NZSO Planets: Elgar & Holst

Kaija Saariaho, Asteroid 4179: Toutatis (New Zealand Premiere)
Elgar, Violin Concerto
Holst, The Planets

Behold the universe in this cosmos-spanning programme of English classics.

Gustav Holst’s The Planets justly belongs in the temple of twentieth-century masterworks. The relentless theme of “Mars” inspired film music decades later; “Jupiter’s” jolly tunes, full of enthusiasm, made people break into dance at its first dress rehearsal; and “Neptune’s” ghostly aura, here to be memorably enhanced by the women of Voices New Zealand Chamber Choir, indelibly evokes the mysterious void of space.

Elgar’s Violin Concerto was written for Fritz Kreisler and first recorded by a teenage Yehudi Menuhin. This alone is enough to inscribe it in history. But what makes it even more special is Elgar’s particular love for it, once telling a friend he wanted one of its themes inscribed on his tomb. This treasured opus will be brought to crackling life by Christian Tetzlaff, a soloist more often likened to “a rockstar […] with so much violinistic superpower” (Der Tagesspiegel).