Freddy Kempf Piano/Conductor
Handel
Concerto for Keyboard, op. 4. No. 1 in G minor
Mozart
Piano Concerto No. 21, in C major (2nd mvt)
Chopin
Andante spianato et Grande polonaise brillante
Mendelssohn
Piano Concerto No. 1 in G minor (3rd mvt)
Rachmaninov
Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor (2nd mvt)
Gershwin
Rhapsody in Blue
Freddy Kempf’s previous appearance with the NZSO provoked standing ovations. This concert of piano favourites promises even more as Kempf explores the history of the piano over the last 300 years.
The call and response within George Frideric Handel’s stately Concerto for Keyboard, op. 4 in G minor, initiates an intimacy between orchestra and soloist that is built upon in the next work, the miraculous second movement of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 21. Sparkling virtuosity and translucent melodies define Frédéric Chopin’s Andante spianato et Grande polonaise brillante, while a strident fanfare launches Felix Mendelssohn’s audacious and playful third movement of the Piano Concerto No. 1.
Two 20th century favourites follow. Sergei Rachmaninov’s unapologetically romantic second movement from his Piano Concerto No. 2, (which inspired the 1975 pop hit All By Myself) and George Gershwin’s jazz-infused Rhapsody in Blue closes this Spring celebration of pianistic splendour.
