KEY POINTS:
A sleek, elegant programme booklet hinted that the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra's Vero Aotea Series might be a classier affair than last year's and, if Thursday's opening concert was any indication, it may be so.
Four works were clustered under the banner-title of "Making Arrangements", the Mussorgsky/Ravel Pictures at an Exhibition and Rachmaninov's Paganini Variations sat alongside Stokowski dressing up Bach in full orchestral garb and Ross Harris performing similar duties for Shostakovich.
Conductor Baldur Bronnimann introduced proceedings with delightful and occasionally wicked wit. Harris' transcription of Shostakovich's D minor Prelude and Fugue set the evening off. The Prelude was a brooder, dominated by powerful string; its Fugue took the coolest of bassoon subjects to a magnificent climax, with xylophone and side-drum adding the authentic Shostakovich flavour.
The players gave it their considerable all. By comparison, Stokowski's take on Bach's D minor Toccata and Fugue worked best when brass and timpani were in thunder mode.
Pictures at an Exhibition never fails to astonish; every time one revisits it one hears more premonitions of music yet to be written.
On this occasion, its unbridled Finale reminded me of the great John Adams Harmonielehre which the APO tackled last month.
Bronnimann and his players ran the course, from chattering marketplaces to sonorous catacombs; particularly effective were the quieter pages of "Baba-Yaga" where Mussorgsky seems to be looking towards Bartok's night music.
Chinese pianist Jin Ju was not fazed by the technical demands of Rachmaninov's Rhapsody on a theme of Paganini. The popular 18th variation might not have quite unfurled in full romantic glory, but fine articulation lent whimsy to the 12th and grace to the 16th, while Bronnimann and the musicians made the most of Rachmaninov's many musical slynesses.
Two encores were given; a Prokofiev Toccata that was almost terrifying in its virtuosity and a spirited Gershwin Prelude that did not quite catch the idiom required.
Two nights later Jin Ju launched the Museum's Fazioli piano recital series, displaying the very real virtues of articulation and grace in Czerny's winsomely pretty La Ricordanza.
The remarkable intimacy of the theatre brought out all the storms of Beethoven's Appassionata Sonata as the pianist impressed with her tonal control, rippling passage work and exquisite una corda pedalling.
Of the four Chopin ballades, expertly delivered after interval, it was the fourth which unfolded its story most poetically, the second being severely thwarted by the disconcerting stampede of tribal feet upstairs, the sound of which had some seismophobic audience members temporarily vacating the venue.
Four encores highlighted the capabilities of the new piano, from a magisterial Chopin Prelude to a slice of chirpy Chinoiserie.
A full house, with many turned away, suggests that early bookings will be essential for Nelson Goerner's recital in late May.
