Dean-Emmerson-Dean at the Auckland Town Hall

The Australian trio was determined to put us at ease. There were no ties and tails, and each player took a turn introducing works. Each professed his admiration for our admittedly splendid Town Hall. Clarinettist Paul Dean said he was so jealous he wanted to take it home.

Most importantly, Dean-Emmerson-Dean gave us an evening of exemplary music-making.

Mozart may have been inspired while playing skittles (Kegelstatt means "skittle alley") but his Kegelstatt Trio - historically the first work written for viola, clarinet and piano - is one of uncommon grace. Brett and Paul Dean fashioned their viola and clarinet lines with ineffable finesse, while pianist Stephen Emmerson set the benchmark for elegant phrasing.

If Brett Dean's busy triplets dominated in the minuet, Paul Dean impressed throughout with his ability to draw gossamer-like phrases seemingly from the air. Emmerson was a veritable driving force in the final movement, a deceptively placid Rondeau.

Paul Dean offered a forceful account of Brahms' E flat clarinet sonata. With the resolute Emmerson, he provided a shining example of what ensemble playing is all about, particularly in the rising and falling phrases of its Allegro amabile and the sheer impetus of the central Allegro appassionato.

Dean joked how Liszt once described the sound of Brahms' original clarinettist, Richard Muhlfeld, as "akin to biting into a ripe peach", a scrumptious image that came to mind more than once during his performance.

After the interval, Messiaen also sprang to mind, and more than once, in Andrew Schultz' Stick Dance 2. This was a brilliant, hard-edged Australian landscape of a piece, with piercing outbursts cutting through sliding clarinet wails, delivered with ambassadorial authority.

The final offering, four of Bruch's Opus 83 Pieces, uncovered the intense and malleable beauty of viola and clarinet in duet. In the first, a substantial C sharp minor work, both instruments marked out carefully defined territory. By the third, a poignant F minor piece, their intertwining song reminded me that this same composer had written the famous Kol Nidrei.

An encore, a zesty potpourri from Mozart's The Magic Flute, rounded off the evening with wit and style.