Ending Summertimes with the biggest bang in years
Christchurch Symphony is tuning up to once more bring down the curtain on the SummerTimes festival, with the great Rick Armstrong Motors Classical Sparks concert in North Hagley Park, Saturday 12 March, from 7.30pm, with music by Canterbury Foundation Brass from 6.30pm.
SummerTimes is the Christchurch City Council's annual festival of free outdoor entertainment and, for over 20 years, Classical Sparks and its powerful fireworks-accompanied 1812 Overture has provided a fantastic finale.
This year, the concert's programme includes two firework displays, real cannons and the Christ Church Cathedral bells pealing as part of the traditional climax to the evening.
The orchestra is scheduled to begin playing at 7.30pm with a programme that includes music from composer Gareth Farr's Aoraki, with soprano Deborah Wai Kapohe, bass baritone Eddie Muliaumaseali'i and the Te Ahikaaroa kapa haka group.
Other highlights include music and song from Gershwin's Porgy and Bess, Strauss' Radetzky March, the first movement from Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, and the Fireworks Music from the Olympics Suite by John Psathas.
This will be the first time in many years that Tchaikovsky's 1812 will end with real cannons firing as well as the fireworks. The 16 pieces - mortars and field cannons - are being brought in from Wellington, Dunedin and Queenstown.
Marc Taddei, the Christchurch Symphony music director and conductor, says the Tchaikovsky classic was written for symphony and brass so it's a pleasure to have the Canterbury Foundation Brass playing alongside the Symphony. Real cannons, he says, add another dimension to the experience. "They add monstrous impact; they're heavier than heavy metal, the loudest sounds in music."
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