Tripping in NZ with Italian music
New Zealand Symphony Orchestra: Stravinsky & Mendelssohn Portraits of Italy touring in North Island
The New Zealand Symphony Orchestra takes audiences on a musical journey from New Zealand to Italy with performances in Kāpiti, Wairarapa, Hastings, Taupō and Hamilton in June.
NZSO music director Emeritus James Judd conducts a breathtaking collection of music in Stravinsky & Mendelssohn Portraits of Italy as part of the orchestra’s popular Setting Up Camp winter tour.
The concert begins in the deep south of Aotearoa New Zealand with Anthony Ritchie’s Whakatipua ,a musical portrait of the awe-inspiring landscapes around Lake Wakatipu, Queenstown.
Igor Stravinsky’s Pulcinella Suite brings to life the famed (and often naughty) puppet Punch, a comical character of early Italian theatre. Based on Stravinsky’s 1920 ballet of the same name, the Pulcinella Suite is a feast of catchy neo-Baroque dance tunes.
German composer Felix Mendelssohn was inspired by his travels across Italy in 1830 when he wrote the concert’s grand finale Italian Symphony. Mendelssohn himself
declared the symphony as “the jolliest piece I have ever done.”
It’s music that will leave audiences
feeling bathed in Italian sunshine.
As part of Setting Up Camp, the orchestra stays in each centre for up to three days to present concerts and events.
Along with Portraits of Italy, the 2023 tour includes Side-by-Side concerts, where community orchestras perform on stage with the NZSO.
This year Hawke’s Bay Community Orchestra, Hawke’s Bay Training Orchestra and Hawke’s Bay Youth Orchestra will each have a session with the NZSO in Hastings on June 7. Side-by-Side is also in Taupō on June 8 and in Hamilton on June 9, where the latter features Youth Orchestra Waikato and Trust Waikato Symphony Orchestra.