Macedonian piano star adds heat to NZSO tour

The New Zealand Symphony Orchestra’s white-hot Russian Soul tour takes a violently exciting Tchaikovsky symphony and a Macedonian classical star around the North Island next month.

Piano sensation Simon Trpčeski will play Sergei Prokofiev’s popular third piano concerto with the NZSO on the tour, which celebrates masterworks by Russian composers.

The orchestra will go on to perform Pyotr Tchaikovsky’s self-declared best symphony, the Fourth, which echoed the emotional turbulence of the composer’s life at the time it was written. The full-blast symphony shocked critics and was declared “semi-barbaric” on its debut.

Under the acclaimed leadership of guest conductor Pinchas Steinberg, the NZSO will also play the crowd-pleasing Night on Bald Mountain by Modest Mussorgsky, arranged by another leading Russian composer, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov.

The tour, supported by The Radio Network, will mark a welcome reunion between the NZSO and Simon Trpčeski, last here in 2008.

Trpčeski is a renowned soloist who has performed with many of the world’s finest orchestras from Europe to Asia and the US. Critics acclaim his thrilling style and impeccable technique.

Last year he made his Carnegie Hall debut in New York, and his album of Rachmaninov piano concertos hit the top ten classical charts in both Britain and America.

In 2009 he was awarded the Presidential Order of Merit for Macedonia, its youngest ever recipient.