Jonathan Le Cocq Photo: Supplied
Canterbury University Music Professor Jonathan Le Cocq is in demand.
The Auckland Philharmonia is flying him and his theorbo all the way to Auckland to play in the city's Holy Trinity Cathedral at the end of the month.
The theorbo is a bass member of the lute family.
Le Cocq will be part of the orchestra's "Baroque and Beyond - Airs and Dances" concert, although some of the most modern-sounding music on the programme - the "Battalia à 10" by the Bohemian-Austrian composer Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber - is one of the older pieces on the playlist.
Written in 1673, it's a musical depiction of a military battle (before, during and after) and is striking for its use of musical techniques more in line with what you'd expect in the 20th century.
Le Cocq told RNZ Concert why Biber wrote the music is a mystery, although it could have been a response to the horrors of the Thirty Years' War which was coming to an end when the composer was born.
There's one movement where Biber depicts the drunken singing of soldiers before battle by having the various instruments play in different keys, although Le Cocq's favourite part is the moving lament that ends the work.
Other items on the programme include music by Corelli, Bloch and the third Ancient Airs and Dances Suite by Respighi, one of his re-workings of Italian Baroque tunes.
