Houstoun Plays Saint-Saëns

SALINA FISHER (NZ): KINTSUGI FOR ORCHESTRA
SAINT-SAËNS: PIANO CONCERTO NO.2 IN G MINOR
TCHAIKOVSKY: SYMPHONY NO.4 IN F MINOR

UWE GRODD Conductor
MICHAEL HOUSTON Piano

Drawing on her Japanese heritage, New Zealand composer Salina Fisher’s Kintsugi is named after the delicate art of repairing a broken item of pottery with gold. Based on her stunning piano trio, this premiere of Kintsugi for Orchestra promises a dazzling depth of colour in its explorations into the fragility and strength of brokenness.

The attractiveness of Saint-Saëns’ music has ensured his place in the canon of French Romantic composers. One of the most popular and frequently performed works in any genre, Saint-Saëns’ virtuosic Piano Concerto No.2 was written in just 17 days, and was premiered with the composer himself on piano. We warmly welcome back Michael Houstoun to perform this masterpiece on the piano.

Dedicated to his patron and friend Nadezhda von Meck, Tchaikovsky’s Fourth Symphony resembles a fight against fate and those unbidden forces and feelings that attempt to bar and steal one’s happiness in life. Tchaikovsky explained that it was an echo of his feelings of loneliness during the long ‘lockdown’ of a Russian winter. But ultimately, he leaves the last movement with hope, explaining that joy is a powerful force, and still possible if one looks outside oneself by caring for and rejoicing in the happiness of others.