Join us for an evening of Reflections and Reveries – where music and storytelling intertwine to create a deeply moving and unforgettable experience.   

New paintings created by artist Star Gossage (Ngāti Wai / Ngāti Ruanui) in response to this work will be projected during Flavio Villani’s performance of Liszt’s Ballade no.2 in an immersive experience of light, colour and music.  

The Prelude was once an improvised musical work. It offered a tempting taste of the musical possibilities and moods to come during the concert programme that followed. In this event, Rachmaninoff’s Preludes are alternated with Villani’s own improvisations, mirroring some of the gestures and ideas of the brilliant Russian composer.  

Moreover, the teachings of Liszt’s Ballade and Chopin’s Études feed into the performer's own Ballade. This semi-improvised piece is a reflection of Villani’s experience of loss. It wants to be a poignant, yet liberating expression of grief and transformation – an epitaph to the memory of what one's place of origin means to us after change, life and loss.  

This musical conversation invites the performer and audience to reflect on the profound impact of this music on the performer’s artistic journey – sometimes what remains is just an echo while other times the mark is deeper. Music then becomes a dialogue between the pianist, the composer and the audience. It wants to answer the question: what have all these notes really taught us, musicians and listeners alike? What story is left to tell? If sounds and words would be alike what would you be saying?