Manukau Symphony Orchestra: Magic Mozart

UWE GRODD | conductor
DEBORAH RAWSON | clarinet

LILBURN | Aotearoa Overture
MOZART | Clarinet Concerto in A Major
BRAHMS | Symphony No. 3 in F Major

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Aotearoa – land of the long white cloud – is a concert overture written in 1940 for orchestra by New Zealand composer Douglas Lilburn while he was still a student at London’s Royal College of Music. It was premiered in Great Britain at His Majesty’s Theatre London, but was not performed in NZ until 1959. It has remained a favourite on orchestral concert programmes ever since.

Mozart’s Concerto in A major for Clarinet was written for his friend, Stadler, who had already inspired the great clarinet quintet. Completed in 1791, the year of Mozart’s death, it was his farewell to instrumental music. The craftsmanship and invention is superb. Mozart and Stadler between them deserve almost all the credit for the subsequent acceptance of the clarinet as a most beautiful instrument.

Brahms completed his Third Symphony in 1883 when he was 50 years old and at the peak of his creative power. Some regard this as his heroic symphony; others compare it with Beethoven’s Fifth and called it his fate; others again call it a symphony of nature. Whatever the opinion, it is generally agreed that this symphony is a perfect expression of Brahms’ maturity in every aspect, be it form, idea or spiritual greatness.

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