Romeo & Juliet - NZSO

Programme

Kenneth Young Douce Tristesse

BarberCello Concerto

ProkofievSelections fromRomeo and Juliet

Sergei Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet is one of the greatest ballet scores of all time. Among the courtly grandeur of Dance of the Knights, the circling, slicing, jabbing music of Death of Tybalt, and the crunching dissonances symbolising the Montagues versus the Capulets, swirls the indescribably sweet lyricism of Romeo and Juliet’s eternal love.

The same emotional depth can be found in Barber’s Cello Concerto, performed by virtuoso Li-Wei Qin. Celebrated for a sound both “incisive and searing, yet filled with tenderness” (Straits Times), Qin will steep Barber’s concerto in deep feeling and passion. Sweet nostalgia reigns in the “drifting, Ravelian waltz” (New Zealand Herald) of Kenneth Young’s Douce Tristesse. Brent plays percussion for this event