Two Of NZ’s Best Lied The Way

MEDIA RELEASE
April 17, 2007

Two Of NZ’s Best Lied The Way

Lion Foundation Twilight Chamber Series, Concert 2, ‘An Evening of Lieder’, Mon 7 May, 6.30pm, Concert Chamber, Auckland Town Hall, THE EDGE.

Patricia Wright – Soprano
Diedre Irons – Piano

Two of the country’s top musical talents, soprano Patricia Wright and pianist Diedre Irons, join together to present an intimate recital of European Classical song at An Evening of Lieder on Monday 7 May.

The concert is the second of the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra’s new Lion Foundation Twilight Chamber Series presented in the Concert Chamber of the Auckland Town Hall, THE EDGE at the early evening time of 6.30pm.

Auckland-based Patricia Wright says she grew up hearing lieder on LPs by singers Elizabeth Schwartzkopf, Elly Ameling and Rita Streich and would often attend performances with her parents at the Auckland Town Hall.

“The artform will never die in my heart and I know what a great privilege it is to be able to perform an evening of some of my favourite and well known songs,” she says. “The challenge now is to bring these songs alive in performance through my interpretation and close unity with my accompanist, Diedre Irons.”

An Evening of Lieder will include songs by composers Schumann, Schubert, R. Strauss and Hugo Wolf, including a rare Auckland performance of Schumann’s Frauenliebe und-Leben (Woman’s Love and Life) song cycle. The eight songs are based on a poem by Adelbert von Chamisso that details a woman’s journey through love, marriage, motherhood and the death of her husband.

“Unlike opera, lieder recitals do not have props or scenery,” says Wright. “The composers set wonderful poems by their contemporaries to beautiful vocal and piano music. It is an artform that needs complete concentration and delivery of words and melody.”

The relationship between the singer and the pianist when presenting lieder extends beyond mere accompaniment with the performance a true duet between the two.

“Lieder is all about the linking of words and music,” says Wright. “Some of the Richard Strauss and Hugo Wolf songs are particularly challenging for the pianist and great technical skill is required at the keyboard.”

Chief Executive of the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra, Barbara Glaser, says the Lion Foundation Twilight Chamber Series provides audiences with an opportunity to hear repertoire outside of the general orchestral realm.

“The full house at the first Lion Foundation Twilight Chamber Series concert in February showed that there is an audience eager to experience concerts of this nature,” she says. “It is a true pleasure to offer Auckland a rare recital of lieder from these two remarkably talented women.”

Tickets for the Lion Foundation Twilight Chamber Series, Concert 2, An Evening Of Lieder, are available from Ticketek Ph 09 307 5139 or www.ticketek.co.nz.

Media Contact: For more information or photos of Patricia Wright or Diedre Irons please contact Jennifer Scott, Publicist, Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra, Ph 09 638 7073 ext 203, Mob 027 324 8745, jennifers@aucklandphil.co.nz.

Lion Foundation Twilight Chamber Series 2
An Evening of Lieder

Programme

Robert Schumann Widmung
Der Nussbaum
Die Kartenlegerin
Frauenliebe und-Leben (song cycle)
Interval

Franz Schubert Der Musensohn
Suleika 1
Lied der Mignon
Rastlose Liebe

Richard Strauss Schlechtes Wetter
Traum durch die Dammerung
Meinem Kinde
Cacilie

Hugo Wolf Nein junger Herr
Mausfallen Spruchlein
Ich hab in Penna

Ends

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