Review: Auckland Chamber Orchestra at Town Hall Concert Chamber

New Zealand music would be much poorer without Auckland Chamber Orchestra's Composer Portrait concerts and the latest, featuring Eve de Castro-Robinson, was a lively affair.

The evening took its title from her 1988 A Resonance of Emerald, which in turn had drawn its synaesthetic image from Emily Dickinson.

The music, however, definitely hailed from the cartoon side of life. With a retro backdrop of amplified harpsichord, moods swung and shifted; brass bopped and stuttered, strings threatened to snap from furiously plucking fingers.

Above the energising fray, Donald Nicholls' tenor sax spiralled in ecstasy.

De Castro-Robinson's impish humour hasn't dimmed. Her 2004 These boots (are made for walking) was still funky'n' fun, sashaying from Andrew Uren's bluesy bass clarinet to nudging takes on Dave Brubeck.

Commemoration, thoughtfully played by cellist Katherine Hebley, stood alone. This 1988 work crystallises grief in poignant semitones. It ends, when emotions can no longer be contained, with a rush from a vast, angry chord to a sonic shiver.

Some performers embellished the humour. Claire Scholes, in spectacular avian costume, gave Chaos of Delight II a Papagena workout. It was skilfully presented although a more conventional approach would have put more focus on the subtlety of the composer's "birdsong".

Noah's Ark was a raucous quodlibet for quadrupeds and other beasts, a trip to Hoffnung land. Yet, for all the party masks and wild blowing, tightly controlled by conductor Peter Scholes, the appearance of Bye Bye Blackbird, fluttering away on flute and xylophone, had an almost elegiac beauty.

Two works reflected the composer's interest in Len Lye. Flautist Adrianna Lis launched the concert with Knife Apple Sheer Brush, particularly impressively in the second song, in which the ever-ironic composer evokes sci-fi atmospherics to sing of love.

Alas, too much slipped between stage and audience when Helen Medlyn recreated the 2004 cycle Len Songs. The mezzo brought all the wonderment required to What strata, illuminated a moonlit fantasy world in Silver Sea Valley and was just the right mix of snappy and savvy in A Cornea, but distracting music stands and a sometimes overpowering accompaniment were distinct liabilities.