Sunday 24 November 2024, 3pm, Holy Trinity Church, 215 Devonport Road, Tauranga
Conducted by William McElwee
Oboe soloist – Bede Hanley
Download the Storm&Stillness programme here (mobile version).(Or here for the bigger file.)
Mendelssohn’s Hebrides Overture was inspired by his visit to the remote islands to the North of Scotland. This work captures the impression of the waves of the Atlantic crashing against basalt pillars, with seagulls crying overhead and storms passing through.
A month after the end of World War II, the 81-year old Richard Strauss was inspired by a young American soldier to write his nostalgically elegant Oboe Concerto, a reflection of the calm that followed those horrific years of war. Bringing this masterpiece to life with us is Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra’s Principal Oboe, Bede Hanley, whose virtuosity has taken him around the world, teaching and playing in North and South America, Europe, and Australasia.
Barber’s Adagio for Strings has a special place as a piece that speaks to people where words fail – it has been played in public to commemorate many events of public grief, including the funerals of Albert Einstein, John F. Kennedy, following the September 11 attacks, and many others.
Then a completely different work of “storm and stillness” – Schubert’s Symphony no. 3, written in a year of furious activity. While teaching fulltime, he composed over 200 works. Expect a work bubbling over with Italianate sparkle which challenges formal expectations with youthful charm. It will be a fine way to sign off for the year and usher in the summer season.
Programme
- Mendelssohn – Hebrides overture
- Strauss – Oboe concerto (soloist: Bede Hanley)
- Barber – Adagio for strings
- Schubert – Symphony No.3
Soloist – Bede Hanley
Born in Saskatoon, Canada, Bede Hanley began learning the oboe at nine, eventually going on to earn his Bachelor of Music degree from the Cleveland Institute of Music, Ohio, where he studied with John Mack, legendary principal oboe of the Cleveland Orchestra.
Following several seasons with Spain’s Orquesta Sinfonica de Galicia in La Coruña, Mr Hanley, admired for his “gorgeous tone and buoyant phrasing”, first joined the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra as Section Principal Oboe for the 2008 and 2009 Seasons. He was then appointed Principal Oboe of the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, Canada, a position he held for four years, before rejoining the APO in 2013.
Mr Hanley’s playing has garnered press plaudits at home and abroad, recently from William Dart in the New Zealand Herald, who described his oboe solo in Bach’s St Matthew Passion as “heart-stopping” and in a Bachtrack review of Arvo Pärt’s Collage sur B-A-C-H Simon Holden wrote his “soulful oboe solo was shaped with achingly beautiful simplicity.”
Mr Hanley has performed in many symphony and opera orchestras internationally including the Cleveland Orchestra, the National Arts Centre Orchestra, Ottawa, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, the Real Filharmonia de Galicia, the Orquesta Sinfonica de Tenerife, the Saskatoon Symphony Orchestra with whom he was acting principal oboe, the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, the Canadian Opera Company Orchestra, the Orquesta Sinfonica de Galicia in its annual Mozart Festival and the Rossini Festival Orchestra in Pesaro, Italy.
A frequent soloist, Mr Hanley has an extensive concerto repertoire. His performance of Christopher Rouse’s oboe concerto, a premier outside the US, was praised by the composer for its “beauty and aplomb”. In October, 2020, Mr. Hanley performed the world premiere of Gary Kulesha’s Concerto for Oboe and Orchestra with Giordano Bellincampi and his colleagues in the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra. John Daly-Peoples of the New Zealand Arts Review wrote “Bede Hanley gave a thrilling performance. (His) oboe danced through the orchestra, his playing effortlessly ranging over the playful, lyrical and soulful, at times providing intense shards of light and extraordinary riffs. In his long faultless solo he managed to span the full range of the instrument, both musically and emotionally.” The Canadian premiere, with the Victoria Symphony Orchestra, received a standing ovation. This tour-de-force concerto was written for Mr. Hanley.
Mr Hanley is also an active chamber musician. In Canada he was a member of the Canadian Oboe Trio and also performed in Winnipeg’s Chamber Music Society, Groundswell, and the Phoenix Collective, the Ottawa International Chamber Music Festival, the Music Niagara Festival, the Banff Centre’s Margaret Greenham Series and the Festival of the Sound. He performs regularly with his colleagues in the APO’s In Your Neighbourhood series and the Tīeke Trio. In 2021 Mr. Hanley was featured by Chamber Music New Zealand in the Fantasy and Romance tour. He has also given recitals in Canada, the USA, Spain, Australia and New Zealand.
Inspired by his teachers and mentors, Bede has taught oboe in North and South America, Europe, and Australasia. Recently, he was on faculty at the John Mack Oboe Camp, in North Carolina, USA. An Artist Teacher at the University of Auckland, Bede has been on faculty at the Universities of Western Ontario and Manitoba and is now a busy private teacher and music coach in the Auckland community.
Supporters
Omokoroa and Bethlehem Community Churches Opportunity Centre
