Concert Review: Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra, Auckland Town Hall

Clarinetist Michael Collins. Photo / Adrian Malloch

Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra's Great Classics series received an impressive launch on Thursday night, with the Town Hall just a few empty seats off a full house.

The appeal for some must have been clarinetist Michael Collins, fondly remembered for wrapping up the orchestra's 2009 season with a dashing Weber Concerto. Tonight he was soloist and conductor, sandwiching a Mozart Concerto between two English classics.

How enchanting to encounter Delius, a composer not so much in favour these days, even if a buoyant On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring would have benefited from more vibrant tone in the strings.

Collins then introduced the bassett clarinet he would be using for Mozart, with a streak of arpeggio to demonstrate its extended bottom notes.

Anticipation ran high in the Concerto as the orchestra at its elegant best introduced its consummate soloist. An eventual shift to the minor was deliciously charted by Collins and, throughout, one luxuriated in the dark, warm sonorities of the chalumeau low notes.

The Adagio was perfection with the purity of Collins' tone and the final Rondo rippled with wit and grace.

After interval, we were transported from the sublime to the grand. A much larger orchestra held nothing back for Holst's The Planets while two large screens projected Nasa images, courtesy of Christchurch Symphony Orchestra.

While the visuals may have been a bonus for some, I found them distracting, especially when Holst's work has an astrological rather than astronomical intent.

Even more disconcerting was the mix of moving and still images.

These days, The Planets can sound like film music, but its style jousts between Elgar and Stravinsky were daring for 1916. Holst's robust moments, effectively fleshed out by John Wells on a roaring Town Hall organ and a battery of percussionists, were appropriately shattering and yet Saturn was more subtly shaded.

The final movement, Neptune, has proved problematic for the APO, being omitted for a controversial Proms performance then presented with a synthesiser deputising for its offstage voices. This time, Holst's music was presented as written, but burdened alas with ragged vocals from the Graduate Choir.

Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra

Where: Auckland Town Hall.