William Dart review: Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra - Bach & Stravinsky

Oboe player Bede Hanley.

Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra’s biannual Baroque & Beyond concerts can be relied upon for a most attractive musical cocktail, mixing 18th century masterworks with a dash of the contemporary.

Friday’s Bach & Stravinsky was a particularly tasty affair, scheduling two concertos by the German composer alongside the Russian at his crisp, neoclassical best.

Violinist Benjamin Morrison.

It was two years ago that expat violinist Benjamin Morrison returned from Vienna to share the lush extravagance of Korngold’s concerto with a full APO; on Friday night, directing as well as playing in this smaller chamber-sized ensemble, he was the model of cool and cultivated collegiality.

The programme notes made much of the Italian influence on the Bach pieces, and one could certainly hear this in the effortless flow of the C minor Violin and Oboe Concerto, intensified by the composer’s sinuous contrapuntal.

Morrison’s finely spun dialogue with Bede Hanley’s sumptuously toned oboe put the Adagio afloat on clouds of loveliness; followed by a finale that was a rush of exhilaration, over an energetic orchestral bustle.

The D minor Concerto for two violins is one of the composer’s most familiar works. Here, the partnership of Liu-Yi Retallick and Morrison also made for a meltingly beautiful second movement, after the two musicians had injected a real vitality and purpose into the opening Vivace’s muscular stride.

Stravinsky was represented by a curiosity and a masterpiece.

The Russian’s Eight Instrumental Miniatures offers a second and more public life to a set of charming piano pieces for the young, now exquisitely colorised for 15 players. From the pellucid wind quartet of the first short piece to the swerve and verve of the closing tango, enchantment was inevitable.

Conductor Vincent Hardaker took up the challenge of Stravinsky’s Dumbarton Oaks to bring the evening to a triumphant close. He charted the players through volatile time signatures and often bold textural play, their remarkably spruce musicianship holding its own against the venue’s unsympathetic acoustics.

What: Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra

Where: Holy Trinity Cathedral

When: Friday

Reviewer: William Dart