R. Strauss Don Juan
Anthony Ritchie Viola Concerto
Dvořák Symphony No.8

The APO’s own Robert Ashworth takes the viola out of the crowd and into the spotlight in Dunedin-based Anthony Ritchie’s concerto. Encompassing everything from Bach to bluegrass, the composer says it is ‘a personal work, in which the viola takes on various characters’.

In Strauss’s tone-poem, the orchestra does exactly the same for the legendary lover Don Juan, displaying his mercurial personality, the bliss he inspires in his many conquests, and his death in a duel.

Dvořák was never happier or more relaxed than in the lovely out-of-doors music of this evergreen symphony.