New Zealand Symphony Orchestra at Auckland Town Hall

Cho-Liang Lin made Bernstein's 1954 Serenade his own.

Is it the Schoenbergian kiss of death, or perhaps a less-than-familiar violin concerto? Or might some have preferred a kosher symphony to Rachmaninov's Symphonic Dances?

Whatever the reason, the NZSO drew a meagre audience on Friday night and too many Aucklanders missed one of the most enterprising concerts of its season.

Schoenberg's Five Orchestral Pieces were a watershed in 1909 and Finnish conductor Hannu Lintu illuminated each, from the linear intricacies of the first to the subtle timbral flux of the third - almost sabotaged by the claque of coughers.

Cho-Liang Lin played Bernstein's 1954 Serenade as if it had been written for him. It's a powerful score, frank in its emotions, bold in its mix of cerebral and visceral and Lin took my breath away with the charged tranquility of his Adagio; Lintu threw himself into the final Bacchanale.

After interval, Lintu introduced us to the world of Finnish tango, although a full orchestra let loose on Toivo Karki's "Taysikuu" is a little like taking an 18-wheeler on a nightclub jaunt.

Lintu summoned prodigious energies for Rachmaninov's Symphonic Dances. Fury abounded, with some skydiving dynamic shifts, but there were also reflective moments. Rachel McLarin's saxophone solo sounded as if Copland was folk song searching in the Urals.

After 35 minutes, the audience didn't wait for the final tam tam to fade before breaking into ecstatic applause.

Saturday's more conservative programme attracted the larger audience.

John Adams' Short Ride in a Fast Machine had the orchestra pulsating and shimmying around the implacable click of Bruce McKinnon's woodblock. It's a sensational opener, but why doesn't someone give us a major score like Adams' Naive and Sentimental Music?

The Brahms Concerto was a transcendental experience in the hands of Cho-Liang Lin. From the first streaks of fire to those final spiccato chords, Lin was superb, especially in the silken melodic arcs of the Andante.

Lintu and the orchestra were also terrific. The ensemble was tight, even if the conductor's podium language sometimes seemed perilously non-specific.

Predictably, Tchaikovsky's Fifth Symphony was a crowd-pleaser. Lintu found new sonorous depths in the opening pages and throughout made one less conscious of Tchaikovsky's patchy symphonic construction.

When the tempo relaxed in the first movement, the intensity didn't; the Finale was a rocketship, shedding boosters, tempo by tempo, until it escaped the Earth's gravity.

Concert FM is there for those who didn't get to these concerts. This Saturday, you can hear the Brahms programme, live from Wellington's Michael Fowler centre, and next Monday there's Friday's Schoenberg, Bernstein and Rachmaninov, from the Auckland Town Hall.

What: New Zealand Symphony Orchestra
Where: Auckland Town Hall