa-Matti Leppanen. which will In October it will present a programme of music from the 18th to 20th century in Christchurch, Dunedin and Invercargill.

The new season includes two Wellington concerts in July by the young Chinese cellist, Li-Wei, a celebration of the waltz in Auckland in April and a concert of New Zealand music in Wellington with compositions by Ross Harris, Claire Cowan, John Psathas and Arnold Trowell.

* For full details, see www.nzso.co.nz

- © Fairfax NZ News