DSO - 'Celebrating Matariki - Whakanuia Matariki'

Brent Stewart: Conductor
Ariana Tikao: Taonga Pūoro

Ariana Tikao/Phil Brownlee: Manaaki
Larry Pruden: Night Song
Brigid Bisley: Glimmer of Blue
Gillian Whitehead: Ngā Whetū o Matariki - Stars of Matariki - commission
Mozart: Symphony No. 41, Jupiter

To celebrate Matariki, this concert’s music depicts aspects of the sky, and the concert features some of New Zealand’s outstanding composers and performers.
Brent Stewart is a multi-talented musician: not only does he conduct numerous New Zealand orchestras, but he is also Wellington’s Orpheus Choir’s Music Director and an Orchestra Wellington percussionist. Singer Ariana Tikao is also a leading player of taonga pūoro (Māori instruments), as well as being a composer whose compositions explore themes relating to her Kāi Tahu identity.
In his Night Song (1974), Larry Pruden uses the strings to conjure up an atmospheric nocturnal setting, Brigid Bisley’s Glimmer of Blue (2005) depicts a ‘far-off glimmering sea or sky’, and Dame Gillian Whitehead’s new work focuses on some of the stars in the Matariki cluster.

Recognised as being one of Mozart’s greatest symphonies, the Jupiter is known for its good humour, exuberant energy, and unusually grand scale. It is thought these qualities earned the symphony its nickname Jupiter as these were also the qualities of the Roman god Jupiter, god of the sky and king of the gods.