Jeremy Wells Up Close And Personal With The NZSO On Prime

Media Release

Tuesday July 26 2011

Jeremy Wells Up Close And Personal With The NZSO On Prime

Jeremy Wells returns to our screens with an irreverent new documentary following the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra on its record breaking trip to Europe.

PRIME PRESENTS: THE GRAND TOUR, Jeremy Wells with the NZSO is a NZ On Air funded 76 minute spectacular featuring a no-holds barred look at the mysterious world of classical music.

The NZSO performed to sell-out crowds in the most famous concert halls in the world - the highlight being the Musikverien in Vienna.

"It was hard not to be moved to tears watching our national orchestra belt out Tchaikovsky's 5th Symphony in the same city where Mozart, Beethoven and Mahler had all been before," says Wells.

During the tour Wells was lucky to be granted a rare interview with New Zealand's indigenous operatic songstress Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, who attended one of the concerts in Geneva.

The Grand Tour features Tchaikovsky's 5th Symphony, Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique, Brahms' Hungarian Waltz no.5, and Lilburn's Aotearoa Overture all preformed and recorded live.

Wells gets up close and personal with many of the major players in the orchestra, a move he says was a clever trick to make them open up and reveal spicy details.

"I'm not sure anyone will talk to me after the programme goes to air which is sad because I have a lot of respect for all the members of the NZSO. They are an incredibly dedicated and talented group. If everyone in New Zealand was more like them our country wouldn't be in the state it's in."

The Grand Tour is Perendale's first feature length documentary produced by Jodie Molloy and directed by Jeremy Wells and Paul Casserly.

Prime viewers can enjoy this special one-off documentary on Sunday, July 31st at 8.45pm.

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