The Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra has announced its 2020 season, marking 40 years of music making.
The season will mark 250 years of Beethoven, it will say goodbye to a well-known Kiwi pianist and has a mixture of fan-favourites and family friendly performances.
APO Chief Executive Barbara Glaser says the organisation is committed to sharing the joy of music through world-class orchestral performances and by providing outreach programmes to the wider community.
Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra Photo: Adrian Malloch
250 years of Beethoven
The APO joins global festivals marking 250 years of Beethoven. The festivities will be presented during the Auckland Arts Festival in March and will feature Beethoven’s symphony cycle.
It will culminate with big name singers soprano Madeleine Pierard, mezzo-soprano Kristin Darragh, tenor Amitai Pati and bass-baritone Teddy Tahu Rhodes joining the APO for Beethoven’s ninth symphony.
Farewell to well-known pianist
Famed New Zealand pianist Michael Houstoun is retiring in 2020. He’ll perform Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No 3 in July, before retiring in December with a final concert at the Auckland Town Hall in which he’ll perform Beethoven’s ‘Waldstein’ sonata.
Photo: RNZ / Rebekah Parsons-King
New Kiwi works
The APO will be bringing to life new works from Chris Gendall, Leonie Holmes, Celeste Oram, Alex Taylor and Gillian Whitehead. The APO will also perform the world premiere of Ross Harris’ Symphony No 7. Barbara Glaser describes Harris’ symphony as “high octane” and says the composer is “at his best” with the new work.
The APO is also very aware of gender imbalance in the classical composition world, so have programmed more works by female composers. APO’s Director of Artistic Planning Ronan Tighe says the organisation is working hard towards parity and by commissioning works by women it will help address that imbalance. The organisation’s goal is to have a 50/50 split of male and female composers in the future.
Ross Harris Photo: Gareth Watkins / Lilburn Trust / Wallace Arts Trust
Family friendly
The APO has also expanded its programming to include more family-friendly concerts: Wallace and Gromit, Planet Earth II, Room on the Broom & Stick Man, and Christmas classic film Home Alone with a score written by John Williams.
The orchestra will also head out into various communities across the wider Auckland area for its “In your neighbourhood” series.
Home Alone was scored by John Williams Photo: Supplied
The Great Classics
The 2020 season kicks off with Shostakovich’s Festive Overture and Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No 1 performed by APO newcomer Romanian pianist Alexandra Dariescu. Later in the year specialist Baroque conductor Stephen Layton returns to lead Handel’s Music for the Royal Fireworks and Fauré’s Requiem in April.
In July, Giordano Bellincampi will conduct Haydn’s The Creation to coincide with the World Symposium on Choral Music in Auckland.
Rossini’s opera William Tell, Britten’s Four Sea Interludes (from Peter Grimes) and Saint-Saëns’ Organ Symphony will all get “unwrapped” by conductor and presenter Graham Abbott, who will take the audience “behind the scenes” of these classical works.
