Michael Houstoun Concert

Hamilton, Tauranga, Rotorua: take a 45-minute trip to the country for a Sunday afternoon.

For one day... Putaruru Is Houstoun Central!

At last New Zealand’s finest and best-loved pianist Michael Houstoun returns to the South Waikato to give local audiences the treat of a lifetime with his first solo recital there since 1982. The concert will feature some of the best-known Beethoven piano sonatas including “Pathetique” and “Tempest”. For the wider audience of the Waikato and Bay of Plenty regions, this is the perfect location geographically to come together to hear the pianist of a generation perform music which Houstoun first made his own in his remarkable performances and recordings of the Beethoven sonata cycle in the mid-90s, and which he himself has chosen.

This is a special year for the music community as we celebrate Mr Houstoun’s 60th birthday year, while enjoying his sensitive artistry in music. At other concerts this year classical music aficionados will hear him expound Bach’s Goldberg Variations and Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations. However in Putaruru, it will be the joyful exuberance of a pianist and a composer at the peak of their powers that will delight us.

Michael Houstoun played for the newly formed Tokoroa Music Society in 1975 on their recently purchased 6’ Bluethner in the Tokoroa Intermediate School Hall, sharing the bill with fellow emerging soloist Richard Mapp. It was the year he placed 4th in the Leeds International Piano Competition. A few years later there was a return solo recital in Tokoroa, followed by an appearance there in the early 90s touring with Wilma Smith (violin). Time passed.

The society became the South Waikato Music Society and recently their refurbished piano found a new home in the arts centre of the South Waikato, The Plaza in Putaruru. The move to this bigger venue has helped inspire the society to host a bigger event. So we have the pianist everyone loves to hear, playing music we love to listen to and he loves to play, in the ideal 274-seat theatre auditorium, centrally located and centrally heated - too good to miss!

Beethoven
Sonata in C minor, Op. 13 (“Pathetique”)
Sonata in G, Op. 31, No. 1
Interval
Sonata in D minor, Op. 31, No. 2 (“Tempest”)
Sonata in E flat, Op. 31, No. 3 (“The Hunt”)

Admission $35
Students (incl. tertiary with ID) $10

The Plaza, Kensington St, Putaruru, ph. 07 883 8596 (9am-12noon)
Reserved Seating and other enquiries, ph. 027 364 9274