Performance: Auckland Philharmonia

Aotea Centre

Review: Heath Lees


It must have been a strong temptation for the orchestra to end its Royal and SunAlliance Series with some good pot-boilers that would send everyone away happy.

But continuing the imaginative planning that has made this run of concerts not just the largest but the most stimulating in the country, the orchestra had rostered two large works, neither of them well known.

First up was the fifth piano concerto by Saint-Saens, nicknamed the "Egyptian" on account of the exotic chords that permeate the music, and the haunting love-song from the Nile region which insinuates itself into the work's beautifully evocative second movement.

Michael Houstoun was the soloist - always a cause for celebration - and after some opening hesitation, he soon drew out his trademark sound of elegant passagework with pinpoint rhythmic accents and a finesse of touch that had the musical profiles superbly etched.

Aiding and abetting all this was the equally elegant style of American conductor Alasdair Neale - one of the few in his trade who can dispense entirely with the baton, yet make his gestures and body-language instantly understood. Neale's clear and timely cues and his fluency of gesture made for a magical second movement, and an impressive gear-change into the Chabrier-like finale.

It's hard not to miss the eternally rippling piano texture in Rachmaninov's music, but his Second Symphony, in E-minor, works exceedingly well for orchestra alone, with dark colours, gorgeous slow-movement wellings, and a strength of paragraph-building that more than rivals his northern contemporary Sibelius.

Alas, the middle section of the scherzo found the strings too breathless for comfort, but the great slow movement called down a clarinet solo from heaven, and the strings redeemed themselves famously with their outpouring of sad resignation at the end.

Orchestra and audience have grown superbly through this year's challenging and ear-opening programmes. It's been a great series.