Review: Water and Light, Auckland Town Hall

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There was a quiet buzz around Aotea Square on Wednesday night, graced by Tai Whetuki, Lisa Reihana's imposing video. Meanwhile, in a Town Hall reconfigured for cabaret ambience with tables in the stalls, Water and Light was a disappointing musical launch for the Auckland Arts Festival.

The first half of the programme pursued the theme of water as reflected in works by Mussorgsky, Mendelssohn and Takemitsu.

It was not until the Japanese composer's I Hear the Water Dreaming that the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra and conductor Kenneth Young evoked the magic so sorely needed - immediately before it, Mendelssohn's Hebrides Overture had been a laboriously low-tide affair.

The Takemitsu would have been the perfect opener, bewitching us with its scene-setting wash of horn, harps and bowed vibraphone.

After interval, the eco sensibilities that so often inform Takemitsu's music were treated at greater length and with less subtlety in Kenneth Young's newly commissioned In Paradisum.

The much-vaunted collaboration with artist Tim Gruchy brought problems, starting with a whirring projector fan.

Musically, this was an unwieldy cantata, with a bewildering mix of components, some of which did not come off in performance.

The pairing of a treble singer with lyric baritone was inspired; Liam Squire recovered well after a shaky start and the otherwise radiant Robert Tucker was burdened with the almost sadistic falsetto demands of his final, crucial lines.

Soprano Patricia Wright brought out an unexpected fury for Shakespeare's Titania; or so it seemed, with so many low notes swamped by the orchestra, and powerful top notes registering as wordless.

In such a fragmented work, the most convincing contribution came from the combined Graduate Choir and Choir of Holy Trinity Cathedral who, especially in their final Wordsworth setting, sang with conviction and resonance.

Where: Auckland Town Hall
Reviewer: William Dart