Dunedin Symphony Orchestra | Reflections – Vaughan Williams’ Oboe Concerto

Tianyi Lu | Conductor
Thomas Hutchinson | Oboe

Ravel | Le Tombeau de Couperin
Vaughan Williams | Oboe Concerto
Gareth Farr | Le Temps est à la Pluie
Shostakovich | Chamber Symphony

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Each of this programme’s works embodies their composer’s reflections on war or violent loss of life:

• Ravel’s Le Tombeau de Couperin’s movements are each dedicated to the memory of one of his friends who died fighting in World War I.
• Vaughan Williams’ music is alternately contemplative and sinister reflecting how deeply his First World War experiences affected him.
• New Zealand composer Gareth Farr’s Le Temps est à la Pluie is a threnody to those in the Pacific region adversely affected by nuclear testing.
• Shostakovich’s String Quartet No. 8 (transcribed by Rudolf Barshais as the ‘Chamber Symphony’ for strings) is dedicated ‘to the victims of fascism and war’.

Conductor Tianyi Lu continues her busy conducting schedule, with concerts in New Zealand, Australia, the UK, Lapland, the USA, Turkey, and Singapore.

Concerto soloist Thomas Hutchinson, the first New Zealander to win the prestigious 66th ARD competition in Munich in 2017, is now Melbourne Symphony Orchestra’s Principal Oboist.

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