Review: The Creation at Auckland Town Hall

Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra's performance of Haydn's The Creation heralded the much-anticipated return of Roy Goodman, the APO's Principal Guest Conductor. Working in his field of speciality, the Englishman gave us what must be the climax of this year's Haydn celebrations.

The celebrated Representation of Chaos which opens the oratorio was transformed into a breathtaking tone poem. The string sound had an almost intoxicating gleam to it, with telling woodwind contours; Goodman effortlessly caught the "Tristanesque" touches that Dean Sutcliffe had alerted us to in his expert programme booklet essay.

Goodman's tempi were definitely on the brisk side, which made for shivers when those storms came over the horizon and a sense of blithe innocence when the Graduate Choir, early on, in a dancing A major, announced the imminent creation of the world.

Not a detail in Haydn's extraordinarily inventive orchestration escaped Goodman's notice, from stentorian trombone to prowling double-bassoon. Putting down his baton to accompany recitatives on an 1840 Collard square piano, we were charmed by his flurries and flutters across the keys.

Of the three Australian soloists, Sara Macliver stood out, scaling effortlessly to a top C in her opening aria and impressing throughout with elegant phrasing and aptly natural ornamentation. Particularly lovely was the way in which she seemed to caress Haydn's lines when the doves start cooing in "Auf Starkem Fittiche".

Tenor Paul McMahon was occasionally underpowered in arias, but showed his full musicianly measure in the shifting moods of "In Vollem Glanze".

Bass Stephen Bennett, whose devilish Polyphemus single-handedly saved NBR New Zealand Opera's Acis and Galatea six years ago, savoured his task as MC for the parade of God's newly-born animals, from lion to worm.

Ensembles were beautifully handled, none more so than the trio, "In holder Anmut stehn".

The Graduate Choir may be comparatively small in numbers but the singers held their own magnificently, taking on the sturdy Handelian writing of choruses like "Stimmt an die Staten" in full and confident voice. One looks forward indeed to their own Mendelssohn tribute concert next month.