Invercargill musicians will get to play alongside the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, when the national orchestra arrives in Southland for two days next month (10-11 Jun).

The invitation to local musicians, on 10th June, will be part of a daytime Side-by-Side session.

The orchestra will also give a daytime concert the following day, presented by award-winning British music educator, composer and musician presenter Rachel Leach and performing Stravinsky’s captivating The Firebird Suite, for Southland Schools before its evening show entitled Jubilation: Strauss & Shostakovic.

The evening performance will feature masterpieces by the two music giants alongside two stunning contemporary New Zealand works.

NZSO Music Director Emeritus James Judd, who conducts Jubilation in association with Summerset Retirement Villages, said Invercargill audiences would love the music from two young New Zealand composers, both Todd Corporation Young Composer Awards winners.

“Our programme begins with the exuberant Fanfare by Henry Weng whilst the second half of the concert kicks off with the whimsical fantasy world of Sai Natarajan in We Long for an Adventure.”

Jubilation is a rare opportunity to enjoy Richard Strauss’ Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme which Judd hails as “a theatrical feast of lively music and moods.”

Originally written for a revival of the comic masterpiece of the same name by French playwright Molière, this exquisite work captures the spirit of the play while also expressing Strauss’ genius.

Dimitri Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 9, written to celebrate the Soviet victory at the end of the Second World War, was a significant departure from the big statements of his 7th and 8th symphonies. Jubilant, light and bursting with melodies, Judd says critics at the time misinterpreted it as support for Stalin’s regime. 

“Conductor Leonard Bernstein saw through the ruse and recognised that beneath the surface this music could be seen as ‘a great nose thumb against Stalin’. Underneath lurks complexity, irony and sorrow.”