KEY POINTS:
PERFORMANCE
What: Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra, Splendour of the Baroque
Where and when: Auckland Town Hall, tonight 8pm
And: Nov 15 & 22, Auckland Town Hall, 8pm; Town Hall Concert Chamber, Nov 19 6.30pm
The Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra's Splendour of the Baroque series, which opens tonight, is an enterprising venture - three orchestral samplings of the Italian, French and German genres, with a special twilight chamber music concert in the final week.
All four programmes are in the hands of one of the world's leading Baroque specialists, Roy Goodman, whose prolific career is reflected in performances with the finest orchestras and soloists around, as well as a daunting list of recordings.
Looking over a dull Waitemata Harbour, he remembers when he was first hooked by the recordings of Nikolaus Harnoncourt.
"I found something close to my heart and intimate that I could relate to."
It was the 70s and he formed his own groups like the Brandenburg Consort and the Parley of Instruments. The rewards were special.
"I loved doing this music the way I used to enjoy playing rugby. It wasn't only physical. We did a lot of planning, reading and scheming.
"There was a lot of background work to be done, researching music which had not been played for 300 years."
Acceptance by the wider musical community was not immediate and he remembers the abuse that violinist Pinchas Zukerman hurled at his Early Music colleagues - an image of authentic performances sounding like "a cat puking" was one of the American's milder brickbats. No more though.
"These days, a huge number of chamber orchestras in Europe pride themselves on historically aware performances," says Goodman.
I wonder how he will fare with a standard symphony orchestra like the APO but Goodman says it is possible to catch the Baroque ambience with modern-day instruments.
"String players with the right bowing techniques can achieve a lot of what is done by period instruments, although the modern flute, with its padded keys, seems more problematic."
Goodman is optimistic, however.
"The many variations of colour that are possible on a Baroque instrument can be got, if that sound is in the player's head."
Not for this man the "laser-beam brassiness" of the modern trumpets which means that the Gabrieli Canzon tonight should be a particularly vigorous fanfare, before we have our familiar Vivaldi and less familiar Corelli, Albinoni and Geminiani.
It is obvious that Goodman has had fun planning these "pot-pourris of Baroque hits, although there are a few solid, meaty pieces included, such as tonight's Vivaldi Gloria."
You sense he can hardly wait for next Thursday's French programme, featuring music by Rameau, Lully, Couperin and Leclair.
"This is new territory for a lot of people," he enthuses.
"They will be gobsmacked. It is unbelievably rich and sensuous.
"It's a difficult style to play, because the printed page is only the starting point; ornamentation and rhythmic alteration are par for the course and the music has a freedom and a flexibility that you find in jazz these days."
Sure enough, he sings a sample of Rameau, using the Scooby-dooby-doos of a hip jazz singer.
If tonight's Italian programme sets up the foundation of the Baroque music with favourites like Vivaldi's Summer and a fine concerto for two oboes by Albinoni, while next week dishes out Gallic elegance, the last concert goes Teutonic.
It offers the familiar too, like the Pachelbel Canon and the Overture from Handel's Fireworks Music, but signs off with what Goodman describes as one of those top-dollar pieces, Bach's Magnificat.
This work is obviously dear to his heart as he describes, "the wonderful way the movements accumulate; the way the voices build up in the Gloria is like the pealing of bells."
He pauses and adds the best recommendation that this concert and the whole series could possibly have: "This is the best of Bach."
