Manukau City Symphony Orchestra at Papatoetoe Town Hall

By WILLIAM DART


The Manukau City Symphony Orchestra celebrated its tenth birthday on Saturday night with spirit and a loyal audience.

Nattily attired in Pacific-style waistcoats, the musicians seemed undeterred by the spartan setting of Papatoetoe Town Hall, giving an inspirational display of what can be achieved by an enthusiastic and motivated community orchestra, particularly when it's fortunate enough to have Uwe Grodd as musical director.

The orchestra always include a New Zealand work in their concerts and tonight it was Leonie Holmes' Starting Point, a rhythmically testing score which seemed over-ambitious for the orchestra, certainly as an opener.

It was a casting coup to have an international soloist of Robert Aitkens stature. Introducing Carl Reinecke's D major Concerto as "a symphony with flute obbligato", the Canadian flautist impressed with that ultra-focused, densely beautiful tone that many know from his recordings. The orchestra offered reliable support, its ensemble occasionally jostled by the friskier themes.

The slow movement found Aitken and cellist Tom Pierard in harmonious duet and there was no denying the sense of sheer exhilaration when the horns spearheaded a rousing climax in the Finale.

After interval it was time for a Soviet curiosity in Otar Gordeli's Flute Concertino. This cheerful work, dating from 1959, decorated with lashings of xylophone sparkle, danced and pranced its way between the worlds of Khachaturian and Gershwin.

Aitken brought unexpected elegance and flair to the solo line and conductor Grodd, whose guiding hand had been much in evidence throughout the evening, showed his special rapport with the orchestra working the musicians around Aitken's later cadenza.

The concert ended with six selections from Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake, which went down a treat. Occasionally the water was a little clouded by moments of panic, but generally the sound was bold and confident. The opening Scene, crowned by Warwick Simpson's fine oboe solo, was as evocative as one could wish for.

And, in the middle of the music-making, there was good news for the birthday band. Mayor Sir Barry Curtis gave a short speech, with assurances that the new Telstra Clear Pacific Events Centre would be completed by next April.