Auckland Philharmonia at the Auckland Town Hall

By WILLIAM DART

In this Dvorak centenary year, someone should emblazon the judgment of J.B. Priestley on a banner. The man adored the music of this Czech composer, music which offered no one a "cultural leg-up", enchantingly melodic, exquisitely modulated with some fascinating little tricks for the woodwind.

The English writer may well have been describing the opening bars of The Noon Witch as delivered by Steven Smith and the Auckland Philharmonia on Thursday night, launching the orchestra's all-Dvorak concert.

Although this symphonic poem can seem a little faux-rustic on first hearing, with its bagpipe drones and passing polkas, there are also some startling premonitions of Debussy, Stravinsky and Janacek.

Radical in its fragmented textures, the work demands that an orchestra's balance and co-ordination are top-notch and, apart from one slight falter, the AP offered just that.

What a pleasure to welcome back Joseph Lin as soloist in Dvorak's Violin Concerto. Although the most individual movement was the central Adagio, which showcased Lin's patrician tone and agile partnership with his on-stage colleagues, the outer Allegros were brimful of energy and incident.

Octave work was particularly assured, although there was the occasional blur in some of the unsparing passage-work.

As a parting gesture, Lin played the Irish Londonderry Air, with some fragrantly sentimental double-stopping - a welcome change from the usual razzle-dazzle encore.

After interval, the fare was Dvorak's fine D minor Symphony, so fine that one might possibly turn a deaf ear to the fact that some Auckland concert-goers heard it twice in kast year's season.

Smith opted for deliberation where some conductors might find themselves swept away by the ebullience of it all.

The opening Allegro maestoso was majestic indeed, and perhaps missed out on some of the rhythmic propulsion it could have had. The Scherzo was similarly compromised, although the American wove subtleties into its Trio that may have remained undiscovered with lesser conductors.

It was in the slow movement that Smith's artistry was revealed, sustaining this demanding Adagio from cool woodwind chorale to its hushed leave-taking.

This was to be a night of encores and, after a bracing symphonic finale, Smith and the orchestra presented us with a heart-stopping storm through Dvorak's celebrated G minor Slavonic Dance.