Auckland Philharmonia at the Aotea Centre

By WILLIAM DART

It was a special moment on Thursday night when conductor Klauspeter Seibel, addressing the audience, pointed out that two of the works on the Auckland Philharmonia programme had grown from the admiration of one composer for another.

We had just heard Tchaikovsky's Mozartiana, a collection of four Mozart pieces in orchestral reworkings by the Russian composer.

In performance, there had been a few minor transgressions, the most alarming a bumpy transition in the Preghiera, although the rich string sonorities throughout this movement were more than adequate compensation.

The Finale, an extended treatment of Mozart's Unser dummer Pobel meint variations, can flag in inexperienced hands, but Seibel and his musicians kept momentum going.

The strongest impression was of a well-turned woodwind section, reminding one of Tchaikovsky the ballet composer and making one realise why the choreographer Balanchine returned to this score so many times throughout his career.

The dapper Seibel also acknowledged the initiative of concertmaster Justine Cormack in programming Piazzolla's Las Cuatro Estaciones Portenas. Soloist Cormack made her entrance dressed for the tango bar and even flashing a little thigh at an appreciative audience, although the end result was somewhat compromised by Aotea's acoustics.

There had been tinges of nervousness at first, but when everything settled, Cormack gave a neatly turned account of a demanding solo part, even if here and there it seemed that more elemental passions were being held at half an arm's length.

Cellist Ashley Brown contributed some meltingly beautiful solos, as did Cormack in the slower sections, and the flickering meld of Vivaldi and Pachelbel in the third movement was pure enchantment.

The concert ended with an orchestral workout in Stravinsky's Petrouchka.

Perhaps once more it was the venue that robbed the score of some of its sparkle, for even the usually indestructible Russian dance had lost a little of its glitter.

The players did not hold back in their response to the physical challenge of the score and their finest hour came in the shorter character studies in which Stravinsky catches Petrouchka's shifting moods.

The drama was caught brilliantly, with Seibel proving himself the perfect musical dramaturge.