Auckland Philharmonia at the Bruce Mason Centre

The Auckland Philharmonia's poster for its Lion Foundation Winter Masterpieces series is eyecatching, if bizarre. Owen Gordon, looking away from the camera, is disconsolately playing his viola, wearing beanie and scarf over concert hall tails, like a high-toned busker.

On Saturday Gordon was alongside violinist Dimitri Atanassov in Mozart's Sinfonia Concertante, which is about as far from street music as you can get. Spanning from majestic Allegro to frolicsome Finale, it also features one of the composers most wrenchingly beautiful Andantes.

The piece comes off best when one feels a special connection between the soloists and there certainly was on this occasion.

The two men lead their respective sections in the AP and the more measured contributions of Gordon's viola (rich-toned enough at times for a cello) balanced Atanassov's more flamboyant violin turns.

The orchestra, clearly inspired by their colleagues, played as one, with conductor Marc Taddei determined to get the most from pungent syncopations and bubbling finale.

Haydn's Miracle symphony, which opened the concert, had prepared us for Taddei's ploy. And how grateful one is for a Haydn symphony these days, especially one without the familiar tag of farewells, surprises or drumrolls. After a tidily voiced Adagio, Taddei found an almost Baroque splendour in the Allegro. The second movement was an adventure, pure and complex, especially when solo lines unexpectedly appeared impressively on woodwind, less so with violin. The Minuet's trio was an unapologetic landler, the final movement had just the right degree of possessed humour.

After interval, the conductor showed the same care with dynamics and phrasing in Beethoven's Fourth Symphony. There were the familiar, primal poundings of B flat major and players enjoyed the quick-fade sensation of the forte-piano chords as much as they delighted in dodging around Beethoven's many rhythmic twists.

The woodwind playing, so shapely in the second subject of the Allegro Vivace, would give character to the whole symphony. The athletic rush of the Finale must have whetted appetites for the second concert of the series.

Review

* What: Auckland Philharmonia
* Where: Bruce Mason Centre