NZ Herald Premier Series: Reimagined

Conductor: Tung Chieh Chuang
Pipa: Wu Man

Stravinsky: Pulcinella Suite
Harrison: Pipa Concerto
Shostakovich: Symphony No.1

To hear an unfamiliar instrument is a revelation, but doubly so when its unexpected depths are revealed by a virtuoso. Wu Man is the preeminent player of the pipa, a Chinese lute, with five Grammy nominations to her name. The American composer Lou Harrison, a lifelong devotee of Asian music, wrote this fabulously eclectic concerto for her.

Shostakovich’s First Symphony is a madcap piece that instantly propelled its 19-year-old composer onto the world stage.

Stravinsky reached back to the past with Pulcinella, reinventing 18th-century music in what can only be called an exceedingly Stravinskyian way.