DSO - Bridget Plays Baroque

Forsyth Barr Matinée Series 1: Bridget plays Baroque.

Kenneth Young - Conductor
Bridget Douglas - Flute

Programme:
Mendelssohn: The Hebrides Overture
Honegger: Pastorale d’été
Quantz: Flute Concerto in G Major
John Ritchie: The Snow Goose
Mozart: Symphony No. 40

Dunedin-born, Bridget was a member of the DSO from 1986 until 1991, and also undertook studies at Otago University. After further study in New York and Chicago, she returned to New Zealand, and is now the NZSO’s Principal Flute, and a regular soloist with the DSO.

Kenneth Young conducts all the leading orchestras in New Zealand and Australia, and in this concert he will be directing a very varied programme.

Johann Joachim Quantz was the most innovative performer and composer for the flute in the eighteenth century. His flute concertos are revered by flutists around the world.

John Ritchie was an Otago University graduate, having completed his BMus in two years (1942-43) so he could take part in World War II. Appropriately The Snow Goose, written for flute and orchestra, is based on a story by Paul Gallico which is set in WW2. It relates the story of a Canadian goose which was rescued from the Essex marches, and eventually followed its rescuer to the beaches of Dunkirk for the evacuation.

Mozart’s Symphony No. 40 is one of his most popular symphonies, and has been used in films, television, and as a mobile phone ringtone in the 1990s.

Mendelssohn wrote his Hebrides Overture inspired by his visit to Scotland in 1829. This work is a seascape, beginning with gentle ripples, building up to a spectacular storm, and then subsiding again to sunny calm.