Concert Review: Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra at Auckland Town Hall

NZ composer John Psathas. Photo / Supplied

Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra has every justification to be proud of its resident composer, John Psathas. With music director Eckehard Stier on the podium, Psathas' Tarantismo was an electrifying experience for an almost full Town Hall at the first concert of the orchestra's APN News & Media Premier Series.

Tarantismo plays the genre mix game. An initial trumpet solo was bluesy with just a hint of the Kasbah. After seven minutes, it was Hugo Montenegro time, with the orchestra punching out an exhilarating big-band groove. The journey between was navigated through a series of atmospheric solos, beautifully delivered.

This music beguiled and deceived; on the surface it might sound a little like a score in search of a movie, but subtler impulses lay within.

A little of the coyness of Canteloube's Chants d'Auvergne can go a long, long way but Sara Macliver delivered nine songs with charm and naturalness.

Impeccable in her phrasing, the Australian soprano's line of wicked humour in Chut, Chut and a particularly droll Malurous qu'o uno fenno were much appreciated, while the orchestra positively frolicked in Canteloube's colourful arrangements.

After interval, Mahler's First Symphony offered the challenge that Stier and his musicians relish. The conductor has spoken of the score's blend of the cosmic and the comic and both were amply accounted for.

Meticulously observing the first movement repeat, Stier moved from primal stillness, with fanfares and birdcalls, to the irrepressible dance, with whooping thrills from the horns.

In the scherzo one could sense the earth on the dancing shoes while the trio was a more pensive affair, with shapely woodwind solos and swooning strings.

Stier carefully outlined the structure behind the third movement, from the bleak tread of its Frere Jacques theme to that shiver of possible chaos when a raucous military march elbowed its way into the score.

The final movement opened with a roar and, even in passages of exquisite stillness,did not surrender any of its intensity until the final storm of D major.

With Stier and APN News & Media both renewing their association with the APO until 2014, our orchestra's future would seem secure.