Get ready to experience exhilarating and evocative music from classical giants Tchaikovsky, Shostakovich, Bruckner and more when the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra performs in Napier on April 16.
The concert will also include works by renowned New Zealand composer Douglas Lilburn and Finland’s greatest composer since Sibelius, Einojuhani Rautavaara. “Testimony” features the NZSO’s talented associate principal cellist Ken Ichinose as soloist for Tchaikovsky’s romantic andante cantabile, the famous second movement from his String Quartet No.1, which the composer arranged for cello and orchestra.
“Tchaikovsky’s andante cantabile is a treasured melody, especially for any string quartet player,” Ichinose said.
“For me, the emotion and beauty of this work is drawn from the sheer simplicity of form and musical line. We are so fortunate to have an arrangement by Tchaikovsky himself, and I very much look forward to performing this particular version for solo cello and orchestra, having previously had the pleasure to perform the original quartet with colleagues from the NZSO a few years ago.”
Shostakovich’s chamber symphony is an arrangement of his String Quartet No. 8, written after he saw the aftermath of the apocalyptic 1945 bombing of Dresden. Though he dedicated the quartet to “victims of fascism and war”, in his later memoir, Testimony, Shostakovich said the quartet in fact described himself.
