Radio Fiona Rae
The Best of the Week
SUNDAY JULY 8
Opera on Sunday (RNZ Concert, 6.00pm). The San Francisco Opera framed its Don Pasquale as a 1950s Italian sex farce, with a set-within-a-set production, slamming doors and mid-century costumes. Italian bass Maurizio Muraro makes Donizetti’s “centuries-old archetype of the foolish old man in search of a young wife into something revitalisingly fresh”, according to the San Francisco Classical Voice. US soprano Heidi Stober plays the crafty Norina and tenor Lawrence Brownlee is her lover, Ernesto.
WEDNESDAY JULY 11
Music Alive (RNZ Concert, 7.30pm). The Bavarian State Orchestra made its Carnegie Hall debut in this concert from March; surprising, given the orchestra’s heritage and renown. Conductor Kirill Petrenko also made his first appearance at Carnegie.
The evening begins with a performance by violinist Julia Fischer and cellist Daniel Müller-Schott of Brahms’ Double Concerto, a work composed to heal a rift with Brahms’ friend
Joseph Joachim. Tchaikovsky’s complex Manfred Symphony, based on the poem by Lord Byron, ends the programme.
THURSDAY JULY 12
Music Alive (RNZ Concert, 8.00pm). Auckland Philharmonia music director Giordano Bellincampi is on a mission to bring Danish composer
Carl Nielsen’s major works to Auckland audiences, and in tonight’s live concert, he employs long-time colleague Kolja Blacher in this pursuit. The German violinist will perform Nielsen’s Violin Concerto, a work he has recorded with the Duisburg Philharmonic. The night begins on a Scandinavian note with Poul Ruders Light Overture and ends with Beethoven’s muscular Symphony No 7.
FRIDAY JULY 13
Music Alive (RNZ Concert, 7.30pm). A transcendent tribute to Mahinārangi Tocker, said reviewer William Dart of this Auckland Arts Festival concert that brought together whanau and friends. Tama Waipara was the creative director, and performers included Moana Maniapoto, Don McGlashan, Karen Hunter, Shona Laing, Emma Paki, Anika Moa, Annie Crummer and Charlotte Yates, as well as Tocker’s sisters Kīmai and Huirangi and her daughter Hinewairangi, who sing, a cappella, Tocker’s beautiful poem to acceptance and love, Wahine Toa.