KEY POINTS:
Glinka's Ruslan and Ludmila Overture is guaranteed to set the adrenalin coursing and it did just that, a few seconds into the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra's Thursday concert.
You could catch the enjoyment on the face of German conductor Johannes Fritzsch and hear it as violin lines dashed about or the brass punched out their parts with unbridled gusto.
The testing points of the piece - some precise woodwind banter and that magical moment when the cellos break into song - posed no problems.
I suspect the town hall was filled to the choir stalls because John Chen was lined up as soloist in Rachmaninov's Second Piano Concerto.
Chen is a pianist who combines a phenomenal technique with no-nonsense, solid interpretations. He does not get distracted by unnecessary emotional baggage and cares little for playing to the gallery.
With Rachmaninov, he brought an air of deliberation to the score and the few extra minutes the first movement took up seemed simply to give us more of the Russian composer to savour.
The second movement vindicated his restraint, setting lyricism against the Slavic passions and sighs of the orchestra. His handling of the short Lisztian cadenza was a model of musical observation and finesse.
There were moments in the Finale where a tad more expressiveness might not have gone amiss but it closed in resounding triumph.
After interval, Brahms' Second Symphony gained much from the expertise of a German conductor.
Fritzsch found the heart of the Adagio non troppo and the third movement captivated - so much so that one understood why it had to be encored at its first performance.
