Divertissement at Auckland Town Hall

It is rare to find the spotlight falling on the bassoon in the concert hall, but within a few seconds of Divertissement taking the stage on Saturday this is what happened.

For two hours, Preman Tilson gave an expert display of unstinting musicianship, supported by his NZSO string colleagues.

If Jean Francaix's opening Divertimento was meant to set a suitably diverting tone for the evening, then its 10 minutes were a shrewd investment.

It is a score that is all urbane elegance - nothing goes on for too long, but not so much lingers in the memory either, despite the persuasive performance.

Tilson's arrangements saved the evening. While a dull Adagio by Spohr was beyond salvation, and Rachmaninov's Vocalise was too redolent of the palm court without its plush orchestral upholstery, Ravel's Vocalise-etude en forme de habanera was a winner, with sliding strings and an almost saxy slink to Tilson's line.

At the end of the evening a bijou version of Weber's Andante and Hungarian Rondo was a total delight.

Franz Danzi's D minor Quartet proved minor master territory. The musicians sailed through seas of semiquavers and testing triplets, and Danzi gave us a few flashes of inspiration - one involving pizzicato strings - but the final impression was of many, many notes being masterfully spun to remarkably little effect.

The strings, alone, offered two endearing waltzes by Dvorak and Hindemith's Minimax.

This decidedly wacky 1923 suite sent chuckles bubbling around the hall, although after a few minutes Hindemith's one-note-wrong humour started to pall.

By the end, I was contrarily searching for offbeat beauties, which I found with a polka in spooky harmonics.

Anthony Ritchie's Rites of Passage, expressly written for the group, was engrossing and skilful.

As with Hindemith, the Dunedin composer deals in wit and quotations, using Stravinsky's Rite of Spring as a launching pad and ending with a toccata that sounded like a helter-skelter cross between Vivaldi and Khachaturian.

A central lament revealed Ritchie's sensitive ear and craftsmanlike pen, as the bassoon, in dialogue with the strings, created some of the most entrancing sounds and textures of the entire concert.