Archived: Bach & Brahms

Conductor Giordano Bellincampi 
Horn Stefan Dohr 

J.S. Bach Orchestral Suite No.3 
Hans Abrahamsen Horn Concerto (Australasian premiere) 
Brahms Symphony No.2 

Giordano Bellincampi opens the New Zealand Herald Premier Series with a sparkle of trumpets in Bach’s cheerful Suite, which includes the famous ‘Air on the G string’. 

Then a major event, a new work by the distinguished Danish composer Hans Abrahamsen, co-commissioned by the APO with the Berlin Philharmonic and played by that orchestra’s Principal Horn, Stefan Dohr. 

To finish, Brahms’ happiest symphony. Composing his first symphony had been a huge struggle, but when Brahms set to writing the Second he found the music flowed easily onto the manuscript. It’s a song of the high hills in high summer. 

Horn Concerto commissioned jointly by the Berlin Philharmonic, Auckland Philharmonia, NHK Symphony (Tokyo), the NTR ZaterdagMatinee (Concertgebouw, Amsterdam) and the Seattle Symphony.