William Dart review: Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra unleashes energy of Dragspil

Soloist James Crabb.

Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra’s Dragspil concert opened with The Bard, a lesser-known Sibelius symphonic poem.

Subtler and less robust than the composer’s Finlandia, this had conductor Luke Dollman creating a mellifluous weave of harp and whispering strings, with a passing eruption of Nordic fire.

The late Lyell Cresswell, one of our major composers, relocated to the Northern Hemisphere in the 1980s to live and work in Scotland. His accordion concerto Dragspil was premiered by the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and soloist James Crabb at the 1995 BBC Proms.

On Thursday, the charismatic Crabb was here to help unleash the same visceral thrills that Proms punters must have experienced in London 28 years ago.

Dragspil positively roars with energy as Cresswell — sometimes teasingly, sometimes unflinchingly — dispenses the bold slashing colours of his idiosyncratic soundworld.

The first movement set off mysteriously, but soon Crabb’s sneaking chromatics sparked dance-like exhilaration, with both conductor and orchestra in impressive synchronisation.

Conductor Luke Dollman.

A moment’s silence, followed by harp, transported us into a magical sound garden; soon after that, staunch strings ushered in Crabb, stealthily doubling on clarinet.

Lyell Cresswell’s music is bracingly volatile, and Dragspil’s often outrageously dissonant finale made for an adrenalin-pumping, triple forte close. Even the magnificent central movement, an eerie lament instigated by the cello quartet, was soon wrested into more boisterous territory.

Crabb’s encore was a breathtakingly simple and poignant Shetland folk tune.

Dragspil is a hard act to follow, I thought as the orchestra explored the late romantic twilight of Elgar’s First Symphony after the interval. Here, the nobilmente spirit was nicely restrained, and Dollman made much of the woodwind sprites in the second movement.

How might the redoubtable Sir Edward, who did own a recording of The Rite of Spring, have found Cresswell’s piece, I wondered? Remembering that Elgar once described this symphony as containing all the phases of pride, despair, anger and peace, he may well have heard a similar range of emotions in Dragspil.

What: Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra

Where: Auckland Town Hall

When: Thursday, May 18