Old World, New World – Music by French and American composers

On 13 September Resonance Ensemble conducted by Tony Ryan with guest violin soloist Manu Berkeljon will once again surprise you with sparkling orchestral gems, some of which are not heard often enough.

But this concert opens with something very well-known – French composer Emmanuel Chabrier’s sunny, spectacular and colourful evocation of Spain – the brilliant and popular España Rhapsody. Chabrier wrote it after a holiday in Spain in 1883, and it was so enthusiastically received at its first performance that it had to be encored. And although Chabrier wrote a considerable amount of other successful music – operas, piano music, and other orchestral works – España made him famous overnight.

From the Old World (Europe) our programme then jumps the Atlantic to the New World (America). Although Samuel Barber began writing his opulent and expressive Violin Concerto in Switzerland in 1939, the onset of the war forced him to return home to Philadelphia where he finished it the same year. Since its première in 1941 Barber’s Violin Concerto has become one of the most frequently performed of all 20th-century concertos. Our soloist for this concert is Manu Berkeljon, recently returned to New Zealand from a professional career in Sweden where she also played this same concerto.

Finally, back to the Old World, and our programme concludes with music by another French composer. César Franck’s Symphony in D minor is less often heard than it deserves. Unlike most symphonies, it has just three movements, the second of which boasts an affecting and eloquent cor anglais solo, pre-empting the famous solo in the Largo of Dvořák’s New World Symphony by five years. Written in 1888, Franck’s symphony is one of a small handful of masterworks by a composer whose principal occupation was as one of the world’s leading organists. Our conductor Tony Ryan first heard Franck’s Symphony as an eighteen-year-old at the first orchestra concert he ever attended. On that occasion the NZBC Symphony Orchestra (now the NZSO) was conducted by Andre Kostelanetz in Canterbury Court, and it has remained one of Tony’s most fondly remembered musical experiences.

As we anticipate Spring in New Zealand, Resonance Ensemble brings you another innovative bouquet of musical blooms that will surely bring a breath of fresh air to raise your spirits.

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