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2018 Concert Series: Spring with Wagner, Mendelssohn, Haydn, Beethoven

26-28 October

Napier Cathedral

https://www.facebook.com/events/260908018058890/

Friday/Sunday – Napier Civic Choir, Soloists and HBO present: Avro Part: The Beatitudes, Morten Lauridsen: Luz Aeterna, Joseph Haydn: Mass in Time of War Paukenmesse, Hob. XXII:9.

Saturday – Soloists and HBO present: Richard Wagner: Siegfried Idyll, Felix Mendelssohn: Violin Concerto in E minor, Op. 64, Ludwig Van Beethoven: Symphony No 2 in D Major, Op. 36.
Featured Soloist: Helene Pohl – New Zealand String Quartet.

Don’t miss this special occasion, as we complete our long-running Beethoven symphony cycle with a performance of his delightful second symphony. We are thrilled to welcome back Helene Pohl, first violinist of the New Zealand String Quartet, for Mendelssohn’s ever-popular violin concerto. Wagner’s Siegfried Idyll is one of his most intimate works. Scored for chamber orchestra, it was composed as a birthday present for his wife, Cosima, and provides a personal perspective on this great composer.

This contemplative programme with choir, soloists and orchestra, explores the beauty and power that music can offer in the darkest of circumstances. Morten Lauridsen composed his requiem, Lux Aeterna, in response to the death of his mother. Its five movements, each reflecting on biblical light, blend ancient, renaissance, romantic and modern music styles in a deeply moving humanism. Haydn’s Paukenmesse, Mass in the Time of War, so-named for its dramatic use of timpani, dates from a time when Europe was shrouded in conflict. Essentially of a lyrically joyful nature, it is one his most popular Mass settings, as is his Creation.

2018 Concert Series: Elgar, Dvorak, Lilburn; CPE Bach Cello Concerto

Where:Waiapu Cathedral of St John the Evangelist28 Browning St, Napier, Hawke’s Bay / Gisborne

Restrictions:All Ages

Ticket Information:

  • General Admission: $39.00
  • General Admission Gold card holders: $37.00
  • Choral & Orchestral concert in one weekend: $72.00
  • Choral & Orchestral concert in one weekend – GC holders: $68.00
  • Student – secondary or tertiary: $10.00
  • One adult accompanied by 2+ Secondary Students: $10.00

Hawke’s Bay Orchestra explores many of the delights to be found in the string orchestra repertoire – including music by New Zealand’s own Douglas Lilburn’s Four Canzonas.

Dvorak’s String Serenade in E major and Elgar’s String Serenade in E minor are established classics, and we look forward to featuring local Hawke’s Bay soloist Cameron Stuart in C. P.E. Bach’s charming Cello Concerto in A Major.

Presented by Napier Civic Choir and conducted by José Aparicio.

Suitable for students and Adults.
Tickets available at Ticketek* or cash or eftpos sales.

2018 Concert Series: Bach and Arvo Part Cantatas

Where:Waiapu Cathedral of St John the Evangelist28 Browning St, Napier, Hawke’s Bay / Gisborne

Restrictions:All Ages

Ticket Information:

  • General Admission: $39.00
  • General Admission – Gold Card Holders: $39.00
  • Choral & Orchestral Concert in 1 weekend – GC Holders: $68.00
  • Choral & Orchestral Concert in 1 weekend: $72.00
  • Student – Secondary and Tertiary: $10.00
  • 1 Adult accompanied by 2+ Secondary Students: $10.00

This intimate concert offers a rare chance to experience Bach’s masterful religious music, including his great Easter Cantata Christ lag in Todes Banden.

Estonian composer Arvo Pärt is renowned for his gorgeously simple, yet moving music, and is now the most performed living composer in the world. On hearing his harmonic and reflective Te Deum, this popularity is entirely unsurprising. Enjoy this meditative concert with choir and orchestra.

Suitable for adults and students. Tickets available online at Ticketek* and cash or eftpos door sales.

2017 Concert Series: Handel’s Messiah

Friday 15 December at 7pm
Sunday 17 December at 2pm

Join us for our annual Christmas festivities as we once again share Handel’s enduring masterwork, Messiah. Possibly the most well known work in the choral repertoire, the drama in this oratorio ranges from intimate arias to the immensely famous and stirring Hallelujah chorus. We warmly welcome our regular patrons for whom this performance is an annual tradition – and look forward to meeting newcomers looking to make their Christmas particularly special.

Soprano: Lilia Carpinelli
Alto: Catherine Pierard
Tenor: Declan Cudd
Bass: Alex Lee

Napier Civic Choir
Hawke’s Bay Orchestra

2017 Concert Series: Beethoven & Mozart

16 December at 7.30pm

St Paul’s Church, Tennyson Street, Napier

We close the year with a real treat – a concert featuring some of the greatest music of the classical era. Beethoven’s first symphony honours Mozart and Haydn and represents a continuation of our long term project of performing all nine of his symphonies – arguably the greatest symphony cycle of them all. Carefully calculated to please the Partisan audiences after whom it is named, Mozart’s 31st symphony continues to impress with its mix of elegance and grandeur and acts as a suitable opening to this programme, which them features one of Mozart’s most enduringly popular concerti, the double concerto for flute and harp.

Dana Parkhill – Flute
Madeleine Crump – Harp

Hawke’s Bay Orchestra

2017 Concert Series: Dvorak, Brahms, Weber

After his stunning performance of Sibelius’ Violin Concerto in 2016, we are delighted to welcome back NZSO concertmaster Vesa-Matti Leppänen, here joined by NZSO principal cellist Andrew Joyce in Brahms’ late masterwork – the double concerto. Dvořák’s masterful seventh symphony is regarded by many music critics as his greatest. Inspired by the struggle for a Czech homeland, the music is often dark and stormy, yet with moments of sheer vibrance and, eventually, triumph. It is nothing less than Dvořák at his finest.

Waiapu Cathedral of St John the Evangelist, Browning Street, Napier
7.30pm Saturday 6 August
Vesa-Matti Leppänen: violin | Andrew Joyce: cello
Hawke’s Bay Orchestra
José Aparicio: conductor

Tickets
Beattie and Forbes, Ahuriri / Wardini Books, Napier/ Take Note, Havelock North
Door Sales
Adult $39 or $75 choral plus orchestral concert, Student $15 each concert
EFTPOS available

2017 Concert Series: Haydn’s Creation

Of a performance of Handel’s Messiah, Haydn remarked that he “was struck as if he had been put back to the beginning of this studies and known nothing up until that moment”. His Creation was his response: an oratorio depicting no less than the creation of the world itself, as told in Genesis. The result of years of study and work, and immediately successful, it now stands as one of his greatest triumphs. Haydn’s Creation was the first work performed by the Napier Civic Choir under musical director José Aparicio, in 2011, and it is very special for us to be able to programme it again.
Waiapu Cathedral of St John the Evangelist, Browning Street, Napier
7.30pm Friday 4 August & 2.30pm Sunday 6 August
Anna Leese: soprano
Filipe Manu: tenor
Joel Amosa: bass
Hawke’s Bay Orchestra
José Aparicio: conductor

Tickets
Beattie and Forbes, Ahuriri / Wardini Books, Napier/ Take Note, Havelock North
Door Sales
Adult $39 or $75 choral plus orchestral concert, Student $15 each concert
EFTPOS available

2016 Concert Series: Vivaldi & Bach

Hawke's Bay Orchestra & Napier Civic Choir in St John's Cathedral

Hawke’s Bay Orchestra & Napier Civic Choir in St John’s Cathedral

Conductor Jose Aparicio

A truly ‘made in Hawke’s Bay’ concert. Our final orchestral evening of the year will feature five local soloists in highly varied baroque concertos. Our Artistic/Music Director Jose Aparicio will perform and conduct a flute concerto with our fabulous Hawke’s Bay Orchestra.

Music by Vivaldi, Quantz and Bach

Jose Aparicio – flute
Thomas Wilkinson – trumpet
Christopher Wilson – trumpet
Stephanie Buzzard – violin
Gretchen Anderson – violin

Where:St Paul’s Church, Tennyson Street, Napier, Hawke’s Bay / Gisborne

Restrictions:All Ages

Ticket Information:

  • General Admission Adult: $39.00
  • General Admission Student: $15.00
  • General Admission combo choral plus orchestral concert: $75.00
  • Door Sales Only

2016 Concert Series: Handel’s Messiah

Soprano Anna Leese

Soprano Anna Leese

Artistic Director Jose Aparicio conducts Napier Civic Choir, with Hawke’s Bay Orchestra, in yet another splendid performance of Handel’s Messiah. Soloists Anna Leese – soprano; Christie Cook – alto; Frank Carter – tenor.

Handel turned to English oratorio in the 1730s in response to changes in public taste. Messiah was his sixth work in this genre. After an initially modest public reception, this oratorio gained in popularity, eventually becoming one of the best-known and most frequently performed choral works in Western music. Its structure resembles that of opera without impersonations of characters or direct speech. We cannot think of a better way to welcome our Christmas festivities.

When:

Where: St Paul’s Church, Tennyson Street, Napier, Hawke’s Bay / Gisborne

Ticket Information:

  • General Admission Adult: $39.00
  • General Admission Student: $15.00
  • General Admission combo choral plus orchestral concert: $75.00
  • Door Sales Only

2016 Concert Series: A Scandinavian Journey

When:

Sat 24 Sep 2016, 7:30pm–9:30pm

Where: Blyth Centre, Iona College, 42 Lucknow Rd, Havelock North

Restrictions:All Ages

Ticket Information:

  • General Admission Adult: $39.00
  • General Admission Student: $15.00
  • General Admission combo choral plus orchestral concert: $75.00
  • Door Sales Only

Conductor Jose Aparicio; Hawke’s Bay Orchestra; Solo violinist Vesa-Matti Leppanen

Nielsen – Helios Overture, Op 17; Sibelius – Concerto in D minor for Violin and Orchestra, Op 47; Sibelius – Symphony No 2 in D major, Op 43

This Scandinavian (culturally and geographically) programme is one of our highlights this year. We will immerse ourselves in the sounds of Northern Europe’s nature. We are exceptionally lucky to do so by the hand of our New Zealand Symphony Orchestra’s Finnish concertmaster Vesa-Matti Leppanen. This is truly an evocative programme which will remain long in our memory.