Concert review: Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra at the Auckland Town Hall

Gilbert Varga. Photo / Felix Broede

Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra promoted its Sante concert as "a champagne programme with a hint of cabaret". It turned out to be all of that . . . and much more.

There was no resisting the infectious South American carnival of Milhaud's Le boeuf sur le toit, or being swept into a spectacular Viennese ballroom for Ravel's La valse. Total bewitchment came when Debussy morphed two Satie Gymnopedies into dances of mystery and languor.

Opening this musical Tour de France, conductor Gilbert Varga set things stylishly spinning with Saint-Saens' rarely heard Le rouet d'Omphale.

Gilbert Varga. Photo / Fellix Broede

At the centre of this imaginative programme was APO harpist Ingrid Bauer in two impressive solo turns. For Debussy's Danses sacree et profane, she was amongst her string colleagues only. Sonorous harp chords floated over solemnly intoned melodies in the first dance, and cascades of sparkling notes decorated the second's gentle waltz.

Germaine Tailleferre's 1927 Concertino was a revelation: light in texture and touch, unswerving in its quintessentially Gallic grace. Bauer and the orchestra were in exemplary form, from a first movement kept aloft and rippling by the ever-shifting pulses of the music.

In the Lento, rivulets of glissando laced Tailleferre's most emotionally charged writing, while the finale was as cheeky and capricious as one could wish for.

Ingrid Bauer. Photo / Supplied

After interval, the Hungarian maestro became the directorial dynamo for some particularly joyous music-making. He was quick to acknowledge the expressive contributions of Camille Wells' oboe and Melanie Lancon's flute in the Satie, and, during the often riotously exuberant Milhaud, at times his own body became a conduit for compulsive rhythms.

Two weeks ago, Varga was a lively and quirky interviewer on stage. Tonight, while the orchestra was setting itself up, he distracted us with an entertaining shaggy dog tale of how Ravel's superwaltz came to be.

Having done so, the APO's tumultuous, take-no-prisoners playing became a backdrop for his almost choreographed podium performance.

What: Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra
Where: Auckland Town Hall
When: Thursday.