Come in from the cold for British piano star

Come in from the cold for British piano star Freddy Kempf and the NZSO

One of the world’s most fearless pianists will play the classical masterpiece pianists fear most when the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra commences its Russian Romantics tour in June.

Explosive young British virtuoso Freddy Kempf will have a licence to thrill in Auckland and Wellington, tackling Rachmaninov’s notoriously demanding Piano Concerto No. 3 – immortalised in the Oscar-winning 1996 movie Shine.

Kempf will also perform Tchaikovsky’s thunderous Piano Concerto No. 1 – among the most famous and popular piano concerti in classical music history – in a second programme for audiences in Auckland, Hamilton, Wellington and Christchurch.

33-year-old Kempf was a child prodigy and then a teenage piano sensation, and is now considered one of the finest young pianists in the world.

He is renowned for his muscular technique, a willingness to take risks and the “spontaneous combustion” of his playing. A key feature is his dextrous finger-work, and a heat-seeking ability to find the emotional heart of the music. He last delighted New Zealand audiences with the NZSO in 2007.

Intensely charismatic Russian conductor Alexander Lazarev will lead the Orchestra for both programmes, which feature masterpieces of romantic Russian nationalism. Nobody is a better exponent of Russian music, and he enjoys a warm relationship with the NZSO.

Russian Romantics also includes Glinka, Glazunov, Dvořàk and Prokofiev’s dazzling Symphony No. 7, whose original finale was suppressed by Stalin’s Soviet regime. Uniquely, the NZSO will perform both endings – the official version, and the one first intended by the composer. In a fascinating twist, Alexander Lazarev will explain each version to the audience.

Come in from the cold and feel the heat with the NZSO and Russian Romantics!

ENDS

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