Improvisation – Kāhui Takitoru – Ariana Tikao (taonga puoro), Bob Bickerton (taonga puoro), James Campbell (clarinet)
Richard Strauss – Till Eulenspiegel’s Merry Pranks (arr Franz Hasenöhrl) – Natalia Lomeiko (violin), Phoebe Russell (double bass), James Campbell (clarinet), Shadley van Wyck (horn), Todd Gibson-Cornish (bassoon)
Benjamin Britten – Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings – Colin Ainsworth (tenor), Shadley van Wyck (horn), Adam Festival Orchestra
Ludwig van Beethoven – String Quartet No. 7 in F major, Op. 59 No. 1 – Jupiter String Quartet
The concert begins by inviting audiences into a cross-cultural sound world shaped in the moment, with improvisation led by taonga puoro practitioners, Ariana Tikao and Bob Bickerton, and Canadian clarinettist James Campbell. Following is a chamber music arrangement of Richard Strauss’s mischievous symphonic poem Till Eulenspiegel’s Merry Pranks, about an actual 14th century roguish prankster. Next is our second major English song cycle of the festival, Britten’s masterful Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings, offering an evocative and profound meditation on night and mortality. To conclude, we hear Beethoven’s monumental String Quartet No. 7 in F major, the first of three of his ‘Razumovsky’ cycle of string quartets, a groundbreaking work as well as being his most popular quartet.
Adam Festival Orchestra
Violin: Eden Annesley, Mélanie Clapiès, Peter Clark, Natalia Lomeiko, Meg Freivogel McDonough, Arna Morton, Mana Waiariki
Viola: Gillian Ansell, Tal Amoore, Liz Freivogel
Cello: Daniel McDonough, Lavinnia Rae, Martin Smith
Double bass: Phoebe Russell
