LIVESTREAM – NZH Premier Series: Messages to Mozart

Director: Andrew Beer
Piano: Stephen De Pledge

Ibert: Hommage à Mozart
Mozart: Piano Concerto No.23
Valentin Silvestrov: The Messenger-1996
Tchaikovsky: Serenade for Strings

Not just popular with audiences Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart has inspired composers through the ages. Ibert’s Hommage à Mozart was written in 1956 to celebrate Mozart’s 200th birthday. It is a bright, cheerful and very French-sounding tribute.

Stephen De Pledge performs one of Mozart’s finest piano concertos. Only Mozart could write music of such profound depth under such a supremely graceful surface.

The Messenger-1996 is a beautifully wistful piece, scored for piano, strings and a synthesiser, that echoes with Mozartian phrases. To close, Tchaikovsky’s charming and melodic Serenade for Strings - a nod towards one of his idols. The first movement, written in the form of a sonatina, was an intentional imitation of Mozart’s style.