New Zealand Symphony Orchestra at Auckland Town Hall

The NZSO came to town with the nicest gift they could bring us - a New Zealand commission.

Michael Williams' Piercing the Vault coached thought-provoking philosophies in an idiom that could be described as approachability without compromise. Its superlative soloist Robert Orr poured out oboe melodies which sometimes seemed on the Moorish side, while the orchestra came up with harmonies that many in the audience would have found were downright moreish.

Williams has a sure sense of colour and the courage to risk the rumbustious; his lightly scored cadenza, with oboe sliding and bending over whispered lower strings, dealt out a rare and mysterious beauty.

Best of all, if you missed this concert, you can hear the orchestra's Wellington performance of the work on Concert FM at 8 tonight.

Soloist Pascal Roge fared better in Friday's Grieg Piano Concerto than he would with Mozart the following night. His Grieg had its idiosyncracies and was a deliberated interpretation, although he did not always seem at ease with Stefan Sanderling and the orchestra. The slow movement came off best, with Roge's pearly textures rippling over the orchestra.

Roge's impetuous playing, which made for some nervous moments in Grieg, proved more troublesome with Mozart's K 503. There had been a few minor memory lapses on Friday; in Mozart the music came to a halt at one point.

Again Roge was at his best Andante, with some individual ornamentation and a delicacy of phrasing that was not so evident in the outer movements.

Both the pianist's encores did not try to dazzle, and a poetic La Fille aux cheveux de lin alerted us to his fine new recording of the Debussy preludes.

It was the orchestra which was the real virtuoso of this visit. On Friday, Sanderling and his musicians made a persuasive case for Rachmaninov's much-maligned Third Symphony.

A strange work that mixes the worst traits of Tchaikovsky with modern moments that sound like soft-sell Shostakovich, Rachmaninov's Third does ramble. Nevertheless, Sanderling, coaxing virtuoso turns from his players and dealing out the subtlest of rubato with slow-motion body and baton work, offered as staunch an advocacy as any composer could wish for.

Liadov's Kikimora, a generous but unnecessary encore, was brilliantly played, but we had already had enough Russian fire and ice.

On Saturday, the orchestra opened with Mozart's frothy overture to La Clemenza di Tito and, after a less than engaging contribution to the Mozart concerto, was back in form for Bruckner's Third Symphony.

This is not subtle music and Bruckner ruminates for long spells, often on one idea or chord. This single-mindedness can be infuriating or heavenly, depending on the listener's disposition. On this occasional, it was definitely the latter, through to the final blaze of D major.

Review

* What: New Zealand Symphony Orchestra
* Where: Auckland Town Hall