Newsletter October/November: James Judd - Conductor

During that short period of time, Dvořák both composed and orchestrated his eighth Symphony. Perhaps this accounts for the seemingly effortless Bohemian fluency and spontaneity of this great music. The composer conducted the first performance and its joyous nature and celebration of Czech folk music was warmly received.

Not long ago I had a thoroughly enjoyable and inspiring experience performing John Corigliano’s Red Violin Chaconne with Amalia Hall and the NZSO in Wellington and Auckland. As an encore we performed the third movement of the concerto we play tonight, the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto. Rather than taking barely six weeks as in the case of the Dvořák Symphony, for many reasons this concerto took Mendelssohn six years to complete. Despite this, the concerto exudes the same natural flow as the symphony. I am happy to be performing the complete concerto this time with Amalia.

We start the concert with Hamish MacCunn’s overture The Land of the Mountain and the Flood. This was written just a couple of years before our Dvořák Symphony and celebrates the joys of ‘over the hills and far away’ (as George Bernard Shaw commented along with some other interesting thoughts worth a Google moment of your time!)