NZSO Presents In the Hall of the Mountain King

Grieg’s Peer Gynt Suite boasts some of the most beloved music in the orchestral repertoire, where effervescent melodies take us on adventures through exotic lands and into the terrifying hall of the Mountain King himself. We begin, however, with an image of Mozart’s Paris. His Symphony No. 31 was composed in the French capital and is a testament to his precocious style and elegance. In Tchaikovsky’s Variations on a Rococo Theme, we are treated by charismatic conductor Ben Northey and 2011 Tchaikovsky Competition winner Narek Hakhnazaryan to a reverie of past traditions. Grieg’s Holberg Suite is a collection of dances that drift dreamily between baroque and modernist styles, completing a concert that celebrates the shifting boundaries between fantasy and reality.