From the first surges of strings in Faure's opening Prelude, it was evident that the Auckland Philharmonia was once again under the baton of Paul Mann.
The Englishman was not afraid to wax robust in Faure's Pelleas and Melisande.
The Prelude revealed the sort of passions which pass some conductors by, and the breezy lilt of the Sicilienne was refreshing.
At the end, the march-like cortege of the heroine's death was caught with subtlety and shifting emotions.
The French muse continued with Cyprien Katsaris as soloist in Ravel's Piano Concerto.
The first movement was the kaleidoscope it should be, a flurry of brilliant colours, mordant textures and sheer razzle-dazzle.
Katsaris played it sinuous and bluesy with his asides, and the orchestra complemented his mercurial mood-changes with a real esprit de cool.
The Quasi Adagio might have been a little on the swift side but Katsaris' scales were as pearls, Madeline Sakofsky's cor anglais a languid delight. The Finale was a breathtaking, helter-skelter affair, albeit with a few testing moments for woodwind.
Katsaris' encore was Chopin's most popular Nocturne.
The audience cheered at mention of the composer's name, although the flamboyant performance that followed was at times closer to a transcription than Chopin's original thoughts.
After interval, the orchestra moved to sturdy Teutonic fare.
Blumine is the slow movement that Mahler jettisoned from his First Symphony and Mann had stressed to me a few days previously that even its composer found it a sentimental affair. Unfazed, the conductor confronted sentimentality with grace and a true feeling for the simplicity of the score, while not denying Mahlerians a thrilling climax.
Schumann's Fourth Symphony was also heightened by Mann's individual touches. Coming after the Mahler, Schumann's Lebhaft had an Austrian lightness to it, and players and conductor didn't hold back from pursuing obsessional rhythms through to their unashamed apotheosis.
The Romanza adroitly navigated shifting metres and contrast was also the key to the third movement, pitting a stalwart main theme against a beguiling, buoyant second.
<EM>Auckland Philharmonia</EM> at Auckland Town Hall
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