Concert Review: NZSO, Auckland Town Hall

Pietari Inkinen. Photo / Supplied

Inevitably, the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra's Romeo and Juliet concert on Friday felt like a populist prelude to its much-anticipated Saturday Mahler.

The Shakespeare-inspired triptych had always seemed more marketing ploy than serious programme. The Tchaikovsky overture was the only work played complete; conductor Pietari Inkinen had fashioned a sprightly suite from Prokofiev's ballet music while three orchestral excerpts had been taken from Berlioz's choral symphony.

In terms of performance, however, it was a predictable revelation of just how sublime this orchestra can be, particularly in the Prokofiev.

Here, the Montagues and the Capulets played out their rivalry with stark, primal strides; later, shattering pizzicato effects made one wonder whether Tybalt might have met his end by pistol rather than rapier.

Unfortunately, luscious strings portraying the young lovers had to compete with the squeaky upholstery of the town hall seats. Note to Auckland Council: please investigate and resolve.

While both Tchaikovsky and Berlioz were brilliantly accounted for, listening to the French composer's longish Queen Mab Scherzo reminded me how much more delicately and succinctly Berlioz evoked the fairy world in the tenor's brief Mab la messagere from the complete work.

Saturday's Mahler Sixth Symphony must be one of the high points of the season as Inkinen put his stamp on a work too often typecast as gloom incarnate. German conductor Bruno Walter suggested that this score deserved the motto, "Existence is a burden; death is desirable and life hateful"; from the tenacity of its opening march, Inkinen seemed to suggest that life was well worth fighting for.

There was no place for skittishness in the scherzo second movement. Ominous clouds loomed over Tyrolean skies and, mid-movement, a langsamer section positively glowed with evanescent hues.

Observing most of the composer's many warnings and admonitions gave Inkinen's vision a gravitas in keeping with the legend that has grown around the symphony.

His meticulousness could also be detected in the finesse of the Andante moderato, in which the orchestra sometimes came across as a mammoth chamber group.

Inkinen well understands the Mahlerian palette in its many and subtle shadings. In the great Finale, where the composer comes close to the expressionist world of Schoenberg, the harp had an almost koto-like abrasiveness against the whispering rumble of tuba.

Despite the distraction of an embarrassing piece of clumsiness from an on-stage cameraman, tension was maintained.

The clear ring of regular bells connected back to the rustic cowbells that roved around the hall in the first movement. The cool woodwind chorales in the opening movement had now turned deeper and darker, the march ever more frenetic as Inkinen urged his players towards a final cry of A minor.

What: New Zealand Symphony Orchestra

Where: Auckland Town Hall

When: Friday and Saturday