Review: Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra at Auckland Town Hall

A well-filled Town Hall and a generally vociferous reception might have suggested that the final concert in the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra's Splendour of Tchaikovsky had hit the jackpot.

Yet, Thursday's sure-to-please coupling of the First Piano Concerto and the Pathetique Symphony was less satisfying musically than it might have been.

In the very first page of the Concerto, the first violins were seriously underpowered with the melody that should have blazed through Alexey Yemtsov's powerhouse piano chords.

A lacklustre flute solo launching the Andantino did not augur well and, despite the distractions of a brilliant soloist, the tired orchestral tone took its toll right through to the final bars.

Yemtsov, whose energetic performance to this point had not been immune from passing smudges, took to the Finale with a brutality that startled; its opening theme has certainly inspired more intriguing interpretations from other pianists who have tackled this Concerto.

Two encores with more subdued dynamic and tempo levels, a Bach-Siloti transcription and a pensive Rachmaninov Prelude, were much appreciated.

After interval, the anguished introduction to Tchaikovsky's Sixth Symphony did not rival the emotional intensity of last week's Fifth. Marko Letonja, conducting without a score, was obviously working from a deep knowledge of this music, but this was not filtering through from the orchestra.

By mid-movement, the string section lacked sufficient thrust to do justice to its important part in the central thematic development.

The 5/4 "waltz" of the second movement did not catch the insouciance that is so much part of its charm, and there was too much of a scramble in the early stages of the Scherzo. Its closing pages, however, with quadruple-forte markings and Tchaikovsky's marching stride, were so successfully triumphant that many in the audience rewarded it with applause.

Letonja subdued the clapping and some ground was regained in the Finale.