Performance: International Chamber Music Festival - July 22

Town Hall

Review: Heath Lees

Seven festive nights came to an end on Saturday as a week's worth of performers contributed progressively to a four-hour feast of chamber music.

And "feast" it was, since the lower part of the Town Hall was given over to tables for about 200 royally indulgent diners, all happily time-travelling their way back to the courts of Europe.

To start, there was a mini-Bach festival. J. C. Bach's op.3 B-flat Sinfonia had its interesting and attractive moments, but the listless Aradia Baroque Orchestra had conductor Uwe Grodd stretched hard to generate even a little of the music's sparkle and elegance. The effect of flat champagne was difficult to conceal.

Interest revived with the debut of Auckland's new fortepiano, appearing alongside its harpsichord partner in C. P. E. Bach's E-flat Concerto for the two instruments.

Alas, the sound was so delicate and the hall so large that little was heard of the soloists, and many of the separate and combined character-effects were lost. What did impress, in an orchestra with unpredictable horns and stuttering reeds, was a pair of angelic Baroque flutes, frequently stealing the show.

James Tibbles then performed miracles on the nasal, boxed-in sound of the Town Hall's organ, with some "real" Bach in the form of Johann Sebastian's famous Toccata and Fugue in D-minor.

Later, this "banquet" concert was distinguished by the appearance of the Swedish soprano Maria Keohane, the show-stopping find of the festival.

Less comfortable in the larger hall, she nevertheless repeated her brilliantly stylish singing, and Niklas Edlund's baroque trumpet added a thrilling sound.

In among some unprogrammed items of variable effect, Takako Nishizaki's delicate playing of Kreisler pieces (on a ravishingly toned violin that Kreisler himself used) was warm and welcome, and the Baroque dancers, beautifully costumed, closed the evening in an attractive but curiously low-key manner, with music by Lully.

This festival still has musical and production problems, but its impact on the artistic life of Auckland grows every year.