Apotheosis

The Audi Concerts.

Pietari Inkinen - conductor
Saleem Abboud Ashkar - piano
Anna Leese - soprano

Lilburn - Processional Fanfare
Beethoven - Piano Concerto No. 5 Emperor
Mahler - Symphony No. 4

Experience GLORY with the NZSO

Join with us in celebrating the 2011 return of our Music Director Pietari Inkinen in this program of rich musical delights. In his Fourth Symphony, Mahler turned away from the massive architecture of his other symphonies to create a magical evocation of the spirit of childhood, ending with a heartfelt hymn to sacred innocence.

With the richly-glowing voice of New Zealand soprano Anna Leese, returning from an astonishing succession of international triumphs, Mahler’s vision of heaven will beam its radiance in unforgettable splendour. Saleem Abboud Ashkar has become in a short time one of the most sought-after pianists among the world’s leading conductors - the likes of Barenboim, Muti and Chailly - for his combination of technical mastery and poetic insight. His appearances in New Zealand are a coup in which we take great pride, featuring this exciting artist in one of the great concertos of all time, Beethoven’s mighty Emperor.

The concert opens with a stirring fanfare by the great New Zealand composer Douglas Lilburn, master of modern musical romanticism.