NATIONAL TOUR 2020: BEETHOVEN

August to October 2020

This year we’re celebrating a massive composer with a massive tour. The 2020 National Tour brings Beethoven back on his 250th birthday, travelling throughout New Zealand between June and October. Written throughout his life, Beethoven’s string quartets remain, like his symphonies, some of the most remarkable classical music ever composed. Don’t miss this extraordinary music on tour. 

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Reset your expectations at each of these exceptional and individual quartets. Prepare yourself to trace Beethoven’s evolution from brilliant classicist to daring modernist. Acclaimed world-wide for our performances of Beethoven’s music, join us for an unforgettable programme of Beethoven’s String Quartets.

PROGRAMMES

ILLUMINATOR

Auckland (15 Aug), Kerikeri (6 Sept), Wellington (11 Sept)

Opus 18, No 3 (1801)

Opus 18, No 1 (1801)

Opus 59, No 1 (1808)

Beethoven | Illuminator brings you music that glows with the elegant influences of Mozart and Haydn before soaring light-years away to a sound-world that could only be Beethoven’s own. 

INNOVATOR

Auckland (16 Aug), Timaru, Wellington (13 Sept)

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Opus 18, No 2 (1801)

Opus 74 (1809)

Opus 59, No 2 (1808)

Beethoven | Innovator sets the scene with one of the composer’s first quartets, then shows off his unexpected and unprecedented moves in music from his middle period.

IMMORTAL

Akaroa, Auckland (5 Sept), Wellington (16 Sept), Taupō

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Opus 18, No 4 (1801)

Opus 18, No 5 (1801)

Opus 59, No 3 (1808)

Beethoven | Immortal presents two exquisite early quartets as a launchpad from which to reach the heroic final work of his much-loved Rasumovsky Quartets.

UNIVERSAL

Napier, Wellington (19 & 26 Sept)

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Opus 18, No 6 (1801)

Opus 95 (1814)

Opus 127 (1825)

Beethoven | Universal brings you music that reaches ambitiously from the threshold of a new century to the symphonic spaciousness of the composer’s harmonic language.

ICON

Christchurch, Paekākāriki

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Opus 135 (1826)

Opus 130, Finale (1825)

Opus 132 (1825)

Beethoven | Icon takes you on a wild ride through the composer’s inimitable soundscape, from counterpoint and fugue to the passions and complexities of Romanticism.

VISIONARY

Wellington (25 Sept)

Opus 130 (1825)

Op. 133 (Grosse Fuge/Great Fugue) (1825)

Opus 131 (1826)

Beethoven | Visionary offers music that pulsates with daring virtuosity from Beethoven’s constant experimenting with new sounds and ideas.

MAESTRO

Hamilton

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Op. 59, No. 1
Op. 130
Op. 133 (Grosse Fuge/Great Fugue) (1825)

Beethoven | Maestro unites the playful with the profound in music that glows in the sun and resounds from clifftops.

VIRTUOSO

Tauranga

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Opus 18, No 2 (1801)

Opus 74 (1809)

Opus 131 (1826)

Beethoven | Virtuoso unites follows Beethoven's evolution from the bold virtuosity of his earlier works through to the incredible storytelling of the late quartets.