CREATION

In Darius Milhaud’s La Création du Monde, instead of accompanying invisibly from the pit, the orchestra shares the stage with the Ballet Collective Aotearoa. Milhaud’s work, described as “a milestone in cross-Atlantic pollination”, weds European art music to jazz harmonies and melodies Milhaud picked up from his visits to Harlem and to New York bars and clubs. They were “a revelation” to him: “Against the beat of the drums, the melodic lines criss-crossed in a breathless patter of broken and twisted rhythms.” The Creation’s opening lays a soulful saxophone over a kind of Baroque prelude as Milhaud sets an African creation myth to bluesy wailing, cakewalks, and playful jazz fugues.

The orchestra is joined by the John Psathas Group to play Bartók’s Concerto for Two Pianos and Percussion. The ensemble is fittingly named for our Orchestra Wellington Patron, John Psathas, whose percussion compositions are also internationally sought-after. Bartók’s concerto adapts his Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion to bring more sonorities to this striking blend of Expressionism and Hungarian folk music. Bartók composed it to perform with his wife, the pianist Ditta Pásztory.

Nielsen’s Symphony No. 4 is fully invested in the composer’s unique voice, which is wild and wayward as a storm outdoors, mysterious as a forest glade in the northern pine woods. It is sub-titled “The Inextinguishable”, which suits the sense of hope and power that flows through it from the very first notes despite the fact that it was composed during WWI. Amid so much death, Nielsen contended that music was life: “As soon as even a single note sounds in the air or through space, it is the result of life and movement; that is why music (and dance) are the more immediate expressions of the will to live. The symphony evokes the most primal sources of life and the wellspring of the life-feeling; that is, what lies behind all human, animal and plant life, as we perceive or live it. Life is indomitable and inextinguishable…”

This event is presented with support from Chamber Music New Zealand.

We welcome dance artists from the Ballet Collective Aotearoa.