Latest news with #FirebirdSuite
RNZ News
a day ago
- Entertainment
- RNZ News
Carolyn Mills: Leaving on her own terms
This audio is not downloadable due to copyright restrictions. NZSO harpist Carolyn Mills Photo: Stephen A'Court Photography When Carolyn Mills looked at the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra programme for 2025 she knew which gig she'd bow out on. And so it transpired that the orchestra's 17 July performance of Stravinsky's "Firebird Suite", Dukas' "Sorcerer's Apprentice", Ravel's "Piano Concerto in G", and John Ritchie's "Papanui Road" in Wellington's Michael Fowler Centre would be Mills' last as the ensemble's Principal Harp. She says three of the pieces are personal favourites, and all have great harp parts. Mills sat down with RNZ Concert host Bryan Crump to look back on her more than three decades with the orchestra, and a lifetime with one of the most recognisable orchestral instruments. It all started as a child in Memphis who saw a woman playing the harp on TV. Mills told her parents that's what she wanted to do. It took them a while to save up the money, but their support of their daughter's dream has never been in doubt. Nor has her decision in 1989 to travel from one end of the Pacific to the other to play with the NZSO - Mills loves New Zealand. Still prominent despite being at the back of the strings: Carolyn Mills (left) with the NZSO. Photo: supplied Mills talked to Crump about some of her favourite concerts, which included JS Bach's Goldberg Variations with an exquisite but terribly tricky harp part playing music usually given to a keyboard player. She also has very fond memories of playing "Harold in Italy" , which is half a viola concerto, half a symphonic poem by Berlioz. The viola soloist Antoine Tamestit wandered down to the back of the string section to play alongside her, giving Mills the thrill of hearing and seeing him play his Stradivarius viola up close. Mills also nominated some of her favourite pieces, such as the Adagietto from Mahler's 5th Symphony. She's still unsure what her future plans are, but they will certainly involve playing the harp. Mills continues to play "therapeutic harp" for people in hospices, something she and Crump discussed last time she joined Three to Seven. There are definitely travel plans, and some of that travel will most likely involve her favourite place in the world, Fiordland. As for that final concert back in July; it all went very smoothly until she "burst into tears" after the final chord. We're all a little sad you're retiring, Carolyn, but we're very grateful for the time you spent make music with our national orchestra. Fiordland, a happy place for at least one harpist. Photo: 123RF
Yahoo
29-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Game of Thrones and Lord of the Rings music to enchant Gloucestershire
THE English Symphony Orchestra will perform a concert with a fantasy theme in Cheltenham. The orchestra, which was founded in 1980, will perform at the Cheltenham Town Hall on Friday, May 23. The concert, which will begin at 7.30pm, is called Wizards, Witches and Warriors. The programme will include music from Game of Thrones, World of Warcraft, Lord of the Rings, Firebird Suite and the Sorcerer's Apprentice. Kenneth Woods, the English Symphony Orchestra's artistic director and principal conductor, said: "We are so pleased to be able to present this concert in the beautiful surroundings of Cheltenham Town Hall; combining the ethereal realms of video games to the epic landscapes of cinema, this concert celebrates the power of music to craft worlds, evoke heroes and conjure dragons, featuring iconic scores from Game of Thrones, Lord of the Rings and legendary video game series like World of Warcraft." Tickets at £29.50 and concessions are available at the Cheltenham Town Hall website.
The Guardian
28-02-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Järvi conducts Tüür and Stravinsky's The Firebird review – brutality and balance from the Philharmonia
Erkki-Sven Tüür's new cello concerto opens with a mighty thrum and concludes with the orchestra dissolving magically into the ether. Subtitled Labyrinths of Life, it's a typically colourful and occasionally brutal journey that wends its unbroken way through movements labelled Dark and Deep to attain an uneasy truce in a finale entitled Light. The Estonian composer's second cello concerto, a Philharmonia co-commission, was here receiving its UK premiere with its original soloist Nicolas Altstaedt. Complex and densely scored, it demands a virtuoso technique as the harried cellist ranges from the instrument's snarling lowest register to the most perilous of heights. Calling for a substantial orchestra, including a skilfully deployed battery of exotic percussion, the work is an intricately balanced marriage of equals. The Philharmonia, conducted with notable clarity by Tüür's fellow countryman Paavo Järvi, was kept on its toes, fragmentary ideas ricocheting back and forth like musical bullets. Altstaedt's sinewy tone was only occasionally lost in the orchestral swell. The cadenza, a physical tour de force, saw him striking and stroking the strings with bow and fingers, while slapping and tapping out a tattoo on the instrument's body and neck. A slightly lopsided programme coupled the 30-minute concerto with Stravinsky's equally substantial Petrushka, while the totality of the second half comprised the same composer's 23-minute Firebird Suite. Järvi, an old hand at both, adopted a precise, undemonstrative approach, knowing instinctively when to intervene and when to give the orchestra its head. Petrushka, given here in the pared-back 1947 revision, was a little foursquare at first, but the orchestra soon loosened its stays, tossing off a string of whirling dances with ripely characterful solo contributions (the contrabassoon got an audible chuckle for a fabulously vulgar subterranean fart). Trumpet, bassoon and flute covered themselves in glory in flirtatious episodes between the Ballerina and the Moor. The second half saw Järvi teasing out some breathtaking pianissimos. Skittering variations for The Firebird were followed by a wistful rondo for the enchanted princesses. Helter-skelter syncopations threatened to derail the Infernal Dance, but the players recovered, tumbling exhausted into a gossamer lullaby before rebuilding to an ecstatic apotheosis.
