Radio Fiona Rae

The Best of the Week

SATURDAY OCTOBER 13

Music Alive (RNZ Concert, 7.30pm). Audiences in Auckland, Christchurch and Dunedin will have already thrilled to the sound of superstar cellist Johannes Moser, who ends his tour with the NZSO at tonight’s Michael Fowler Centre concert. Live from Wellington, Moser plays Shostakovich’s Cello Concerto No 1 in an all-Russian programme that includes selections from Prokofiev’s score to Romeo and Juliet. Canadian Peter Oundjian, on debut with the NZSO, conducts.

SUNDAY OCTOBER 14

Beyond Kate (RNZ National, 3.04pm). A topic that has become more exigent in recent years rather than less: Gender and the Body is under discussion by, among others, US author Virgie Tovar; writercomedian Angella Dravid; Paula Lloyd of the Wellington Women’s Homeless Trust; Otago Museum dress historian Jane Malthus; and the great public health and reproductive rights champion Dame Margaret Sparrow.

TUESDAY OCTOBER 16

Music Alive (RNZ Concert, 7.30pm). The Los Angeles Philharmonic and its music director, Gustavo Dudamel, brought Mexico City to LA with last year’s CDMX Festival, including this concert that features two world premieres:

Johannes Moser, Music Alive, Saturday. Gabriela Ortiz’s Téenek – Invenciones de Territorio and Arturo Márquez’s Danzón No 9, an LA Phil commission to complement Danzóns Nos 1, 2 and 8, which precede the new work. Also on the programme are Javier Álvarez’s Metro Chabacano, one of a series of compositions named after metro stops, and Enrico Chapela’s Ínguesu, a roiling work depicting a wild soccer match that includes a blast on a referee’s whistle by Dudamel. The LA Phil and Dudamel also feature in Wednesday’s Music Alive (7.30pm), with a performance of The Magic Flute recorded at the Walt Disney Concert Hall.

THURSDAY OCTOBER 18

Music Alive (RNZ Concert, 7.30pm). Oh-la-la, an allFrench programme from the Auckland Philharmonia that includes Ravel’s swoony Le Tombeau de Couperin and Dukas’ The Sorcerer’s Apprentice. The star is harpsichord player Mahan Esfahani, who performs Poulenc’s Concert champêtre.