New Zealand Symphony Orchestra at the Auckland Town Hall

By WILLIAM DART

Auckland has finally been put on the circuit for the Composer Focus concerts that the NZSO instigated for its Wellington audience, but Thursday night's salutations to Schubert was a mixed bag.

Was I the only one bewildered by advertising which had the tagline "Beware moving parts" under a portrait of a violinist, when there was no such soloist in the concert? Maybe not, if a quarter-full town hall was any indication.

Conductor James Judd offered his usual crisp introductions, but Schubert's Fifth Symphony was brisk, with a first movement that was wan and an andante that bordered on the prosaic.

Helen Medlyn and Roger Wilson were soloists in a bracket of Schubert Lieder with orchestral arrangements by Max Reger. It's a tough ask to take such intimate pieces as Litanei and Nacht und Traume and deliver them writ large with orchestra, but both gave solid performances.

Medlyn took advantage of having the only well-known song with a confident An die Musik and, in the final verse of Litanei, reminded us that she is a seasoned Mahlerian.

Wilson delivered the dramatic Greisengesang and Dem Unendlichen straight from the shoulder, sans music. So effective were they that one wondered why the baritone hadn't been given the chance to give us the Regerised Erlkonig.

After interval, three selections from Rosamunde were unnecessary. Judd had described them as miniatures but, at six minutes apiece, they were far from that.

Our real reward came last. Judd had warned us to expect some dynamic extremes in the Unfinished Symphony and this was Schubert with attitude. With stabbing surges of sound, an allegro that seemed to travel through the sonic equivalent of a lunar eclipse in its development and a finale that didn't pull its sfzorzandi, this was worth waiting for.