Launching the 2013 Auckland Arts Festival, the Modern Maori Quartet ladled out charm by the kete-ful, with a tight set of banter 'n' ballads that should have had the late Sir Howard Morrison beaming down from heaven.
Four years on, the group's current nationwide tour with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra is a good deal more ambitious: "not your normal orchestra show," as they quipped from the stage, "but a good old Maori garage party."
This underlying concept, involving kai, booze, aroha, dancing, more kai and memories, strains somewhat. A few dodgy jokes, like the one about making do with a middle-aged Pakeha woman after missing out on a Maori bride, were squirm-inducing.
Accommodation was found for Hamish McKeich and his musicians in this capacious imaginary shed but, despite special arrangements from a crop of Kiwi composers, the orchestral sound needed the Svengali control of a Burt Bacharach to do justice to the commissioned charts.
It was distracting to watch busy and inaudible violinists and cellists who might as well have had no strings on their instruments, although Robbie Ellis scored some clever touches in a tongue-in-cheek, stop-and-go Ten Guitars.
