Wellington Chamber Orchestra (WCO) conducted by Michael Joel

Michael Joel conducts the Wellington Chamber Orchestra in their final performance for 2011. Paula Carryer will lead the orchestra in a programme consisting of:
Douglas Lilburn: Drysdale Overture
W A Mozart: Violin concerto No. 5 (soloist: Anna van der Zee)
P Warlock: Capriol Suite
C Gounod: Petite Symphonie for Winds
G Bizet: Carmen Suite no. 1

The 'Drysdale Overture' of 1937 is among the earliest works for orchestra by Douglas Lilburn and celebrates his family’s King Country farm and estate where he was born and spent his childhood ­a place which he later described as a paradise.

Mozart’s 'Violin Concerto No. 5' in A major, K. 219, was written in 1775 and was premiered during the holiday season that year in Salzburg. It was completed some five weeks before the composer’s twentieth birthday and, like its four predecessors, calls for a modest orchestra of oboes, horns and strings that was more or less the norm in Salzburg.

Peter Warlock was the pseudonym of Philip Arnold, an Anglo-Welsh composer and music critic. The 'Capriol Suite' is a set of dances composed in October 1926. According to the composer, it was based on tunes in a manual of Renaissance dances. Originally written for piano duet, Warlock later scored it for both string and full orchestras.

Charles-François Gounod wrote his 'Petite Symphonie', a nonet for Flute, 2 Oboes, 2 Clarinets, 2 Horns & 2 Bassoons as a commission from the famous flutist Paul Taffanel and the wind ensemble, Societé à des Instruments à Vent, he had founded. Written in classical form, this work illustrates Gounod's superb gifts for melody and motion.

Bizet did not live to see the success Carmen. The opera was almost withdrawn after its fourth performance, and although this was avoided, Bizet died on 3 June, just after the thirtieth performance. The opera's eventual acclaim is mirrored by the popularity of the first orchestral suite drawn from the full opera by USA-born French composer Ernest Guiraud. The first suite consists almost entirely of preludes and entr'actes and captures wonderfully both the passion and lyricism of the opera.

Online tickets: Adults $15; School students or younger are free.

Door sales: Adults $20; Concessions $15 (Tertiary students, Seniors, unwaged); School students or younger: free.

Event listed by Wellington Chamber Orchestra

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