Hero image: NZBC orchestra performing on TV for the first time, 1965. Archives New Zealand collection reference R26064179.
Ngā Taonga is proud to collaborate with Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga Archives New Zealand (Archives New Zealand), New Zealand Symphony Orchestra (NZSO) on From the Archives – New Zealand Symphony Orchestra. The online exhibition documents the history and notable achievements of eight decades of the NZSO through images now held by Archives New Zealand, sound recordings from the RNZ Collection cared for by Ngā Taonga, and film from Archives New Zealand’s National Film Unit Collection .
Many of these taonga have not been seen or heard by the public for decades.
The online exhibition features historic photos from Archives New Zealand’s holdings of orchestra life, including famous conductors and artists who worked with the orchestra. From its earliest rehearsals in 1946, when the then-named National Symphony Orchestra of New Zealand first formed, photographers have been capturing the life of the NZSO. This unique and comprehensive collection of photographs is now held by Archives New Zealand for posterity.
The photographic collection represents a snapshot of the overall NZSO archive which comprises hundreds of photos. It includes framed and unframed images, many of which were originally used for publicity purposes. Together, these images provide a fascinating visual record tracing the evolution over eight decades of the orchestra and its varied iterations.
The evolution of the NZSO has always been closely linked with the development of radio and television broadcasting in New Zealand. It was set up and managed under the New Zealand Broadcasting Service, a government department that became the Broadcasting Corporation of New Zealand (NZBC) in 1962 – which later became Radio NZ (RNZ).
The concert performance sound recordings in this online exhibition are from the RNZ collection at Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision. Ngā Taonga holds thousands of hours of public broadcast audio from RNZ and its predecessors. This includes the rich musical heritage of the orchestra from 1947 until now.
The preservation of some of the material in this exhibition was made possible through the mass digitisation project Utaina, a government-funded collaboration between Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision, the National Library, and Archives New Zealand to digitise more than 460,000 items in the Crown’s audiovisual heritage collections.
The online exhibition also highlights preserved film of the National Symphony Orchestra from Archives New Zealand’s National Film Unit (NFU) Collection. NFU was a state-owned film company founded in 1936.
The orchestra featured in and provided original soundtracks for many NFU productions including Weekly Review, its successor Pictorial Parade, and other short films for theatre release.
Included in the online exhibition is digitised footage from 1961 of the renowned composer and conductor Igor Stravinsky as he conducts the National Orchestra at the Wellington Town Hall.
From the Archives – New Zealand Symphony Orchestra can be accessed on the Archives New Zealand website .
