Matthias Bamert is a conductor of international acclaim, and he has held numerous conducting roles with prestigious orchestras around the world. This is his first concert with the DSO, and it features three of Germany’s greatest composers, including Beethoven whose dramatic and joyous Prometheus Overture opens the concert.

Brahms’s Third Symphony is said to be his most lyrical and best-crafted symphony – it’s also the shortest. Such was its popularity in Brahms’s day that he thought it ‘unfortunately over-famous’! Even today, the third movement is often used as theme music in television and films.

Because his father was a French Horn player, Richard Strauss became a great champion of the instrument, and his first Horn Concerto remains a staple of the modern horn repertoire. All the technical skills of our soloist, NZSO Principal Horn Samuel Jacobs, will be showcased in what is considered one of the most technically demanding of all French Horn concertos.