Concert Review: Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra, Auckland Town Hall

Conductor Eckehard Stier drew lilting affection from his players. Photo / Supplied

Prokofiev's Overture on Hebrew Themes was a charming, left-field opener for the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra's East Side West Side concert on Thursday.

Well-tuned ears might have heard it as gentrified klezmer or a playful take on the mighty Mahler; the lilting affection that conductor Eckehard Stier drew from his players made both views a distinct possibility.

American composer Paul Schoenfield is mostly known in this country through his Cafe Music, a facetious, party-piece piano trio that can come across as something akin to a 15-minute encore.

Schoenfield's Four Parables for piano and orchestra is a product of the same nudge-and-wink, cut-and-paste aesthetic, but it is impossible not to be blown away by the sheer zest and cheek of it all.

Andreas Boyde and Stier proved to be one hip team and the German pianist has been associated with this concerto for some time now. He certainly had no trouble keeping head clear and fingers limber during Schoenfield's rollercoaster passage work or toning down to a sleazy bar room saunter when asked to do so.

The orchestra took Schoenfield's work to its collective heart and treated it to a virtuoso workout. Audience rewards ranged from swinging bassoon solos and barnyard fiddling over samba beats to one extraordinary passage in which a full-force Florida hurricane seemed to have been stirred into some Bartok night music.

Samuel Barber's Adagio for Strings sobered us up after interval, and the APO strings were as rich and sumptuous as could be wished for. The test for me has always been that pregnant, heart-stopping pause after the mighty climax, and when it came along, I was on the edge of my seat.

Finally, the Symphonic Dances from West Side Story made one re-appreciate the genius that was Leonard Bernstein.

With the percussion players basking in their second star turn of the evening, Brent Grapes thrilling us with blasts of mariachi trumpet and the orchestra redefining the word "infectious" in the Mambo, it was little wonder that Stier often seemed to be caught up in his own little podium dance.