Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra Tickets

The New Zealand Herald Premier Series – Boléro 

8pm, Thursday 17 October

Auckland Town Hall 

Conductor Kazuki Yamada

Piano Louis Schwizgebel 

Arvo Pärt Fratres

Bartók Music for Strings, Percussion and Celeste

Ravel Piano Concerto in G

Ravel Boléro 

Meditative, timeless, unutterably beautiful, Pärt’s Fratres is something that seems to exist outside of this world. 

Bartók inhaled the essence of Hungarian folk music and from it made his own language. In the Music for Strings, Percussion and Celeste, we have the mysterious sounds of a moonlit night and the rustic energy of a village dance. 

Ravel’s featherweight concerto is infused with the essence of jazz, but it is jazz through a very Ravellian filter. Then, an endlessly repeated rhythm, a sinuously feline melody, an imperceptible but implacable crescendo: it is the most hypnotic piece in the business, Ravel’s always-exhilarating Boléro. 

The New Zealand Herald Premier Series – Zarathustra 

8pm, Thursday 31 October

Auckland Town Hall 

Conductor Giordano Bellincampi

Cello Harriet Krijgh 

Mozart Symphony No.29

Haydn Cello Concerto No.1

R. Strauss Also sprach Zarathustra 

Although born a generation apart, Mozart and Haydn were dear friends and these two pieces are well paired. One of Mozart’s sunniest symphonies bounces off Haydn’s cheerful concerto, played by the outstanding Dutch cellist Harriet Krijgh. 

Then Strauss’s huge tone-poem. It is best known for that music in 2001: A Space Odyssey, but there’s much more to it than that, including some seriously glorious music for the strings and a sparkling solo for the concertmaster. It is a piece that offers Maestro Bellincampi and the APO a chance to really shine. 

The New Zealand Herald Premier Series – Conflict & Triumph 

8pm, Thursday 14 November

Auckland Town Hall 

Conductor Giordano Bellincampi

Violin Ning Feng 

Salina Fisher New work

Beethoven Violin Concerto

Nielsen Symphony No.5 

The extraordinarily talented young New Zealand violinist and composer, Salina Fisher, was the youngest ever winner of The SOUNZ Contemporary Award, and she’s won it again since. We are eagerly waiting to hear what she’s got in store for us in her new piece. 

APO favourite Ning Feng returns with Beethoven’s titanic concerto, one of the summits of the violinist’s repertoire. 

Giordano Bellincampi continues his survey of his compatriot Carl Nielsen’s music with this remarkable symphony. The then-recent First World War is echoed in staggeringly violent music, with a rogue snare drum doing its best to upend the orchestra. 

Templar Great Classics – Pastoral 

7.30pm, Thursday 3 October

Auckland Town Hall 

Conductor Douglas Boyd

Violin Amalia Hall 

Elgar Introduction and Allegro

Saint-Saëns Violin Concerto No.3

Beethoven Symphony No.6 ‘Pastoral’ 

The dynamic Scottish conductor Douglas Boyd returns with a programme of pure pleasure. Elgar’s carefree Introduction and Allegro gives the APO strings a moment in the sun. 

The prodigiously talented New Zealand violinist Amalia Hall made her début with the APO at the age of nine. She joins us for Saint-Saëns’ delightful champagne concerto. 

Getting out of Vienna and into the country was vital for Beethoven, and in this piece he pours his love of nature into ever more magnificent music: singing of birds, streams, a storm with thunderbolts and lightning, and the rainbow after the downpour.