Performance: Auckland Chamber Orchestra

Concert Chamber

Review: Heath Lees

This orchestra has come a long way. The ensemble is tight, intonation is generally controlled with only a few minor lapses, the music is expressively handled and always sounds appropriate to its style and period.

Certainly, there were some slippery moments in the opening symphony by William Boyce, with the oboes and violins disagreeing on how the semiquavers should be grouped, and a lack of precision in the first movement's fugato section.

But there was presence and stateliness throughout, and plenty of welcome relaxing of the stiff upper lip in the jolly jig that preceded the finale.

This was a programme of English music, but some crafty bending of the rules allowed the appearance of Rossini (through Benjamin Britten's arrangements) and Haydn, whose "London" symphony was self-explanatory.

Apart from Boyce, the "real" English composers included Vaughan Williams, whose Five Variants of Dives and Lazarus came across with a sad nostalgia, occasionally warmed by the welcome lustre of Yi Jing's harp.

There was also Malcolm Arnold's Clarinet Concerto, which has many strident moments, dissonant chords and angular melodies that make for full-on listening. But there are also passages of quiet, reflective beauty, and moments of near-Impressionism, with the clarinet adding little daubs of woodwind sound over shimmering strings.

Without abandoning his role as conductor, the multi-talented Peter Scholes appeared as soloist, and seemed to bring the work doubly alive. True, the strings faltered at times in the high-stepping melodies, but there was rhythmic life and real feeling for the music, making the item the most absorbing of the night.

Much of the intensity of playing flowed over into high-spirited relaxation in Britten's fondly kitsch arrangements of Rossini, and Haydn came off well at the end of the programme, the "London" symphony sporting a particularly vigorous minuet with spectacular contributions from wind and brass, and a daredevil speed in the finale, which had us all on the edge of our seats.

Surely the best concert so far of this orchestra's season.