The grand finale of the NZSO’s 2026 mainstage season features the grandest of symphonies: Beethoven’s Ninth.
Programme
Dame Gillian Karawe Whitehead Hoata
Beethoven Symphony No. 9
Its audacious juxtaposition of styles, sounds and forces, including the revolutionary inclusion of a choir, marked the Ninth as a landmark work, not just for Beethoven but for music itself. Its monumental achievement and undeniable emotional power will be brought to stunning life with the help of Orpheus Choir Wellington and City Choir Dunedin.
Our essential need for community and connection is also at the heart of Dame Gillian Karawe Whitehead’s Hoata. Named for the Māori phase of the moon where the moon is barely visible, Hoata was written in 1979 during a cold northern hemisphere winter and evokes the icy blizzards and intense isolation that swirled around the composer as she wrote.