How might one single out the one work on Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra's Free Spirit programme that inspired the concert's title?
Conductor Giordano Bellincampi's virtuoso work with Richard Strauss' Don Juan certainly fitted the bill.
We were swept away by its opening roar, so rich in sound that, at times, one had to check whether the town hall organ wasn't in the mix. Gentler emotions bloomed beautifully when Bede Hanley's oboe gave out the work's love theme.
Anthony Ritchie's 1994 Viola Concerto revealed a remarkable freshness of inspiration and benefited from an energised soloist in Robert Ashworth.
Although I have the same reservations that I had decades ago with the populist elements that take over the work's finale, it was impossible not to surrender to the irrepressible momentum of the New Zealand composer's opening Allegro tempestuoso.
