Gustav Mahler's Seventh has been described as the Cinderella of the composer's symphonies.
There is no easy narrative path through its 80 minutes, nor a lush Adagio crying out to be seconded for a big-screen soundtrack.
Its volatile textures and moods, along with some daring harmonic touches, found admirers in later modernist composers such as Schoenberg and Pierre Boulez, but caused it to be shamefully shorn of 11 minutes for its American premiere in 1921.
Edo de Waart and the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra gave us every note of it on the night, doing eloquent justice to one of the composer's most compelling scores.
Its two outer movements were mighty edifices. Within seconds, an exultant tenor horn unfurled Mahler's vision of roaring nature, while the finale, with its lashings of past Wagnerian splendours, brought the evening to a spectacular close.