The New Zealand Symphony Orchestra is expected to bring an "exhilarating and evocative music experience", featuring classical giants Tchaikovsky, Shostakovich, Bruckner and more, to Tauranga, Hamilton and Auckland this week.

Testimony: Shostakovich & Tchaikovsky, directed by the NZSO’s acclaimed Concertmaster Vesa-Matti Leppänen, is a rare opportunity to enjoy some of the finest works ever written performed exclusively by the NZSO’s strings.

The Post hailed Testimony in Wellington last week as “exquisite”.

“There were moments of reverential beauty… a pitch-perfect piece of musicianship to cap a cleverly balanced and creative programme.”

Testimony also includes enthralling music by renowned New Zealand composer Douglas Lilburn and Finland’s greatest composer since Sibelius, Einojuhani Rautavaara.

The concert features the NZSO’s talented Associate Principal Cellist Ken Ichinose as soloist for Tchaikovsky’s romantic Andante cantabile, the famous second movement from his String Quartet No.1 arranged by the composer for cello and orchestra.

“Tchaikovsky's Andante cantabile is a treasured melody, especially for any string quartet player,” says Ichinose.

“For me, the emotion and beauty of this work is drawn from the sheer simplicity of form and musical line. We are so fortunate to have an arrangement by Tchaikovsky himself and I very much look forward to performing this particular version for solo cello and orchestra, having previously had the pleasure to perform the original quartet with colleagues from the NZSO a few years ago.”

Shostakovich’s Chamber Symphony is an arrangement of his Eighth String Quartet, written after he saw the aftermath of the apocalyptic 1945 bombing of Dresden.

Though he dedicated the Quartet to “victims of fascism and war,” in his later memoir, Testimony, Shostakovich said that the Quartet in fact described himself.

The Adagio from Bruckner’s String Quintet has been lauded as “the pearl of the quintet … one of the noblest, most enlightened, tenderest and most beautiful in sound”.

Rautavaara’s Pelimannit is a suite of fantasies on Finnish fiddle music, while Lilburn’s Diversions for String Orchestra overflows with Lilburn’s love for the Kiwi countryside.

Testimony is performed in Tauranga on 18 April, Hamilton (19 April) and Auckland (20 April).

Ken Ichinose’s appearance as a soloist is supported by Susan and Donald Best ONZM.