KEY POINTS:
You know a concert has its heart in the right place if it sets off with a Kiwi commission, especially one with the wit and playfulness of Eve de Castro-Robinson's Chaos of Delight IV.
Flautist Luca Manghi and bassoonist Ben Hoadley played de Castro-Robinson's sophisticated duelling birdsongs from a balcony in the University Music Theatre, sending rivulets of sound out on high.
Various birds were evoked, with the two men coming together for a luminous kokako call. The ending was wonderfully whimsical - a final improvised showdown between bassoon reed and duck-caller. Off stage, Hoadley ended up having the final squawk with a water-filled toy bird warbler.
After the duo had delivered Villa-Lobos' Bachianas Brasileiras 6, in which you could feel subtle hints of samba under the Bachian counterpoint, pianist Read Gainsford joined Manghi for a 1987 Sonata by Lowell Liebermann.
A composer who tends to be easy on his listeners, this American makes no such concessions for his musicians. Nevertheless, Liebermann's Presto, a little like Poulenc on speed, was dazzlingly delivered.
After interval, we had Hoadley and Gainsford in tandem. A Recit et Allegro by Noel Gallon displayed a fluency and elegance on which French composers seem to have a monopoly and these players understood it well.
Ravel's Piece en forme d'habanera had a sunny sensuality, with Hoadley's bassoon as suave as any saxophone.
The closing Beethoven Trio, written when the composer was 16, could not have been better treated. From the first bars of the extremely busy first movement, the three men were a tightly knit ensemble. Gainsford was a firm anchor, making light of some awkward ornamentation at one point and enjoying a moment of eccentric cadenza.
Manghi brought a patrician grace to his part and Hoadley's bassoon made the very most of some particularly sweet and unaffected tunes.
Alas, if only the work had been more musically interesting - in 1786, the world had nine years to wait for the trios for violin, cello and piano that Beethoven would list as his official Opus One.
