CSO Lamb & Hayward Masterworks: Cowan, Bruch, Price

Award-winning Aotearoa composer Claire Cowan works across screen and stage seamlessly. Her score for the 2022 production of Cinderella with the Royal New Zealand Ballet enthralled audiences as well as our CSO players – so much so that we asked her to make a bespoke version for the concert stage for us to premiere in this performance.

NZSO Concertmaster Vesa-Matti Leppänen and his 1755 Guadagnini violin join CSO for a performance of Bruch’s beloved Violin Concerto No. 1. A go-to concerto for violinists around the world, it is jam-packed with emotion and lyrical melodies, coupled with the obligatory fireworks from both soloist and orchestra.

Florence Price had her first symphony premiered by the Chicago Symphony in 1932 – a milestone for any woman of that time – but a real landmark moment as the first orchestral work by a black woman to be performed by a major American orchestra. It is a delight to showcase this beautiful symphony that artfully weaves together classical forms and inspiration from folk music, spirituals and the blues.