The New Zealand Herald Premier Series: From The New World: CANCELLED

Conductor: Johannes Fritzsch
Violin: Liu-Yi Retallick

Price: The Oak
Barber: Violin Concerto
Dvořák: Symphony No.9 ‘From the New World’

Two American composers, Florence Price and Samuel Barber, are joined by a visitor. Dvořák was living in New York when he composed his Ninth Symphony. Just before giving the conductor the score, he hastily scrawled that evocative title on the front page.

Asked about the future of American music, Dvořák predicted it would spring from African and Native traditions. He would have loved this magisterial tone-poem by the pioneering African-American composer Florence Price.

Liu-Yi Retallick steps out from the orchestra to play Barber’s beautiful concerto, one of the very loveliest works for the violin.