New Zealand Symphony Orchestra at the Auckland Town Hall

By WILLIAM DART

The NZSO gave us a predictable star in Ilya Gringolts, and the Russian violinist played as if the music had been written for him. In the Friday night concert, Mendelssohn's Concerto benefited from his youth.

While not as immaculately contoured as it had been in Hamilton the previous evening, there was always clarity and light; the dotted rhythms of the Finale really danced. The tempo, though brisk, was considered and considerate; Gringolts and conductor Stefan Sanderling were very much a partnership.

Saturday was Sibelius night and this Concerto seemed to reach out more to the audience. From his opening line, Gringolts produced power with no sacrifice of refinement, approaching the Cadenza as if it were alternative movement from a Bach Partita.

The Adagio had an autumnal lustre to it and the Finale was not the usual possessed rush, but a model of crisp, articulated playing. I am sure I was not alone in my disappointment that there was no encore.

Nielsen's Helios Overture on Saturday was balanced by Lucy Mulgan's Cape Reinga on Friday. Both were expansive. Nielsen's inexorable passage of the sun blazed impressively, Mulgan looked to more spiritual horizons, using delicate, otherworldly textures, tinctured with gleaming colours and bravely expressive glissandi.

This was a tidier performance than its Hamilton premiere, with some lovely, resonant playing from concertmaster Vesa-Matti Leppanen, and Mulgan will offer a major challenge to her competitors for the Douglas Lilburn Prize.

Both programmes were solid on the symphonic side. On Friday, Brahms' Fourth was a sumptuous affair. Sanderling opened almost gingerly, but navigated the subtleties of tempo beautifully. In those magical alternating wind and string phrases mid-movement he achieved what veteran conductor Carlo Maria Giulini once described as "aspettazione" - a sense of expectation that something will grow from utter stillness.

The blend of the Andante moderato was perfection and Sanderling took the orchestra from fury to evanescence in the last six bars with unruffled precision.

The Scherzo blustered uncomplicatedly and, when it came to sustaining the Finale, it was all in Sanderling's body language. Again, tempo fluctuations were crucial, especially in the more restrained middle section.

On Saturday, Dvorak's Seventh Symphony stunned. There were countryside-threatening climaxes in the first movement and, in the third, the two tunes were very much equal dance partners. By the Finale, one of Dvorak's most extrovert, Sanderling, with the masterly clarinet of Patrick Barry, injected just the right folkish spirit into the proceedings.