Allegro Largo Scherzo Finale

NZSO with Collin Currie (percussion), conducted by Alexander Shelley at the Michael Fowler Centre Aaron Copland: Appalachian Spring Suite Jennifer Higdon: Percussion Concerto Lyell Cresswell: Landscapes of the Soul Ludwig van Beethoven: Symphony No. 6 “Pastoral” First of all, I have not yet forgotten about the NYO. At some point I’ll hopefully write something about [...]

So, this is the lead story on Stuff right at the moment (I was looking for the John Button review for the previous post). Apparently we’re supposed do be shocked that Dame Kiri te Kanawa could possibly criticise poor helpless (and coincidentally now rather wealthy) Susan Boyle. Really? Unless the reporter conducting the interview for [...]

John Button’s review of last Friday’s NZSO concert with Dame Malvina Major is certainly the most negative review I’ve seen him write in quite some time (although his review of the following concert is somewhat nicer). Although I didn’t attend the concert, I’m not surprised at all – all the issues that Button raises with [...]

Schumann: Piano Concerto in A Minor Shostakovich: Symphony No. 11 “The Year 1905” New Zealand School of Music Orchestra at St. Andrew’s on the Terrace conducted by Ken Young with Diedre Irons, piano There are two other concerts I had planned on writing about before getting to this one – but that was before actually [...]

It would probably be fair to say that my past few months as a ‘self-taught’ harpist probably haven’t taught me a whole lot, at least in conventional terms. At some point I’ll probably remember that I should be buying more music from somewhere (or knuckling down to learn the Nicholas Moor Three Pieces for Lever [...]