Concert à Quatre

Christchurch Symphony Orchestra presents Lamb & Hayward Masterworks Series, Concert à quatre.

Conductor: Tom Woods

Feature artists:
Alexa Still, flute
Galyna Zelinska, cello
Natalia Sheludiakova, piano
Celia Craig, oboe

Parsifal, Wagner’s religious opera about the Knights of the Round Table and the legend of the Holy Grail, addresses both the erotic and the spiritual. The composer saw no distinction between erotic love and spiritual love. Unrequited love represents a spiritual wound in his story.

French composer Messiaen’s Concert à quatre, drew inspiration from the composer’s regular musical influences Birdsong. Written for four musicians Messiaen felt particularly grateful to, his wife pianist Yvonne Loriod, and friends cellist Mstislav Rostropovich, oboist Heinz Holliger and flautist Catherine Cantin. Messiaen died before this was complete but it was finished by his widow. In the spirit of this, this evening’s performance will feature friends and family of our orchestra, Chief Conductor Tom Woods’ wife acclaimed pianist, Natalia Sheludiakova, international New Zealand flautist Alexa Still and CSO’s principal cellist Galyna Zelinksa.

The music of American composer, John Adams, has a film-like quality, and an optimistic outlook on the best aspects of modern life. Harmonielehre is a large, three-movement work for orchestra that marries the developmental techniques of Minimalism with the harmonic and expressive world of late Romanticism. Prompted by a dream, Adams composed Harmonielehre, "In the dream I’d watched a gigantic supertanker take off from the surface of San Francisco Bay and thrust itself into the sky like a Saturn rocket. At the time (1984—85), I was still deeply involved in the study of C.G. Jung’s writings, particularly his examination of Medieval mythology. I was deeply affected by Jung’s discussion of the character of Amfortas, the king whose wounds could never be healed".

Wagner: Parsifal Prelude
Messiaen: Concert à quatre
Adams: Harmonielehre

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