It was so good to have Giordano Bellincampi, Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra's music director, back in town, conducting a programme with a title that spelt out its audience appeal in just three words, Ehnes Plays Bruch.
James Ehnes is a regular and popular soloist with the APO and, this time around, the Canadian violinist's appearance coincides with judging duties in the Michael Hill International Violin Competition.
His absolute assurance in dispensing Max Bruch's First Violin Concerto suggested that, perhaps, we should not be too quick to corral this score into the warhorse stable.
Opening cadenzas were irresistibly persuasive and we were easily dazzled by his unerring doubt-stopping when the tempo took off. Streamlined passage work was as diaphanous as the best of Mendelssohn and, in the creamy Adagio, one felt the passion of his playing inspiring the orchestral strings around him. And it's not every violinist who can deliver sizzling Gypsy fire in Bruch's finale without losing his elegant cool.
Ysaye's third solo sonata, known as Ballade, was a breathtaking encore, as Ehnes created his own compelling narrative, surging through its forbidding forest of virtuosity.