KEY POINTS:
The National Colours concert presented the Auckland Philharmonia at its very best on Thursday night in a programme that placed Douglas Lilburn in the company of two composers whose music also defines the life-spirit of their countries.
Lilburn has been played by visiting conductors before but few have given him the bold Hollywood treatment that Giancarlo Guerrero accorded the Drysdale Overture.
The strings flexed their considerable muscles in the opening bars and Guerrero relished the witty closing procrastinations. In between, the wistful melancholy of the second theme was achingly poignant.
Ilya Gringolts played the Sibelius Violin Concerto with the NZSO just a few years ago. Revisiting the piece, the Russian violinist revealed new approaches to this much-loved score.
Few could have expected the introversion that Gringolts projected. The opening melody was spun over murmuring strings with something akin to an air of secretiveness.
While Guerrero lost no opportunity for full-blooded climaxes - an early Allegro molto episode fairly pounded away - the American also provided a simpatico backdrop for the soloist's soaring lines.
There were fleeting sournesses, such as a three-octave scoop in the first movement, some troublesome octaves in the third, and some quirky articulation, but Gringolts' passion and individuality were never in question. Perhaps the utter clarity of the woodwind in the Adagio inspired him to attain the lyrical heights that he did in this movement, while his very deliberate pacing of the Finale took note of Sibelius' ma non troppo stricture.
An encore of Paganini's Caprice Number 6 echoed the more inward-looking aspects of the Sibelius in its evanescent tremolo work.
After interval, we were taken into the fields of Bohemia with Dvorak's G major Symphony.
Guerrero's adoration of this sunny music showed. He seemed to delight in vindicating the spontaneous thematic combustion of its first movement, a feature that had led the cautious Brahms to question Dvorak's craftsmanship.
The glorious songs of the Adagio were unswerving, with immaculate orchestral grooming, while Guerrero was carried away by the dancing lilt of the third movement.
A triumphant Finale, from trumpet fanfare to a full orchestral celebration of G major, left one regretting nothing ... apart from the fact that the next APO concert is not until April 19.
