It was a sizzling starter for the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra's Sketches of Spain concert - Rimsky-Korsakov's Capriccio Espagnol, one of the few scores that almost manages to out-Carmen Carmen in its flagrant Spanishry.
Conductor Christoph Konig and the players relished every dazzling hue in the composer's seemingly inexhaustible palette, from yodelling clarinet in the opening Alborada to the sonorous brass fanfare that guides us into the gypsy encampment.
In full flight, with all players on board, the NZSO set up some spectacular walls of sound; yet the solo turns, particularly in the fourth movement, were perfection, right down to a wonderfully flashy harp glissando.
After interval, Debussy's Iberia presented another set of postcards, with more of impressionist wash to them. From the start, one was wooed by delicious woodwind lacings and string passages iridescent in their detail.
The sonic perfumes floated voluptuously in the second movement, while in the midst of it all a restless habanera made its presence felt. It was a heavenly experience in the hall; it must have been the ultimate in surround sound for the man on the podium.