World Famous Notre Dame Organist Joins NZSO For Magical Tour
One of the world's greatest living organists will headline an evening of musical fantasy when the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra embarks on its NZSO Spellbound tour in June.
In his New Zealand debut with the NZSO, virtuoso Olivier Latry will perform Francis Poulenc's Organ Concerto in Wellington and Auckland, and Haydn's Organ Concerto in C Major in Christchurch.
Olivier Latry is not just a star in his native France, but has performed to acclaim in more than 50 countries. He was only 23 when he became a tenured organist of the Notre Dame de Paris cathedral. He is a towering figure in French organ music and is presently a professor of the renowned Paris Conservatory.
Olivier Latry is hailed for the elegance and vigour of his playing, brilliantly exploiting the tonal range and colour of the classical organ. His performances are said to be standard-setting for their prodigious dexterity and flights of imagination.
His appearances are famously thrilling for concertgoers, including audiences without a previous appreciation for organ music. The Guardian reviewer Tristan Jakob Hoff declared: "Olivier Latry is an organ god and, in the space of a single performance...he turned me into a fan of an instrument I formerly loathed. There is no better feeling as a concertgoer than that of having your own long-held prejudices uprooted."
Poulenc's twentieth-century concerto for organ, timpani and strings is said to have redefined organ music. The NZSO will also perform two sparkling works of classical magic: Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade, inspired by The Arabian Nights, and The Sorcerer's Apprentice by Paul Dukas, immortalised by Walt Disney's classic 1940 movie Fantasia.
The NZSO Spellbound tour is led by charismatic Bulgarian guest conductor Rossen Milanov, leading the NZSO for the first time. Music Director of the Princeton Symphony Orchestra and a major figure among international youth orchestras, Rossen Milanov led the NZSO National Youth Orchestra for its highly regarded 2010 tour. He is known as a conductor who must be seen by anyone who cares about the future of music.
Rossen Milanov will give a free 30-minute talk in Auckland and Wellington, 45-minutes prior to each performance. For details of NZSO pre-concert talks, visit http://www.nzso.co.nz/concerts/2012-season-pre-concert-talks/
NZSO Spellbound is presented in association with National Bank Private Banking.
