Auckland Philharmonia at Auckland Town Hall

The Auckland Philharmonia's "Night in Vienna" set off with the fanfares and taradiddles of Franz von Suppe's Light Cavalry Overture.

To some, this piece is a band rotunda chestnut. Conductor Christopher Wilkins teased us with its tongue-in-cheek militarism, and startled us with the searing passion of its Czardas theme.

Johann Strauss' Emperor Waltz progressed to the ballroom with Wilkins ensuring that all was light of foot - even the march sections had something of the polka in their step.

When the waltz took over, the eternal battle of four and three time was magnificently conceded.

The highlight of the evening, Berg's Violin Concerto, was introduced by the conductor and soloist Pierre Amoyal in tandem, preparing us for the shift from effervescence to elegy.

Playing from memory, the French violinist effortlessly caught the emotional complexity of Berg's score, unfurling soaring lines against harmonies that look back to Wagner and forward to Gil Evans.

Earlier on, Amoyal had mentioned the spirit of that most Viennese of composers, Schubert, and he certainly took Berg's direction wienerisch to heart when the concerto lilts into waltz mode.

The AP was at its considerable best in an intricate score that gives many orchestral players solo status, if only for the briefest of phrases.

When the heat was on in the second movement, Wilkins ensured players met the composers' demands of groans and strident calls for help choked off by the suffocating rhythmic pressure of destruction.

Yet there was never any betrayal of the score's patrician refinement, as witnessed by Amoyal's hushed introduction of its famous Bach theme, followed by the coolest of clarinet chorales.

Brahms' Fourth Symphony was the final offering. Wilkins gave us Johannes with attitude, and the players were willing accomplices. There was a physicality to the duelling breaths between woodwind and strings in the first movement and the second, and a limber Andante moderato, moved from the truest of unisons to sumptuous climaxes.

After a rollicking Scherzo, with just a suspicion of Viennese portamento here and there, the great Passacaglia of the Finale was a fitting conclusion to a concert of exemplary music making.

Review

* What: Auckland Philharmonia
* Where: Auckland Town Hall