Auckland Philharmonia at the Auckland Town Hall

By WILLIAM DART

With concertmaster Justine Cormack as sheriff, spurs and all, and conductor Marc Taddei in his ten-gallon hat, admitting that he didn't know whether he was Roy Rogers or one of the forgotten Village People, the Auckland Philharmonia's Wild West trip promised hootin' and hollerin' good times.

In fact, this concert, the first of the MinterEllisonRuddWatts Spring Season, wasn't too prairified, but rather a canny piece of programming spanning Emily Dickinson to the Lone Ranger, with a passing visit to Oklahoma!

Taddei and his players enjoyed themselves, especially in two movements from Ferde Grofe's Grand Canyon Suite, with clippy-cloppy trail-ride music and a celeste cadenza (ably tinkled by Ingrid Wahlberg).

Wind machines and thunder sheets were conscripted for Cloudburst, its few melodic fragments sounding suspiciously as they had drifted in from Rhapsody in Blue (Grofe had orchestrated Gershwin's piece).

There were more substantial orchestral contributions in Copland's Billy the Kid and Rodeo dances. With Billy the Kid, quality musicianship (particularly from strings and woodwind) reminded us that there is as much Ravelian elegance here as robust Americana.

We have few singers who could deliver art songs in an evening gown and then return in jeans and chaps to present an amalgam of Annie Oakley and Ado Annie. Helen Medlyn did just that, and fetchingly.

The art-songs were models of intelligent interpretation, from the clear-eyed staunchness of Copland's Going to Heaven to the underplayed transcendentalism of Ives Thoreau.

The Oklahoma/Annie Get Your Gun selections were more problematic. Severely limited by floor space and inept miking, which often rendered lyrics inaudible, Medlyn soldiered on.

Things were best when she was able to relax into the ballad I Got Lost in His Arms, smoothly arranged by Penny Dodd, with a cool vibes solo from Jenny Raven.

And she was in her absolute element as a Wild West camp mother, leading a most co-operative audience to affirm in song that they too had the sun in the morning and the moon at night.