Sensational Spanish Pianist Warms Up Winter With Fiery NZSO Debut

Acclaimed Spanish pianist Javier Perianes makes his New Zealand Symphony Orchestra debut in Wellington and Christchurch in July.

Joining him will be the Aotearoa New Zealand debut of exciting young Finnish conductor Emilia Hoving.

Firebird: Ravel & Stravinsky in Wellington (17 July) and Christchurch (19 July) promises a thrilling evening of musical storytelling.

Celebrated for his ability to make the piano “sing and glitter with alert, polished brilliance” (Sydney Morning Herald), Perianes takes the stage for two dazzling works: Maurice Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G, a lively fusion of jazz-infused rhythms and echoes of the composer’s Spanish Basque heritage, and Manuel de Falla’s Nights in the Gardens of Spain, a dramatic and seductive portrait of Andalusian Spain.

“Music isn’t a profession, it’s a way of understanding life,” Perianes has said.

“You’re not a musician from 8am to 3pm and then close up shop. As a great master used to say: ‘Music attacks you at any time.’ It’s a passion that you carry inside, and you can’t disconnect.”

When Hoving – winner of the Finnish Critics’ Prize for Best Newcomer in the Arts (2021) – performed in Australia, Limelight Magazine hailed the evening as “a scintillating performance, memorable for its passion and drama… authoritative conducting, which drew out all the character and charm of each work and encouraged the best performances from the players.”

With a conducting style praised as both precise and powerful, Hoving leads the NZSO through an exhilarating programme.

From 1950s Christchurch with Kiwi composer John Ritchies’ Papanui Road, where the bustling energy of this busy thoroughfare and the clanging of tram bells come vividly to life; to the fiery magic of Igor Stravinsky’s Firebird, a masterpiece that shimmers with the legend of the glowing bird of Russian myth, this is an evening that’s not to be missed.

Stravinsky himself famously conducted the NZSO performing Firebird in Wellington in 1961.

COMING UP

NYO Adventure: Rachmaninov & Strauss – conductor Adam Johnson, soprano Madison Horman. Wellington (5 July), Auckland (6 July)

Mana Moana – conductor Brent Stewart, Signature Choir. Wellington (24-25 July)

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