Festival rolls out a feast of musical treats

Robert Wiremu will be leading the Auckland Chamber Choir. Photo / Paul Taylor

Back in 2003, one of the big events of the fledgling Auckland Festival saw the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra and the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra combine forces for their Twin Peaks concert. Six years on, they provide the musical peaks once more, although separately. The APO launches the festive fortnight on Thursday with its American Songs concert, featuring major works by John Adams and Barber alongside Duke Ellington's Harlem, which will give conductor Eckehard Stier the chance to get into a jazz groove.

The NZSO gives us Mahler's Third Symphony. This work, such a calling card for the charismatic Leonard Bernstein, has been described as "rapturously nostalgic" - and achieving that is the challenge that lies before conductor Pietari Inkinen and mezzo Ekaterina Semenchuk.

Come Monday, with the Mahler weekend behind them, I suspect a few adults may well sneak into the NZSO's morning performance of Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf on March 15, with Michael Hurst as narrator.

If Peter and the Wolf is one of the festival's fringe benefits as far as music is concerned, then so too is the New Zealand String Quartet's involvement with Sarah Brodie's The Kreutzer, which runs for a three-night season starting next Friday

The NZSQ is one of a number of artists providing the musical backbone to the festival in the Music at Twilight season which takes place at the Baptist Tabernacle every weeknight at 6pm.

The tagline, "An Hour of Quality Time", is significant and this will be guaranteed when, on the first Monday, the NZ Trio give the premiere performance of a piece by Chinese composer Musheng Cheng alongside works by Mendelssohn and Dadson. The next evening, the chance to hear Stravinsky's tasty little Three Pieces for String Quartet is ample reason to join the NZSQ at the Tabernacle.

On Wednesday, Robert Wiremu and his Auckland Chamber Choir tackle an unusual repertoire in their Accent on the Americas concert, with pieces ranging from Charles Ives to the Argentinian Carlos Guastavino.

Come the second week, flautist Bridget Douglas and marimba man Jeremy Fitzsimons will make mellifluous magic with Gareth Farr's Kembang Suling and a specially-made arrangement of Toru Takemitsu's Toward the Sea.

The second week ends with the emerging artists of NBR New Zealand Opera letting their hair down and voices out in Richard Heuberger's The Opera Ball. Expect amorous adventures along with their trickery and predicaments.

On March 15 is a tribute to Inia Te Wiata with a cast headed by his daughter, Rima. On March 21-22, The Dogs of Auckland brings together musicians Jonathan Besser and Andrew Pask, and artwork by Max Gimblett, John Reynolds and Billy Apple, housed in a John Parker set.