Auckland Chamber Orchestra at the Auckland Town Hall Concert Chamber

By WILLIAM DART

The final concert of the Auckland Chamber Orchestra's 2004 season was its most consistently enjoyable to date.

Conductor Peter Scholes had set his players a challenge with Stravinsky's Danses Concertantes and, even if textures were not always as crisp as they could have been, Scholes had the all-important rhythmic measure of the score.

The woodwind, at their clearest in the "Tema" of the third movement, were endlessly characterful.

And when Stravinsky was at his most demanding, as in the "Pas d'action", the firm leadership of concertmaster Dianna Cochrane was a decided asset.

Lukas Foss' Renaissance Concerto came with two bonuses. One was the effortless grace and generosity of soloist Alexa Still, the other those intriguing moments when orchestral members were despatched out into the hall - two trumpeters on either side of the stage in the first movement and a small string group beyond the hall door for the third.

Scholes and Still caught the medieval-ish bonhomie of Foss' Intrada - "The Carman's Whistle", one of Byrd's jauntiest tunes, gave it the feeling of a real party piece - and the smooth blend of sonorities in the third movement almost atoned for some disconcerting concertante in the final Jouissance.

An encore gave us two Stills for the price of one as the flautist criss-crossed vocalised and conventional flute lines in Ian Clarke's Zoom Tube - a lively showpiece much appreciated by all.

After the interval, Haydn's Symphony 82, the first of the composer's ambitious Paris set, inspired what was perhaps the ACO's best playing of the year.

The opening Allegro spiritoso took Haydn's directive to heart and delivered it to the letter with driving rhythms and a full, rich sound.

While a little more finesse was needed for the phrasing in the Andante to bloom, Scholes seized every opportunity for the dramatic that Haydn had handed him.

Even the occasional questionable chord couldn't detract from a purposeful Minuet, and, in its Trio, flautist Bruce Haswell, playing with string quartet, gave us what amounted to high-quality chamber music.

This valiant orchestra, which was behind this year's fine Idomeneo venture, and which has coped for 12 months without Creative New Zealand support, deserves greater acknowledgement for what it contributes to our city's musical life.