Programme

Anthony Ritchie Remember Parihaka

Miguel Harth-Bedoya Conductor

Ritchie writes: “Remember Parihaka attempts to sum up my thoughts and feelings about the events at Parihaka. The slow opening is peaceful, like a sun rise […] Flutes and oboes announce a chant-like theme, based on an actual song composed at the time of the incident. This ‘Māori’ theme alternates with a more European-sounding theme on solo violin, accompanied by an Irish drum, the bowron. At the heart of the piece the various melodic ideas come together over a grinding, relentless bass.”

Remember Parihaka commemorates both the tragedy of Pairhaka, but also the unmistakable heroism of is inhabitants, who held relentlessly onto their principles of peace.