Deidre Irons at the Auckland Town Hall

By HEATH LEES

Usually we hear Deidre Irons in front of the country's major orchestras, but Chamber Music New Zealand presented her on Tuesday evening as a soloist.

Irons' pianism is thoughtful and elegant, sometimes even studied. But her musicality is unchallengeable and her technical assurance impressive.

Take the Rachmaninov "Corelli" variations, where the composer keeps the four-square structure of the original Folia theme but leaves it up to the performer to find the symphonic threads.

As fluid in the dry chordal passages as she was in the harplike accompaniments and increasingly soulful melodies, Irons created an expressive sound structure that took shape naturally, but allowed the composer's Russian voice full rein in an expressive coda.

By contrast, the young Beethoven's voice did not always dominate the stage in the opening piano sonata, the A major, Op 2 No 2.

Instead of the usual fiery drama, Irons opted for a relaxed interpretation that let the music speak not so much about the headstrong genius from Bonn, but more about itself and its age. Less successful in the first movement, it lent grandeur to the Largo, and the scherzo positively sparkled.

It was all Beethoven but you could hear echoes of Haydn and Mozart giving way to anticipations of Schubert.

Jenny McLeod's second set of four Tone Clock Pieces come across as an exploration of piano sounds rather than a fully formed recital piece. The continuous, Debussyan circles reflect little change of rhythm or dynamic, and McLeod admits that the composition is highly personal.

Not so the Liszt Sonata, which is often as extrovert as you can get, yet ingeniously spun out of one diminished seventh chord. Irons shrank at times from the all-consuming fire of the virtuosic sections, but gave its subtle transformation of themes full play.

Semiquavers glittered in the impressionistic parts, and Liszt's heroic conflict was finally resolved in a moving benediction.