Sir Andrew Davis prefaced an enthralling Eclairs sur l'au-Dela by saying how privileged he felt to be conducting this Messiaen work for his second and probably last time; an hour later, as the strings signed off in serene A major, players and the audience must have felt similarly blessed.
Drawing on the fine young musicians of its National Youth Orchestra to fill the Aotea stage, the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra delivered spectacular coup after coup.
Yet, with quicksilver ecstasies and thundering magnificence, spectacular seems an inadequate description for a score of such deep, spiritual immersion.
We were mesmerised from the start by an organ-like prelude of roving brass and woodwind chords, and not released until Messiaen's string-laden vision of Christ in Paradise.
Wilder moments thrilled, as might be expected from a composer once credited with evoking celestial jazz bands.
