Wellington Chamber Orchestra (WCO): Copland - Barber - Ives

Donald Maurice conducts the Wellington Chamber Orchestra in an all-American programme of:
- Aaron Copland: 'Fanfare for the Common Man'
- Samuel Barber: 'Cello Concerto' with soloist Inbal Megiddo
- Charles Ives: 'Symphony no. 2'

Copland's hugely popular Fanfare for brass and percussion was written in response to the US entry into the Second World War and was inspired in part by a famous 1942 speech where vice president Henry A. Wallace proclaimed the dawning of the "Century of the Common Man". Frequently quoted, rearranged and used elsewhere, notably in many film and TV adaptations, the original music still inspires and stirs audiences.

Barber was commissioned to write his cello concerto for Russian cellist Raya Garbousova, by Koussevitzky and the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Koussevitzky later said that he thought the work would be to the 20th century what Brahms' violin concerto was to the 19th century. The concerto won Barber the New York Music Critics' Circle Award in 1947. The work has gradually crept into the cello solo repertoire, but has is not often heard, largely because of its extreme technical demands.

Charles Ives composed his five movement Second Symphony between 1897 and 1901 but it was half a century before it premiered, in a 1951 New York Philharmonic concert conducted by Leonard Bernstein. The symphony premiered to rapturous applause. The public performance had been postponed for so long because Ives had been alienated from the American classical establishment. Ever since his training with Horatio Parker at Yale, Ives had suffered their disapproval of the mischievous unorthodoxy with which he radically pushed the boundaries of European classical structures to create soundscapes that recalled the vernacular music-making of his New England upbringing. Like Ives' other compositions which honor the European and American inheritances, the Second Symphony never makes verbatim quotation of popular American tunes, but reshapes and develops them into broad themes.

Donald Maurice is Professor at Te Koki, New Zealand School of Music. He performs regularly as viola soloist, chamber musician and conductor and has premiered many New Zealand works, including Anthony Ritchie’s Viola Concerto. Since 1993 he has given recitals and presentations at over a dozen International Viola Congresses in Germany, England, Iceland, Canada, the USA and Australia.

Cellist Inbal Megiddo brings to her performances and teaching years of experience, the influence of master teachers, and praise from influential musicians. Maestro Zubin Mehta describes her as “an extremely talented, very musical musician.” At her New York debut at the Lincoln Center her playing was hailed by the press as having “magical expression and technical expertise.” She has a “warm lustrous communicative way... the performance was sincerity personified!”. Inbal is now living in Wellington and is Lecturer in Cello at Te Koki, New Zealand School of Music.

Online tickets: Adults/ tertiary students and seniors $15; School students or younger are free.

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

Tickets are limited by the size of the venue so prior bookings are recommended.