German cellist performs with the NZSO next month

Schumann & Barber
New Zealand Symphony Orchestra
James Feddeck, Conductor
Daniel Müller-Schott, Cello
Brahms, Tragic Overture; Schumann, Cello Concerto in A minor; Barber, Adagio for Strings; Barber, Symphony No 1
Hamilton, Claudelands Arena, June 15;  Auckland, Town Hall, June 16;  Wellington, Michael Fowler Centre, June 17; Blenheim, ASB Theatre, June 20; Christchurch, Isaac Theatre Royal, June 21

The NZ Symphony Orchestra's next concert features one of the most popular classical works, Barber’s Adagio for Strings, which was played at the funerals of both John F Kennedy and Princess Diana and after the September 11 attacks.

It will be part of the orchestra’s five-city Schumann & Barber concert tour next month to be conducted by James Feddeck, one of the fastest-rising American conductors of the decade, who is coming to New Zealand next month for the first time.

The tour also features the return of German cellist Daniel Müller-Schott, who was praised by the New York Times this year for another “bold performance.” He will be playing Barber’s Adagio for Strings as well as Robert Schumann’s romantic Cello Concerto.

Feddeck is in demand as one of the most versatile American conductors aged under 40, including concerts with the Chicago Symphony, Manchester’s The Hallé, the Toronto Symphony, and Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin. He has also worked with singer-songwriter Randy Newman.

The Chicago Tribune spotlighted Feddeck’s innate talent and outstanding musicianship, declaring that he was “a gifted conductor who's clearly going places.”

Winner of the prestigious International Tchaikovsky Competition for Young Musicians when he was 15, Müller-Schott has gone from strength to strength since his celebrated concerts with the NZSO in 2013. Among the highlights have been his debut with the Berlin Philharmonic.

“I feel the cello is somehow my instrument, my voice. It should be a part of you,” Müller-Schott said when he last played with the NZSO.

The programme also features Barber’s Symphony No 1, which fuses the four traditional movements of a symphony into a single movement. It was a success when it premiered in Rome in the same year he wrote Adagio for Strings.

The concerts will open with Johannes Brahms’ Tragic Overture. Brahms, a close friend of Schumann, wrote the overture while he was being lauded throughout Europe for his first two symphonies.