KEY POINTS:
The first instalment of the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra's Lion Foundation Twilight Series was a cracker of a concert, even if audience numbers were undeniably disappointing for an event that, in London, could have filled the Wigmore Hall.
From the first exquisitely moulded phrases of Schumann's Adagio and Allegro Opus 70, it was clear that cellist Richard Harwood and pianist Caroline Almonte were a partnership blessed by Parnassus.
The major work before interval was the Brahms E minor Sonata. Territory was tenaciously defined in the opening bars, with the clarity of the first theme leading inevitably to more athletic adventures in the movement's development section.
The cellist's own programme notes suggested that the minuet of the second movement only toys with being a dance; yet the litheness of this rendition, even in the dreamier ambience of the Trio, would have brought a smile to the face of Terpsichore herself.
Shostakovich's D minor Sonata led off the second half of the evening. After an Allegro moderato in which lyricism was adroitly tempered with simplicity, the second movement was almost unbearably exciting as Harwood and Almonte ran the gamut from Firebird filigree to spine-tingling frenzy.
After a Largo that made one realise the souls of Shostakovich and Rachmaninov shared the same motherland, the work ended with a Finale which did full justice to the "Haydnesque and hectic" that Harwood had signalled in his notes.
Frank Bridge's only Sonata of 1917 poignantly caught the spirit of the same war that hung over Elgar's Cello Concerto. No resources, physical or emotional, were untapped in the full-on dramatic Allegro. The pair expertly explored the many changing moods of the second movement, from its arresting opening, with Harwood's dissonant entries stabbing into the brooding piano textures through to the optimistic major glow of its final moments.
An encore of Rachmaninov's Vocalise was generous after such a demanding programme and so persuasively delivered that one could quite happily have heard this over-familiar salon piece again.
