Photo: New Zealand Symphony Orchestra
Gareth Farr’s classic From the Depths Sound the Great Sea Gongs is the opener in this NZSO concert conduced by Gemma New. Then internationally acclaimed flautist Emily Beynon makes her New Zealand debut in the world premiere of Danses Concertantes - a dazzling flute concerto by French composer Guillaume Connesson.
After the interval, immerse yourself in Mussorgsky’s timeless Pictures at an Exhibition, a vivid musical journey through the works of Viktor Hartmann.
Programme
Gareth FARR: The Invocation of the Sea, From the Depths Sound the Great Sea Gongs
Guillaume CONNESSON: Danses Concertantes (Flute Concerto No 2)
MUSSORGSKY arr Ravel: Pictures at an Exhibition
Gareth Farr Photo: supplied
From the Depths Sound the Great Sea Gongs was commissioned from NZ composer Gareth Farr by the NZSO for their 50th anniversary celebrations back in 1996.
A classic in New Zealand’s orchestral repertoire, it combines the exotic sound worlds of Indonesian gamelan, Rarotongan drumming and Japanese taiko drumming and draws on the composer’s expertise as a percussionist.
The evocative title came from an experience Farr had playing in the London Symphony Orchestra in a performance of Benjamin Britten’s Four Sea Interludes conducted by the legendary Leonard Bernstein.
While rehearsing the second Interlude, Bernstein exhorted the percussionists to “‘make those bells sound like Great Sea Gongs…’, which triggered Gareth Farr’s imagination, conjuring up images of “masses of gleaming bronze, covered with seaweed, lurking far beneath the waves, waiting…”
Part 1 of From the Depths Sound the Great Sea Gongs is titled ‘The Invocation of the Sea’.
New Zealand Symphony Orchestra/Gemma New
Emily Beynon Photo: Supplied / NZSO
Parisian composer Guillaume Connesson has been described as “...a contemporary sound wizard” whose “works sound almost cinematic.”
This is the world premiere of his second flute concerto, written for a world-class flutist - Emily Beynon. The concerto was co-commissioned by the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra (where Emily Beynon is Principal Flute), Cité de la musique-philharmonie de Paris, Finland’s Tapiola Sinfonietta and the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra.
Titled 'Danses Concertantes’, the composer describes his piece as a “suite of dances in seven movements”, which alternate fast and slow. Four fast movements framing three slower ones.
It’s orchestrated for a typical Mozart orchestra, with the addition of a percussionist, and this combination influenced his decision to favour bright colours and transparent textures.
In the forward to his score Connessons says: “I wanted the music to be very dynamic and virtuosic, to let the very essence of dance shine through everywhere, even in the slow movements.”
The dances are sunny, joyful, light, dramatic, energetic, gentle and explosive and show off the skill and musicality of one of the world’s top flutists – Emily Beynon.
Emily Beynon (flute), New Zealand Symphony Orchestra/Gemma New
Pictures at and Exhibition - the ten pictures represented in this music are:
- Gnomus (Hartmann’s design for a children’s toy nutcracker in the shape of a gnome)
- Il vecchio castello (a watercolour of a troubadour singing before a medieval Italian castle)
- (quarrelsome children with their nurses in the famous gardens of the Tuilleries in Paris)
- Bydło (a heavy Polish ox-cart. Polish word for “cattle”. A drawing of two big oxen pulling a heavy peasant cart with two huge wheels. The music contains a famous solo for the tuba)
- Ballet of the Chickens in their shells – Hartmann's design for costumes for the ballet Trilby. The chicks dance with only their legs sticking our from their shells.
- Samuel Goldenberg and Schmuyle (two pencil drawings belonging to Mussorgsky titled “Two Polish Jews – one rich, the other poor”)
- (A picture of a French market)
- The Catacombs (Hartmann and two others exploring the Paris catacombs)
- The Hut on Fowl’s Legs (The home of the Russian fairytale witch Baba Yaga, whose hut is mounted on four chicken legs).
- The Great Gate at Kiev (Hartmann’s architectural design for a structure to commemorate the day Alexander II escaped assassination in Kiev. The gate, which was never built, is pictured with a giant helmet on top.)
New Zealand Symphony Orchestra/Gemma New
Producer: David McCaw
Sound Engineer: Darryl Stack
Recorded 27 March 2025 at the Michael Fowler Centre, Wellington by RNZ Concert
