Nodame Live 2

Edo de Waart conductor
Wai-yin Wong piano
Michael Wilson oboe

ROSSINI William Tell: overture
MOZART Eine Kleine Nachtmusik K525, Romance Andante
MOZART Piano Sonata No 8, K310, 1st movement
MOZART Oboe concerto K314, 1st movement
NIELSEN Symphony No 4, The Inextinguishable 4th movement
DVORAK Symphony No 8, 1st movement
RAVEL Jeux d’eau
MOZART Symphony No.31 in D, K.297 Paris, 1st movement
RAVEL Bolero

Northern Sinfonia and Chorus

Feb 12
Colin Matthews … through the glass
Britten Les Illuminations
Sandrine Piau (Soprano)
Beethoven Symphony No 9 in D minor, Op 125
Lisa Milne (Soprano)
Harriet Williams (Mezzo-soprano)
Michael Colvin (Tenor)
Stephan Loges (Baritone)
Conductor: Thomas Zehetmair


Northern Sinfonia, with its Music Director Thomas Zehetmair, is one of Europe’s most exciting chamber orchestras with a repertoire that spans three centuries of classical music and includes specially commissioned new works. The orchestra plays to great acclaim and also regularly appears at leading international venues including the Berlin Philharmonie, the Amsterdam Concertgebouw and Vienna’s Musikverein. October 2008 marks the start of Northern Sinfonia’s 50th Anniversary Season, its fourth season as the orchestra of The Sage Gateshead, its own spectacular Norman Foster designed home for music.

Northern Sinfonia and Chorus will perform in two glorious evenings of classical choral fare: Haydn’s biggest and last large-scale mass, Harmoniemesse, and Beethoven’s choral Ninth Symphony. A splendid array of soloists will join the performances: Sandrine Piau, Lisa Milne, Harriet Williams, Michael Colvin and Stephan Loges.

National Ballet of China: The Peony Pavilion

Producer: Zhao Ruheng
Adaptation and Director: Li Liuyi
Composer and Arranger: Guo Wenjing
Choreographer: Fei Bo
Costume Designer: Emi Wada
Stage Designer: Michael Simon
Live Accompaniment: National Ballet of China Symphony Orchestra
Conductor: Zhang Yi

Seven years in the making.
China's most passionate love story.
Raise the Red Lantern thrilled audiences in 2002 – don't miss the company's latest extravaganza.
“Irresistible in its integrity, artistry and huge potential” Financial Times
After the phenomenal success of the internationally-acclaimed Raise the Red Lantern, performed at the HKAF in 2002, National Ballet of China has adapted The Peony Pavilion from the most romantic story in Chinese literature.
The stellar international production team includes Academy Award-winning designer Emi Wada. Choreographer Fei Bo rises to the challenge of adopting stylised kun opera movements into Western classical ballet. This visually stunning piece retains the purity and drama of both forms and is enhanced by Michael Simon's starkly effective set design. With principal dancers who have received many international awards and accolades, this production is distinguished by excellence.
Tang Xianzu (1550-1616) wrote this classic tale about love, death and resurrection during the Ming Dynasty. Much more than a love story, The Peony Pavilion affirms the regenerative power of true emotions.

Pygmalion

Venue: Lyric Theatre, HK Academy for Performing Arts.

Lightweight entertainment? Not bloody likely!
Peter Hall's Revival of Bernard Shaw’s Comic Classic is a Triumph
“The finest Shaw in years.” Daily Telegraph
Exclusive Asian Premiere
Most people know the musical adaptation of Pygmalion: My Fair Lady; many sing along to the songs and most love the final scene, a happy ending of love and marriage. An ending, incidentally, that George Bernard Shaw derided as “damnable”. Shaw deliberately subverted Ovid's Metamorphoses when he wrote Pygmalion. In his play, the boy doesn't get the girl. Sir Peter Hall's “scintillating revival of Shaw's most famous comedy” (The Guardian) returns to the original text resulting in a wry comedy about class, language and emotion.
Arrogant, pompous and truculent Henry Higgins bets that he can transform guttersnipe Eliza from a Cockney flower-seller into a posh lady. She is eager for elocution lessons and he takes on the task with diabolical joy. He attempts to change Eliza's entire personality, oblivious to the consequences for her. While not overtly political, Shaw's play reflects his sympathy for the suffragette movement and has a distinct feminist bent. Rather than marry his transformation, as did Ovid's Pygmalion, Higgins is left forlorn as Eliza's metamorphosis gives her unexpected independence and strength of character, allowing her to leave him.
Pygmalion delighted both audiences and critics when it opened in Bath in 2007. This superb production is a triumph for Hall. Shaw had become unfashionable ─ his plays considered only lightweight entertainment. Hall's production rediscovers Shaw as a writer who merged the comic and the serious, writing about character and human destiny. Described as “astonishingly fresh and funny” (Sunday Times), Hall's rendition exposes the danger of being transformed into someone else's toy.
Eliza's scandalous exit line, “Walk! Not bloody likely”, continues to cause laughter; it is a comedy after all. But it is the seriousness of the play that remains powerful and contemporary.

Chicago Symphony Orchestra

Program
Mozart Symphony No. 41 in C, K551
Richard Strauss Ein Heldenleben


“Sweeping energy and clarion brilliance” The New York Times

With an international conducting career spanning more than five decades, Bernard Haitink is one of the world’s most celebrated conductors. He has made frequent guest appearances with both the Berlin and Vienna Philharmonic Orchestras and has led many of the world’s top orchestras, including 25 years as Principal Conductor of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. His immense catalogue of recordings include the complete symphonies of Mahler, Bruckner, Brahms and Schumann.

One of the best orchestras in the world, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra is distinguished by its unique tone colour and artistry. Since the era of legendary Fritz Reiner and Georg Solti, the orchestra has amassed more than 900 recordings and earned 58 Grammy awards – more than any other orchestra in the world. In 2006, Haitink was appointed Principal Conductor of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, marking the “ beginning of an historic musical era for the orchestra . . . With Haitink and the CSO, a great musical partnership has been born” (Chicago Tribune).

Haitink and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra promise two exciting evenings of monumental canon. On the first evening, Mozart’s Jupiter Symphony is followed by Strauss’s autobiographical Ein Heldenleben. On the second evening, the spotlight falls entirely on Mahler’s Symphony No. 6.