Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra had good reason to celebrate with the audience spilling out into the choir stalls for Chen Plays Brahms.
The concert's title had the punch of a slogan heralding a special encounter between John Chen, the finest New Zealand pianist of his generation, and one of the most monumental of all concertos.
And so there was a sense of expectation running through the opening pages of Brahms' First Concerto when Radoslaw Szulc led the orchestra towards the soloist's first appearance. Initially, Chen dealt out a rather cool espressivo, but it was a tactic; the more expansive second subject theme bloomed like a stray Brahms Intermezzi.
Throughout the lengthy first movement, moments of reflection alternated with pages of heroic virtuosity but, from the start of the Adagio, Szulc was aiming at more understated emotions.
Chen laced yet another Intermezzo-like theme around orchestral murmurs, with telling and subtle rubato. By the final evanescent cadenza, it seemed that this was indeed what the great Chilean pianist Claudio Arrau described as Brahms' final farewell to Schumann.
