KEY POINTS:
Hakan Hardenberger is one of the world's most charismatic trumpeters and it was Auckland's immense privilege to have him as soloist with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra over the weekend.
Friday's Haydn Concerto may have had seen the Swede make the occasional falter but these were mere ruffles in the infectious drive of the outer movements. The Andante basked in an individual lyricism with Hardenberger's winning, slightly breathy tone.
3 MOB Pieces cast soloist and orchestra into the devious musical mixmaster of H.K. Gruber. The trumpeter sauntered around the riffs of the opening Patrol - I imagined Copland in bed with Bach for this one - and flicked deftly through a Finale that sounded as if it might burst into Milhaud any minute.
Hardenberger's one encore of his visit was an unaccompanied My Funny Valentine, a nod to the legacies of Miles Davis and Chet Baker, its ebbing phrases making one wish that the auditorium lights could have been a little lower.
Saturday night saw the New Zealand premiere of Mark-Anthony Turnage's From the Wreckage. Hardenberger had explained it as "one gesture going from darkness into light" and this journey called for seatbelts. Travelling from late-night flugelhorn to the piercing exultancy of piccolo trumpet, Hardenberger emerged the stunning victor from Turnage's visceral and sometimes bracingly rowdy score.
Percussionists, scattered around the orchestra, kept time, literally and metaphorically while conductor Massimo Zanetti expertly marshalled the complex goings-on.
Zanetti, a force best known on the operatic circuit, revealed his symphonic prowess on Friday.
Mozart's Haffner Symphony was ineffably stylish.
The first movement came across all mock pomposo and dancing sciolto, the Minuet showed telling hints of rubato and the Finale was a buffa romp to its last dashing quaver.
Schumann's Second Symphony, receiving its first NZSO performance for a decade, is an intriguingly wild composition. Zanetti noted this, especially in the shifting unpredictabilities of its first movement. The Adagio, one of the composer's most fragrant inspirations, sang its heart out, with generous, simpatico phrasing.
Zanetti's account of Debussy's L'Apres-midi d'un faune could not have been bettered, Daring breaths, bordering on fermata, focused ears on colours and densities. Foreground and background were carefully mapped out; strings flooding in when appropriate, while elsewhere the conductor gave priority to more dissonant woodwind throbbings.
Ravel's Rapsodie Espagnole and Respighi's Roman Festivals put the orchestra on spectacular display. Ravel's alluring Introduction stole upon us as it should, glitter was dispersed for the dances, with the final Feria being a few minutes of unbridled revelry.
The Respighi, with nine percussionists lined up and three trumpets blazing from the balcony, was sonic gluttony. Spicier harmonically than some of the composer's music, this was, with Zanetti's Italian panache, the perfect festive close for the evening.
