In 2000, Uri Caine's bold transformation of Bach's Goldberg Variations into a vibrant encyclopedia of styles blew welcome raspberries into complacent ears.
On Friday, accompanied by the New Zealand String Quartet, and compressing his original 70 variations into just over 20, the American pianist failed to capture the thrill of 16 years ago.
Early on, Caine's Rachmaninov-styled theme swooned gracefully, and the penultimate tango proved the crowd-pleaser, even without the accordion of the original.
Between them, one was too often aware of scruffy string playing, especially in hurtling passages originally intended for keyboard. Caine threaded his sometimes mordant descants around the NZSQ, as well as striking out with solos in his own amalgam of rock, stride and gospel idioms.
With this Bachian salute taking just under an hour, and the first half of the concert the same, the evening was too long. The boom 'n' thud of John Grant's band next door intruded on the final statement of Bach's original tune.
