Everything came together for Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra's French Impressions concert: a programme balancing Gallic favourites with a symphonic curiosity, a top-notch French conductor and a soloist whose CV includes more than a decade's music-making in Paris.
Ravel's Le Tombeau de Couperin is the epitome of French elegance and style, tributing victims of the Great War in the sometimes mordantly spiked idioms of the 18th century.
Pierre-Andre Valade brought out both the ironies and the subtle rhythmic undercurrents of Ravel's score, from the swirling Prelude, led by guest oboist Gordon Hunt to its final explosive Rigaudon.
Ibert's Flute Concerto can seem lyrically elusive after the tuneful Ravel, although Catherine Bowie easily discovered the melodic heart of its Andante.
On either side of this movement, she dispensed glittering passagework with absolute assurance, conveying a sense of real engagement with both her orchestral colleagues and Valade, a friend and musical collaborator from Parisian days.
