Tonight's second instalment of Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra's Degenerate, Denounced, Outrageous series was always going to be the most thematically coherent of the three concerts, with two works germinating from strong political premises.
Conductor Eckehard Stier (pictured), making a welcome return to the orchestra that he tended so well during his seven years as music director, did not flinch at the robust musical rallying of Sibelius' Finlandia.
The composer's self-described plein air approach makes for blasts of brass and surging orchestral climaxes, delivered with such fervour that one might have imagined the musicians having been transported to Finland in 1900, protesting the yoke of colonialist Russia.
Bartok's Third Piano Concerto is a work of relative contentment, written during his years of American exile; a former European life may have been behind him, but musically it's still there, refined and transformed into the language of one of the most individual composing voices of the last century.
Stier reconciled passion with intricate detailing in this often crystalline score, working well with Spanish pianist Javier Perianes, who moved deftly from dramatic flourish to delicate shudderings.
