NZSO | Legacy (Auckland)

Alexander Shelley | Conductor
Gabriela Montero | Piano

Gillian Whitehead | retrieving the fragility of peace
Mozart | Piano Concerto No. 20
Brahms | Symphony No.1

The NZSO open a weekend of concerts with retrieving the fragility of peace, a new work by Dunedin composer Dame Gillian Whitehead. Pianist Gabriela Montero brings her considerable gifts to Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 20, a darkly toned jewel in the piano repertoire.

Brahms laboured over his First Symphony for 14 years, hampered by his painful awareness of constantly hearing “the giant [Beethoven] marching behind you!” But despite comparisons to his musical forebear, the Finale’s alphorn melody and the symphony’s complex rhythms marks his First as quintessential Brahms, all the way.