Sweep your significant other off their feet this Valentine’s Day with tickets to the Auckland Philharmonia’s The New Zealand Herald Premier Series: Passion & Mystery concert on 15 February – which can double as a gift and a wonderful belated Valentine’s Day date night!
This concert will be a special night as it kicks off the Auckland Philharmonia’s 2024 Season.
The concert opens with New Zealand composer Gemma Peacocke’s ‘White Horses’ about the mysterious death of Viva Waud Farmar, one of Aotearoa’s first female pilots, who leapt without warning from a biplane into the Cook Strait. The pilot reported seeing her plunge into a sea ‘with white horses everywhere.’
German cellist Julian Steckel makes a welcome return to the Auckland Philharmonia to perform the mercurial concerto, Shostakovich’s Cello Concerto No.2. This is a romantic, glittering, sardonic concerto, albeit with its composer’s characteristically brief and pithy style.
The concert will be concluded with Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No.6, ‘Pathétique.’ Tchaikovsky’s Sixth Symphony should really be known as the ‘Passionate’ Symphony; it’s a closer translation of the Russian word Tchaikovsky wrote on the score, and a vastly better description of music which is an intense, desperate struggle between the energetic will to live – and oblivion.
Book now at aucklandphil.nz/passion-mystery Or for those who want to leave open the choice of concert from the orchestra’s spectacular 2024 Season, Auckland Philharmonia gift certificates are also available to purchase via aucklandphil.nz/gift
