Making sense of Cook’s confusion
She went back to the piece and ‘‘tinkered’’ with it.
‘‘I was polishing the edges or something, just small details.
It’s an abstract piece, yet not abstract. Pictorial, if you like, but not pictorial, its somewhere inbetween.
‘‘It suggests things.’’
Dame Gillian wants people to interpret her composition as they want.
‘‘I had certain things in my mind when I was writing, but I think people can pick up other things and that’s fine.’’
Added to that, she normally chose her own themes.
‘‘This is the first piece I’ve had with a specific theme, an orchestral piece. It isn’t something I would have chosen, but I’ve really appreciated working on it.
‘‘It takes you into the history of that time and place. Day one after Cook’s arrival [and] people are being shot.’’
It is also important to remember that while New Zealand celebrated the arrival of Cook, other people had already ‘‘arrived’’ in the country.
‘‘There were waves of Maori before that. For everyone there was the same problem: You come across a vast expanse of water and you don’t know what you are going to find.
‘‘It was true for the first people who came and people that come now. Everyone has come across that water.’’
Dame Gillian says Dunedin is a good place to write.
‘‘I’ve been writing there for a long time. I spend some of time down south and some of my time in the north.
‘‘In the north, I’m still settling in and doing things to the place. In Dunedin, I’ve got a set up I can just go to and work.’’
Dame Gillian starts a work with pen and paper and then puts it on computer.
‘‘I’ve devised a way to work between the two.’’
She heard the work for the first time earlier this month.
‘‘It’s like going from two dimensions to three. It was good. The players seemed to like it.’’
Dame Gillian already has two or three new projects ‘‘percolating’’.
‘‘Whatever the next piece is, it’s exciting.
Turanganui will be played by the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra (NZSO) as part of its Classical Hits performance, which will also feature works by Franz Schubert, Claude Debussy and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky.
Many of the works have been used in movies and television.
It is being conducted by NZSO associate conductor Hamish McKeich, who earlier this year conducted the orchestra for its soldout and criticallyacclaimed performances of Star Wars: A New Hope in the New Zealand Festival.
The guest soloist is NZSO principal cellist Andrew Joyce, who will play Tchaikovsky’s Variations on a Rococo
Theme, the composer’s most famous work for cello.
‘‘Tchaikovsky’s Rococo Variations is a real thrill, both to play and to listen to and I’m superexcited to be touring this piece around the country with my wonderful friends and colleagues of the NZSO,’’ Joyce said.