Auckland Philharmonia at the Aotea Centre

By WILLIAM DART

Initially, I was taken with the idea of Brahms and Wagner sitting alongside one another in the Philharmonia's Sumptuous Symphony programme. In the 1860s, such a pairing could have instigated armed battles in some quarters; with hindsight, we are more relaxed and see the two composers as complementary spirits.

Brahms' First Piano Concerto accounted for the first half of the evening, and it was, on the whole, curiously unsatisfying.

One appreciated the forceful, deliberate pace that Miguel Harth-Bedoya set for the opening Maestoso, although harsh string intonation blunted the impact of the fiery lines.

The soloist was Markus Groh, one of the rising young stars on the international concert circuit and winner of the 1995 Queen Elizabeth Competition. Unfortunately, Groh's intense involvement with the work did not project much beyond the edge of the stage; much of his playing seemed remarkably impassive, something apparent from the first few phrases of his opening espressivo.

The central Adagio, the spiritual core of the piece and Brahms' tribute to his friend and mentor Schumann, needed more space and time behind it. However elegant Groh's cadenzas might have been, this is a score that needs more blood in its veins.

After the interval, Harth-Bedoya warned us to expect the outrageous when he presented Wagner as a symphonic composer. We were to experience Wagner's best music in the length of a symphony, although in this context The Flying Dutchman Overture made for an eccentric slow movement.

A sturdy reading of Die Meistersinger Overture led off. One felt the salt spray as the Dutchman's ship tossed in the North Sea and a few frissons of mild terror when the Valkyries flew past.

But by the third overture, Tannhauser, the stamina of the players was being sorely tested, and the dead, boxed-up sound of the Aotea Centre made me yearn for the Town Hall's more vivid acoustics.

At the end of the concert, Harth-Bedoya passed on his bouquet to David Bremner, acknowledging that it had been a good night for the trombones. The audience's reward was a thrilling Act III Prelude from Lohengrin.