Concert Review: NZSO, Auckland Town Hall

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If proof was needed that Penderecki's Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima had lost none of its white-hot intensity in the 51 years since its composing, the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra gave it on Friday night.

We came, we heard, we saw and we were conquered; in fact, actually seeing the energy involved in unleashing Penderecki's sonic canvas seemed to make the beating of clustering dissonances more potent than ever.

Antoni Wit conducted like a painter in sound. Bass pizzicatos were drums of death; the composer's concertina-like effects whereby single lines were pulled outwards to a shimmering mass of colour, were almost visual.

In 1960, Penderecki was contemplating the horror of Hiroshima; I wonder if many in the audience pondered the yet-unresolved horrors of Japan's Fukushima disaster?

Sebastien Hurtaud was heralded with elegance in Haydn's D major Cello Concerto and, from the start, the strength of his performance lay in the emotional substance he drew from the score.

Sustained notes rang through the hall, passage work was appropriately fleet-fingered, stressing the sometimes capricious ornamentation.

There was vulnerability in the Adagio, beginning in whispered song; Hurtaud made the most of that moment where Haydn has the cellist subvert a diversion to the minor by returning in triumphal major.

After a suitably sprightly Rondo, with orchestra and conductor attentive to every twist and turn, Hurtaud offered a mesmerising D major Prelude from Bach's most demanding Cello Suite.

Beethoven's Eroica Symphony was every bit the grand event we might have expected from Karajan's one-time assistant.

The opening chords were massive, magisterial; yet after that introduction, Wit searched out detail, sometimes unexpected. Tremolo passages took us to the doors of Berlioz's ballroom and, once inside, the ensuing theme was a series of waltzing sighs.

Wit made his point most dramatically in a slow movement that was a spacious four-to-a-bar affair. Robert Orr's oboe was utterly poignant while the suppressed snarls of double basses beneath were followed by the thunder of concealed timpani, as if Beethoven were remembering past disillusionments from heaven.

What: New Zealand Symphony Orchestra.

Where: Auckland Town Hall.

When: Friday.